2003 Mercedes-Benz E320 Estate - Sold and last drive

[SiC]

This is currently the cheapest big named brand I can find that should fit:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/223964856775

Main spec of interest is 12AH, 12V, AGM.

I think the magic size to search for is a YTX14-BS - but need to double check it's AGM as some appear to be Gel in that size too. 

Other specs are similar, even CCA. Despite that not being important for this job. However this says the plates should be of similar construction - high discharge over high depletion.

AGM ready apparently means you just don't need to add acid to use.

Not marked as auxiliary but I think it should be fine for this job. Exide do a EK131 that is marked as for auxiliary battery use but appears to be far more expensive on what essentially seems the same thing. The cheaper AGM12-12 is marketed for motorcycles, the EK131 is marketed for an auxiliary battery on cars.

Going to order it and give it a go as I think it'll be fine. Much less ridiculous than £120 for a genuine Mercedes aux battery. Crazy expensive for such a small battery.

[SiC]

This is my current favourite now is this mingebag choice:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/360848349225

Preferred over the previous one not because I prefer the brand, but because I prefer the retailer. Might get it Saturday if I'm really lucky with the courier.

CCA is lower at 150A than OEM 170A, but I think it'll make sweet feck all difference in this application. If anything it has a greater AH capacity. Not that any of these numbers could be entirely true either (who ever really checks?)

[Snake Charmer]

Are you using the air conditioning now the weather is colder? There's a PTC heater in the dash that draws 100A+ for instant heat.

I fitted a new auxiliary battery last year as it was dated 2004 and a main AGM this year. My car sat most of last week and I had a "convenience function disabled" message on startup at the weekend and I really was not expecting that so I'm wondering if there's a parasitic drain. My old battery (non AGM) still holds a good enough charge to start and run the car but gave the convenience function disabled message on a regular basis if sat for a while and the alternator tests fine.

[Snake Charmer]

Having a bit of grief converting these files......

[Snake Charmer]

Shame you are not closer as S211 V2.0 has a good pair of batteries you could borrow and I have a Bosch AGM spare (S5 A13 95Ah).

[SiC]

15 minutes ago, Snake Charmer said:

Shame you are not closer as S211 V2.0 has a good pair of batteries you could borrow and I have a Bosch AGM spare (S5 A13 95Ah).

Literally just had notification that I should be getting my Tayna battery tomorrow 🤞

I've taken the old one out to put on reconditioning charge earlier. But it probably won't be going back in if the other arrives quickly tomorrow.

Might wash underneath the battery with a hose pipe to get rid of some of this gunk. Hopefully not make a rusty hole while I'm at it 😅

[SiC]

8 hours ago, Snake Charmer said:

Are you using the air conditioning now the weather is colder? There's a PTC heater in the dash that draws 100A+ for instant heat.

I fitted a new auxiliary battery last year as it was dated 2004 and a main AGM this year. My car sat most of last week and I had a "convenience function disabled" message on startup at the weekend and I really was not expecting that so I'm wondering if there's a parasitic drain. My old battery (non AGM) still holds a good enough charge to start and run the car but gave the convenience function disabled message on a regular basis if sat for a while and the alternator tests fine.

I always leave the Aircon on auto and let it figure it's thing. I've found that once a car has been using air conditioning continuously, they steam up badly if you start not using it! Is the PTC heater a thing on the petrols too? I know my Civic only had it on the diesel, not petrol. Presumably because the petrol heats up so quickly. Being a thirsty bugger and a lighter block, it means a lot of heat is generated into less metal mass and it should heats up quickly!

I think the main battery might be a bit toast on this. No lead acid battery likes being continuously discharged and this has only done 1k per annum for a few years. So no surprise if it's going a bit weak. 

It can wait till at least after the MOT for the main battery though as it's still starting fine. Just hope there is enough for it to not go flat while sat on the drive without an aux battery and locked up overnight 🙃

[colino]

It's been a while, but isn't there a relay below the aux battery and/or it's wiring that monkeys around with its charging so a lot of aux batteries get replaced but only temporarily relieve the problem?

[SiC]

Yeah the K57/2 relay does that. Could be that it's packing up but the aux battery looks to be date coded 2015 and would have had a bit of a workout since then. So going to take a punt and parts dart it.
There is a separate code for relay failure. That triggered when disconnecting the battery which made sense.

[SiC]

1 hour ago, SiC said:

 

I was going to check on the battery status but scrolling through the above I noticed the battery was already on Stage 4 by the time I took the picture. About 10 to 20 mins or so of being hooked up. That's when it's at peak voltage and doing the final top off. Given it's on motorcycle mode with 0.8a charge rate, it's only put a few hundred milliamp hours in at most from 10.3v (flat) to nearly fully charged.

