R230 SL 350 lots of electrical problems

[konrad1511]

A month ago the remote locking stopped working, key fob works as the hazard lights flash when I press the button, but car wont lock or unlock on the remote,
the central locking button inside the car not functioning either. I checked the infamous fuse behind drivers seats and its not blown.

Then 2 weeks later the electric roof stopped working too, dash is saying something like the cover in the boot is not closed, but it is.
When this happened I also noticed a foul smell inside the car......roof still not operating since....

Now to top it all up the cigarette lighter socket stopped working as well

Anyone who experienced those faults too?

 

[Blobcat]

Water leak(s)

 

[konrad1511]

Water leak(s)

Blobcat I thought aboutthat but couldnt see anything, where do I have to look ?

 

[sl500amgsport]

Check the boot.

Sent from my SM-G988B using Tapatalk

 

[SL63 Mark]

Check for water under the carpets, partcularly the thick foam underlay in the passenger footwell.

Also, the foam soundproofing around the PSE pump in the boot can absorb and hold water if the boot seals are leaky.

The above will lead to all sorts of electrical gremlins, as sensitive electrical components and connectors stay wet for years and corrode or fail eventually after years of water immersion.

How long have you owned the car ?

Do you keep it outside ?

Have you taken it through a car wash recently ?

Have you unblocked/removed the heater box drain outlet ? This will prevent water draining into the footwells.

The central locking and roof are controlled by the PSE pump, so that would be the first place I would look. Unfortunately these are not easily repairable (although others will tell you otherwise) and a new one was over a grand when I had mine done. They do fail eventually, mine was always dry as a bone, and still failed, after 15 years/70,000 miles.

I bet your boot soft close has stopped working too.

Also sounds like your boot seperator microswitches may need a bit of contact cleaner, possibly due to the high humidity in the boot.

Still they are good cars when all the niggles are sorted, so that's why I ask how long you have had it.

 

[00slk]

We had a similar issue with our 05 r230, had the car on the scanner which brought up a few codes, main one was boot separator no closed, however it was closed. Central locking stopped working etc. Cut a long story short I changed the boot battery to one that held 14.7 volts......working roof, central locking worked. Very embarrassing having all the scanning work done only to discover the battery just wasn't holding enough voltage to make everything operate Battery wasn't that old either but 13 volts wasn't good enough.

 

[peterws1957]

As 00slk says the rear battery would be my first check. Check with a multimeter. Having said that I would normally expect to get a dash warning about consumers offline. The foul smell - was this a burning type smell. It doesn't appear to be an issue brought up much in the UK, but in the US owners have reported spontaneous combustion of the rear battery regulator, even after the car has stood unused for a few days. This would be obvious though when you open the boot. (a breaker local to me had a written off SL because of this) If the battery is Ok check what Mark says in post 5. If nothing obvious time to get the car on Star for a proper diagnosis - will save you time and needlessly spent dosh.

 

[Tony Dyson]

We had a similar issue with our 05 r230, had the car on the scanner which brought up a few codes, main one was boot separator no closed, however it was closed. Central locking stopped working etc. Cut a long story short I changed the boot battery to one that held 14.7 volts......working roof, central locking worked. Very embarrassing having all the scanning work done only to discover the battery just wasn't holding enough voltage to make everything operate Battery wasn't that old either but 13 volts wasn't good enough.

As 00slk says the rear battery would be my first check. Check with a multimeter. Having said that I would normally expect to get a dash warning about consumers offline. The foul smell - was this a burning type smell. It doesn't appear to be an issue brought up much in the UK, but in the US owners have reported spontaneous combustion of the rear battery regulator, even after the car has stood unused for a few days. This would be obvious though when you open the boot. (a breaker local to me had a written off SL because of this) If the battery is Ok check what Mark says in post 5. If nothing obvious time to get the car on Star for a proper diagnosis - will save you time and needlessly spent dosh.

I've just spent a while pondering on @00slk 's post 6 and suddenly after reading @peterws1957 ' post about the "reported spontaneous combustion of the rear battery regulator" is possibly something worth looking further into.
I would be looking for a reason behind the 'Combustion' of the rear battery regulator rather than putting it down to 'spontaneous' and the excessive voltages mentioned in post 6 would be where I would be starting.
The only time you should read any voltages in excess of 12.6v in any lead acid car battery whether it is a wet, gel or AGM chemistry is when testing the battery while it's being charged where you will be reading the charging voltage or immediately after it has just received a charge cycle and the higher voltage being read is in fact a surface charge left on the battery by the charge cycle, which will be consumed in around 10 mins after the battery is again put under load conditions or left for a 24 Hr period after which the surface charge will dissipate naturally. Any car battery maintaining an operating voltage in excess of 12.6v is an abnormal battery, and is likely to cause complications at the very least to the connected charging circuits and components.

