How long is too long to shut down, and very bad news for the Mobilo customer ref RAC takeover.

[Submariner1]

I had Mobilo around today (circa 3 hours) re my Duff replacement battery???

Firstly, since the RAC takeover Mobilo no longer do Warranty repairs, it has to go to a Main Dealer.
Bad for me that means a STAR check and a battery check if it fails its free if it passes I pay!

Take the first defective battery that would have cost me > £500 if it hadnt failed on the fourth battery test! So very bad news if you have an intermittent fault. ££££

Of course she started perfectly ... as they do with intermittent faults , no dash messages.
When he arrived it was showing 12.2V ... enough to start a car.

The first STAR test pulled up 10 “ stored” fault codes, none current. Thankfully none on the EPB or ESP Controller.

After running for 15 mins, she was at 12.7V and the second STAR test passed with flying colours Zero Fault codes!!

Alternator passed as did battery control modules.

As for the drain .... hmmm as the battery was pretty well flat (not Ctek top up charged for 6 days and only a few small trips) the first shutdown took 6 mins. The second shutdown took 6 mins both ending in 0.00A drain. During most of the shutdown the drain was 0.5A.
However the 3rd took 10 mins 40 secs to reach 0.00 A. During this period it was frequently at 0.8 Amps.

He then said he would have expected it to shutdown to zero amps , pretty much instantly.
That surprised me ... as I was led to believe. They could all take anything from 5 mins to 20 mins to shutdown.

His conclusion
It was taking too long to shutdown, and that was draining the battery. And possibly, although no evidence it might switch on at some period and have another 6 mins or 10 mins drain.

He was unsure how to answer my question ... OK if it takes 6 mins to shut down, thats 1/10 of an hour. So At 0.5As so thats lets say a “one off” battery drain of 0.050AHs ... surely not enough to kill a battery in 3 days!
True it could, unknown to me wake up, and repeat that an unknown number of times!
But how the hell do you find that?

So my question is .. is it normal to shutdown in zero minutes or is 6 minutes more the norm?

 

[AMGeed]

When he was searching for my battery drain sometime ago, Malcolm told me it can take up to 20 mins to totally shutdown.

Whether that was opinion or fact I have no idea.

I assume you got a firm no re a free battery replacement as the Star tests revealed nothing sinister?

 

[Submariner1]

When he was searching for my battery drain sometime ago, Malcolm told me it can take up to 20 mins to totally shutdown.

Whether that was opinion or fact I have no idea.

I assume you got a firm no re a free battery replacement as the Star tests revealed nothing sinister?

I am sure a number of people have told me it takes between 5 mins and 20 mins to completely shutdown.
Hence my confusion today, when I was told it should shut down within a minute.

As I said you cant get a warranty replacement from Mobilo anymore.
You have to go to the dealer , this is now a seriously degraded service, because they have to test it all over again!

The only good news is , my EPB reset yrick definitely worked.
No more messages, and when I cleared the initial fault code .. it has stayed cleared.

He also advised, as I had till a few days ago, to keep the battery as near to full charge as can be.
Namely ctek every 4 days.

Problem is the higher the voltage, the quicker it shuts down to 0.00A circa ... in 4 mins.
So when looking for the battery drain, you only have 4 mins. To find it or reactivate it by opening the door.
If I am right and it genuinely takes a few mins to shut down ... you cant event trace that, as that would be normal “shutting down” activity.

Bluntly my only option is to buy a new battery and see if that solves it.

If it does, then return the old one and create hell.
Too risky to get into diagnostics ££££ with an intermittant fault. Been there before, £460 of diagnostics that revealed nothing!

Other confusing thing for me is if it shuts down to 0.00A in albeit 6 mins , then as its at 0.00A in my mind I dont have a battery drain??

Only way of proving a drain imo is if there is such a thing as an ammeter that records amps and logs it on a computer.
So one could leave it overnight, and see if it woke up and caused a drain? And if so how much, and for how long.

Still think the battery is defective.
Imo 12.2V aint enough juice to run S Class cars with toys onboard ?

Pretty certain Malcolm once told me 12.5V was as low as it should go.

Irony is I am pretty sure the original battery was showing anything between 12.5 and 12.6V!

 

[oigle]

Can't you borrow a battery for a week or two from another vehicle or from a friendly garage and see if problem persists? Would prove a point provided the borrowed battery was a known good one.

 

[Submariner1]

Can't you borrow a battery for a week or two from another vehicle or from a friendly garage and see if problem persists? Would prove a point provided the borrowed battery was a known good one.

I was thinking of asking the MB Dealer, if they had one.
Technically its phyically relatively compact for a 95AH 850 ccA. So say batteries on my wifes car is too low cc.

After a longish charge yesterday 11 hours 2 of which were in care mode, this morning using the dash reader in ign. POS 1. ( how you get to the service menu) it showed 12.3V and -8.2A. Obviously door had just been opened and the ign was on.
Not sure what the impact is of having key in Pos 1. Is; But that still seemed low to me.
As soon as the engine started it went to 14.2V.
Its as though it has no guts ... show it the slightest load and it buckles at its knees.

 

[Submariner1]

The mobilo engineer did say first strip off everything aftermarket and go from there.
Made me think I do have a genuine Mercedes Phone PUK thingy
GENUINE MERCEDES-BENZ HFP BLUETOOTH CRADLE B67880000

Think its still the latest version, or at least was then.