It's definitely fooked.

[Snake Charmer]

59 minutes ago, SiC said:

Is the PTC heater a thing on the petrols too?

That I do not know. When the temperature drops I notice the rpm on idle increases with the aircon on and the fuel economy definitely decreases a little on my commute. I have had fault codes for the PTC heater and I would only describe mine as warm air when cold but testing show 100A or more. I have read the heater is supposed to be 1400  to 1700W and I would not consider mine to be providing that level of heat, I have yet to drive the other car regularly to see if that is any different. 

I think my old backup battery caused a few errors but never the red warning you have been experiencing. Im sure replacement improved number of times the convenience function disabled message came up as it makes sense that if it's knackered the system tries to replenish it over the convenience functions and charging the main battery. 

[SiC]

29 minutes ago, Snake Charmer said:

1400  to 1700W

Does it heat the cabin air directly? The Civic one did that and was as warm as a nats fart in the cold winter. The Clio II DCI has effectively glow plugs in a box plumbed into the water system which was designed to heat that up quicker instead. 

My mates Golf R has a PTC heater, unsure of wattage, which impressively starts melting the ice on inside a windscreen in about 30 seconds or so. 

Perhaps this PTC heater primary aim is for lukewarm air to melt inside ice quickly?

[Snake Charmer]

Checking both my cars I have two part numbers listed as 1600W and 1700W on the 2004 car and 1600W (A2118300961) on the 2003. Seems only diesel cars have them. I keep forgetting yours is petrol!!

[SiC]

2 hours ago, Snake Charmer said:

I keep forgetting yours is petrol!!

Yeah I wouldn't have gone for it otherwise because petrol means:

 

Also the least liability engine. 

[SiC]

Battery arrived this morning (plus our fourth fridge in a month but that's a different side quest). This was £32 and the cheapest I could find. Because I ordered from Tayna it arrived today on a Saturday.

Voltage looked good out of the box.

Stuck it on charge anyway.

Cleaned out under battery tray to find ... Rust 😱

 

Cleaned and dried that out and spolshed some metal enamel down there. I tried red oxide spray but couldn't get the angle. Then heat gunned it to give a chance to dry. As usual I'm messy with paint but can't see it here anyway. 🤷‍♂️

Gave up waiting for the charge to say full. It had been on for a few hours so only at a float charge point and if already full, might take a while to detect full. New battery terminals didn't look healthy so gave them a scrub down with sandpaper.

This came with nuts instead of threaded terminals. A bit of a pain to get into place to then do the terminal clamps up. So used a bit of blue roll to keep them up and in place. Then long noes pliers to pull it out once the thread had caught. 

Then simply a case of bolting it all up.

Realised the wire above the air intake was in the wrong place. So move it back to where I think it should go. Probably disturbed when the windscreen was replaced last. (It's not an original screen)

Dash warning cleared itself. Cleared the code on the module and checked the battery was still reading good on the battery control module. 

 

Done! Super easy job.

[Snake Charmer]

How has the car been performing since fitting the new auxiliary battery?

[SiC]

2 minutes ago, Snake Charmer said:

How has the car been performing since fitting the new auxiliary battery?

Absolutely fine! Nothing to really report apart from it being a car. 

Went to Lyme Regis at the weekend. Probably did about 150 miles roundtrip I think? Didn't crack 30mpg though. Think that might be a combination of a-road driving and me finding the kickdown function a bit more often. 😂

The sheer size of it gets a tad annoying at times. Just parking becomes an issue much more than say the TT. 

MOT is now booked for 11th December too. 🤞

[SiC]

This explains why the lights seem a tad low.
The ball joint on the top piece to the bracket is seized up completely.


Fixed*


When I get time I'll get the bracket off the suspension arm, free up the ball joint and weld the bracket back together again.

[SiC]

This car isn't one that you can really love, however I do really like it. Something about it feels like a really nice place to be and chills me out. 

Spent a hour or so giving it the wood a good polish inside. Also run it over the trim to clean some scuff marks off.

Also degunked the soft touch on the light controls. Elbow Grease works really well here and used it on a Clio 172 to sort the same problem. I think this is the only part that has this soft touch on. 

Definitely nicer to touch and use now - even though you can tell why Mercedes put it on. Without the finish it looks a bit AliExpress knock-off now. But at least you don't stick to the controls now. 

[Snake Charmer]

22 hours ago, SiC said:

Fixed*

🤣 👌

1 hour ago, SiC said:

This car isn't one that you can really love, however I do really like it.

I felt like that with mine to start off with and the dam thing really grew on me firmly getting under my skin. 