 

[peterws1957]

I've just spent a while pondering on @00slk 's post 6 and suddenly after reading @peterws1957 ' post about the "reported spontaneous combustion of the rear battery regulator" is possibly something worth looking further into.
I would be looking for a reason behind the 'Combustion' of the rear battery regulator rather than putting it down to 'spontaneous' and the excessive voltages mentioned in post 6 would be where I would be starting.
The only time you should read any voltages in excess of 12.6v in any lead acid car battery whether it is a wet, gel or AGM chemistry is when testing the battery while it's being charged where you will be reading the charging voltage or immediately after it has just received a charge cycle and the higher voltage being read is in fact a surface charge left on the battery by the charge cycle, which will be consumed in around 10 mins after the battery is again put under load conditions or left for a 24 Hr period after which the surface charge will dissipate naturally. Any car battery maintaining an operating voltage in excess of 12.6v is an abnormal battery, and is likely to cause complications at the very least to the connected charging circuits and components.

The reason why I mentioned spontaneous is that US owners have mentioned that their cars have stood in the garage for days unused and the small fires have started without the car being used or started. Perhaps unexplained would have been more appropriate, but the problem must relate to electrical faults (water ingress?). Pure guess work, but perhaps the regulator starts to fail causing overcharging of the battery as you suggest. Fortunately from the photos and the car I saw at the breakers, actual burning seems confined to a fairly small area but sufficient for the car to be an economic write off. Repairable if you can source a wiring loom and other parts at reasonable cost. I doubt this is the OP's problem since the damage would be obvious, and it seems to be rare in UK supplied cars.

 

[sausage]

+1 for checking your car's batteries as a good thing to check early on. There is no point in chasing other diagnosis paths until you rule out some basics.

Low battery would play havoc with my Range Rover (RR), causing dozens of unrelated warnings and faults. The RR forums are literally full of replies like "check your battery" to all manner of seemingly unrelated issues. Needless to say, I had issues with the car twice when I had inadvertently not locked up properly and the computers didn't shut down, draining the battery. The next day it looked like the car was ready for the scrap yard. A good charge up sorted it out both times.

 

[Tony Dyson]

The reason why I mentioned spontaneous is that US owners have mentioned that their cars have stood in the garage for days unused and the small fires have started without the car being used or started. Perhaps unexplained would have been more appropriate, but the problem must relate to electrical faults (water ingress?). Pure guess work, but perhaps the regulator starts to fail causing overcharging of the battery as you suggest. Fortunately from the photos and the car I saw at the breakers, actual burning seems confined to a fairly small area but sufficient for the car to be an economic write off. Repairable if you can source a wiring loom and other parts at reasonable cost. I doubt this is the OP's problem since the damage would be obvious, and it seems to be rare in UK supplied cars.

There was certainly no criticism intended, I thought perhaps you were just quoting from the US post you read and as we are all aware, they don't really speak English do they?

 

[konrad1511]

As 00slk says the rear battery would be my first check. Check with a multimeter. Having said that I would normally expect to get a dash warning about consumers offline. The foul smell - was this a burning type smell. It doesn't appear to be an issue brought up much in the UK, but in the US owners have reported spontaneous combustion of the rear battery regulator, even after the car has stood unused for a few days. This would be obvious though when you open the boot. (a breaker local to me had a written off SL because of this) If the battery is Ok check what Mark says in post 5. If nothing obvious time to get the car on Star for a proper diagnosis - will save you time and needlessly spent dosh.

I wouldnt say burning smell, it smells like a very strong chemical smell, almost like a fouling battery, its very strong, especially when the car not been used 2 days and you open the door, it smells absolutely disgusting inside. Boot seems to be abit moist too, but not wet. But the smell is inside the car.
where would that rear battery regulator be located? would it smell before it dues the combustion thing and would the car start burning if it does it ?

 

[Mr Greedy]

The car shouldn't be moist at all.
Blocked heater drain boxes and associated fungal horrors in the air box can smell pretty bad.

If the car is moist, this definitely needs looking at, regardless of whether this is the (current) cause of the electrical issues.

Common SL leak areas are the heater box under the front screen, including blocked drains from the scuttle panel and bottom of heater box, leaking rear screen seals, boot seals lights and locks, sun roof drains and blocked door drains.