I guess that could hold off shutting stuff down i.e. waiting for a call to finish or check no impending call coming in?

But it still doesnt figure in my logic. Even if it did hold up the shutdown, we are only talking 6mins at 0.5A, so thats only a one time 50mAH drain ... on a 92AH battery .. peanuts.
Unless it randomly picks up the phone in the house during the night.

If you are on a call in the garden,and if you get too near the car it will switch over to the car even if the car is shutdown and locked.
So might experiment without it.

 

[LostKiwi]

If you drove it more the battery would probably sort itself out...

 

[KennyN]

I would just buy a new battery and be done with it , £150 ish will get you one and at least you will know if it is the battery or car.

I have a Yuasa , from Halfords,in the CLS and even after lying unused for a couple of weeks there are no starting issues or electrical gremlins to battle with.

FFS Sub dont buy an all electric car , ever , as our nerves jusct couldnt take it.

Kenny

 

[Frontstep]

Low batteries/voltage do occasionally throw up a multitude of faults which right themselves with a charged good battery.

Battery suppliers usually have a super fussy battery test to help their sales so take it along and get it tested.

 

[EmilysDad]

.....

If you are on a call in the garden,and if you get too near the car it will switch over to the car even if the car is shutdown and locked.
So might experiment without it.

I have the same model Bluetooth gizmo in my car, but the only the car takes the call if I'm close to it & I've just unlocked it. But I don't have keyless locking

 

[alexanderfoti]

That is a shame that RAC have taken over Mobilo service. IMO FMBSH is worthless now. May as well use a local garage and pay £14 a month for AA/RAC membership.

The good thing about mobilo is that they had full STAR and knew the cars.

 

[Wighty]

Does this mean that all the RAC vans will carry Star ?

 

[Submariner1]

Does this mean that all the RAC vans will carry Star ?

Apparrently the ones we call out will.
Except in rural areas if its emergency i.e. bad weather woman alone.

 

[Submariner1]

Well I didnt want to post this ... thinking of all the sacracastic, gleeful comments that would no doubt flow from the nasty sh*ts brigade.

But felt honour bound in case my findings had mislead anyone.

Had a lovely run to a favourite restaurant today .. lovely no dashboard messages.
Stopped on the way home to pick up some wine.

Started car Oh No! ... the dreaded dash messages...
- ESP inoperative see owners manual.
Cycling with
- Run Flat Indicator Inoperative, Huh ( I dont have even have run flats) and that msg. Is not in the manual.

And btw the Hold function was not showing/ working? when I got the two above messages , but no specific HOLD messages. when these messages were not present Hold worked.

Stopped the car, both messages went away ... both returned within a mile
But now for the first time they came on whist driving!
Previously they were only there when you first started.

Then I even got the ABS and ESP currently unavailable see owners manual msg. plus the other two mentioned above. This ABs and ESP msg. vanished once one had driven 10 feet either straight on turning the wheel. The other two remained until the engine was cut.

Basically this repeated itself 5 times on the 6 mile journey home. ....
and I got the fluffy engine and the heavy steering on one start up. Just shut it down and restarted .. thankfully neither returned
..... kinda ruined the lovely sunny day.
And I even got the Parking Brake see owners manual msg.. Twice.

This time .... The reset Parking Brake trick ... did not stop it.

Basically the good news is its no longer intermittant, (and this was with a charged battery). Its all the time.
So hopefully someone can actually find it quickly, and sort it.

My gut feeling is its a wheel sensor! Or even a reluctor ring. Hopefully not all three, as per the star report yesterday! Can three really fail at the same time.

I didnt feel happy about putting the car into a garage, that might not even show the fault or could run happily for 6 days and then the fault return . How would one know as you drove out of the garage (with a lightweight wallet) that they had cured the problems?, or worse still what do you say when they recommend a £670 module being replaced! ... well you have to do it dont you :-/

As for the battery.
I thought about the 6 minute shutdown time, and remembered since Mobilo came last time, I had stopped the convenience mode folding in the mirrors.
Reset that to so they do fold in.
And hey presto

She shuts down in 1 minute or less to 0.00A drain. ( repeated this 3 times)
So the Mobilo guy was half right.
Too depressed, to dream of thinking this could cure the weak battery syndrome.

What have I learnt .... so far......
1. Never buy one of these megga complex cars without full MB warranty!
2. And its faults can be way beyond my comprehension.

The only thing I might do whilst I wait for an Indy appointment, is test a wheel sensor.
If any one can advise me how you do that, that would be appreciated.
I.e does one just unclip the feed and test resistance, or do you have to Also remove the sensor from the wheel carrier during the test?

As for the sarcastic mob!
Fire away ...

 

[alexanderfoti]

On a side note, I drove mine now that the wheels are back, and no errors again.

 

[Submariner1]

On a side note, I drove mine now that the wheels are back, and no errors again.

Very pleased to hear that Alex.
And Very jealous

 

[peterws1957]

Sub - I think in your position i would be tempted to flog the car and buy a CL65. They seem to be a lot less complicated

 

[Frontstep]

 

[LostKiwi]

On a side note, I drove mine now that the wheels are back, and no errors again.

No more misfires?

 

[alexanderfoti]

No more misfires?

I will update the other thread on that one