That lighting switch cleaned up really well, I had planned on fitting one of the Aliexpress cheapies to V2.0 as the old one looks to have peeled off and only the glue was left.  I took a photo, lo and behold it's Giffer goo on the beige!! 😄

 

[SiC]

I felt like that with mine to start off with and the dam thing really grew on me firmly getting under my skin. 
That lighting switch cleaned up really well, I had planned on fitting one of the Aliexpress cheapies to V2.0 as the old one looks to have peeled off and only the glue was left.  I took a photo, lo and behold it's Giffer goo on the beige!! 

 

This is the stuff that works really well in getting the soft touch cleaned off:
https://www.bmstores.co.uk/products/elbow-grease-all-purpose-degreaser-500ml-345773
Used a few times removing soft touch and works well without melting the underlying plastic. I used a yellow cotton cloth as it didn't disintegrate when rubbed like kitchen roll.

[SiC]

I decided to finally fix the broken bracket on my light height sensor tonight.

I did try zip tying it but it didn't hold in the right place. With the MOT this week, I thought I might as well get it sorted properly so it doesn't get adjusted at the wrong setting because the zip tie moved.

The top pivot was seized, so I worked it with a pair of mole grips and lube.

Once free I welded the bracket back together. I did paint it after but forgot to take a picture of that. 

It seems to all work properly now. Checked the diagnostics and light position when moving the arm showed it moving all around dynamically.

 

 

Now I'm just keeping my fingers crossed for the MOT! 

[purplebargeken]

Nice little fix.

[SiC]

I wish I listened to my head, didn't get impatient and went genuine!

Cold is back to 80c marker. More worryingly is in traffic it creeps up to the 100c marker. MOT is tomorrow so it's going in no matter what! I'll try and remember to let the tester know to just keep an eye on it. I don't think it'll overheat (at least it hasn't yet) but if it suddenly gets worse and not open at all, I don't want it to blow up. 

I've ordered a genuine off eBay from a dealer. Gone up in price though!

I have the receipt and box for the one on there so I'll take it back to my local parts shop. 

[Pat Earrings]

13 hours ago, SiC said:

I wish I listened to my head, didn't get impatient and went genuine!

Cold is back to 80c marker. More worryingly is in traffic it creeps up to the 100c marker. MOT is tomorrow so it's going in no matter what! I'll try and remember to let the tester know to just keep an eye on it. I don't think it'll overheat (at least it hasn't yet) but if it suddenly gets worse and not open at all, I don't want it to blow up. 

I've ordered a genuine off eBay from a dealer. Gone up in price though!

I have the receipt and box for the one on there so I'll take it back to my local parts shop. 

In my experience, aftermarket thermostats just never work as well as OE. It’s one of the only parts I bother getting OE as they work perfect straight out of the box. 

[SiC]

Just now, Pat Earrings said:

In my experience, aftermarket thermostats just never work as well as OE. It’s one of the only parts I bother getting OE as they work perfect straight out of the box. 

Yeah I didn't expect much but I'd thought it would at least last a month to get it through the MOT! It's the current failure mode where it's getting hot in traffic that I most dislike though. I need to watch the gauge like a hawk on the way in today. 

[SiC]

MOT day today! I'm keeping my fingers crossed it will pass or only minor failure points. 

Biggest concern is (apart from the thermostat causing overheating) the crusty brake pipes and perished tyres. Not sure if my local garage will do the brake pipes - not sure if their Snap On scan tool can bleed SBC systems. I'd thought it would as it's an old system now but they might have been burnt before with them and not want to touch them. Tbh I'd like the pipes changed even if it passes. They aren't pretty.

We will see. 

[SiC]

Whoop! 🎉

[beko1987]

All that looks ignorable until next year! 

I remember having level arm issues in my blue laguna. Passenger side was worn out, a cable tie made it stay on enough for the mot which was decent of it, then it popped off after a day or so and the pass headlights went down to the verge. 

A good fix was rebuilding the entire arm assembly with threaded bar and threaded little ball joints. I just left it broken and remember cable tying the arm safely out the way so it could be re-attached for the next mot (which it didn't get...) , could still see fine and didn't blind anyone 

[SiC]

17 minutes ago, beko1987 said:

All that looks ignorable until next year! 

I could but going by the MOT history, that's been happening for a while! I'm going to see if I can have a chat with the tester and see what they think it's like on the underside - mostly rust wise. If generally good then I'll spend out.

Tyres aren't pretty. 

Brake pipes really aren't either. This is front offside and I can't imagine the others are much better. Of course being Mercedes, you need a scantool capable of bleeding the SBC.