You can use light blue shop towel (tissue) that turns starkly dark blue when wet for help identifying wet areas. Leave large swathes of it in the boot to help identify occasional boot leaks.

My first thoughts when reading the post of 'many electrical faults' we're battery condition, water ingress, earth strap deterioration usually where connected to chassis.


Good luck and keep us updated.

 

[konrad1511]

I wouldnt say burning smell, it smells like a very strong chemical smell, almost like a fouling battery, its very strong, especially when the car not been used 2 days and you open the door, it smells absolutely disgusting inside. Boot seems to be abit moist too, but not wet. But the smell is inside the car.
where would that rear battery regulator be located? would it smell before it dues the combustion thing and would the car start burning if it does it ?

where can i find this battery regulator and how does it look like? but boot doesnt smell bad even though there seems to be moisture in it. The terrible smell is inside the car. no wet carpets though, and smell is rather like something chemical than moisture.....

 

[peterws1957]

I wouldnt say burning smell, it smells like a very strong chemical smell, almost like a fouling battery, its very strong, especially when the car not been used 2 days and you open the door, it smells absolutely disgusting inside. Boot seems to be abit moist too, but not wet. But the smell is inside the car.
where would that rear battery regulator be located? would it smell before it dues the combustion thing and would the car start burning if it does it ?

If it's a chemical smell and there is no smell in the boot I doubt there is a problem with the battery regulator. From the salvage car I saw and images on a US forum the burning is confined to the rear battery area only, and it would be obvious. As Mark said above I would be suspecting the PSE pump, but get the codes read on Star before replacing it - they are expensive. Have you changed the cabin filter recently, they can smell awful if left. The 2 problems may not be connected.

 

[konrad1511]

If it's a chemical smell and there is no smell in the boot I doubt there is a problem with the battery regulator. From the salvage car I saw and images on a US forum the burning is confined to the rear battery area only, and it would be obvious. As Mark said above I would be suspecting the PSE pump, but get the codes read on Star before replacing it - they are expensive. Have you changed the cabin filter recently, they can smell awful if left. The 2 problems may not be connected.

I have taken those filters out today and everything is bone dry and the filters are as new and not smelly. I now believe the horrible smell comes from the pump in the left side of the boot as when i put my nose near it it seems to have a similar smell, and somehow that smell must get into the cabin. Roof still not opening, it says the separator is not closed, and about 2 weeks before that problem the central locking stopped working with the remote control on the key, but the lights are flashing, nor central locking working from the button on the dash, nor does the boot opening work from the button in the drivers door.....

 

[konrad1511]

I wouldnt say burning smell, it smells like a very strong chemical smell, almost like a fouling battery, its very strong, especially when the car not been used 2 days and you open the door, it smells absolutely disgusting inside. Boot seems to be abit moist too, but not wet. But the smell is inside the car.
where would that rear battery regulator be located? would it smell before it dues the combustion thing and would the car start burning if it does it ?

thanks, I checked battery voltage its about 12.5 when engine is off and 14 with engine running......but had to charge battery again before that as it was down to only 20% charge before i connected the charger, hence probably not the best one anymore, or it doesnt get charged enough when to many consumers are on ?

 

[sausage]

12.5 is an OK resting voltage. 14v is an OK charging voltage.

Did you read that immediately after a charge cycle or a few hours after the car had been sat without any fresh charging? I ask, because it can often be the case that after a good run, or a good charge the battery initially looks fine, but then a few hours later it has depleted.

Not entirely sure what you mean by down to 20% but, in my experience if a 12v batter was at 20% i.e. 2.4 volts it would probably be beyond any meaningful and lasting recovery and due for a replacement.

 

[peterws1957]

I have taken those filters out today and everything is bone dry and the filters are as new and not smelly. I now believe the horrible smell comes from the pump in the left side of the boot as when i put my nose near it it seems to have a similar smell, and somehow that smell must get into the cabin. Roof still not opening, it says the separator is not closed, and about 2 weeks before that problem the central locking stopped working with the remote control on the key, but the lights are flashing, nor central locking working from the button on the dash, nor does the boot opening work from the button in the drivers door.....

I think you've found the problem then. As others said originally the pse pump is often the culprit for the symptoms you describe. If your battery gets down to 20% it's probably knackered and it could be that the damaged pump is causing a battery drain. Don't overlook the possibility that your pump may have failed due to an air leak somewhere in the various lines. Just replacing it may lead to a recurrence. And they are £1k plus. As mentioned above I'd be getting the codes read on Star by a good indie, rather than chuck money at the problem.