[R129 SL] ref electrical gremlin

[Peter S]

Hi Bill and David,
While I appreciate that changing a faulty battery can assist with rectifying problems, I am not totally convinced that a new battery will do much different to the existing battery!.

It the battery has high internal resistance (can be caused with age), or if the battery is generally tired, replacement is always required.   

If the battery is still OK and there are niggly faults in the car, given that the car has a large number of sensors, these sensors can actually store capacitance and hold inductance that can and does interfere with certain vehicle systems. I believe that if the battery is low on charge and the car is little used, it could not quite have the power to overcome some issues.  I believe that disconnecting the battery, independently discharging and then charging the battery (at the 20 hour rate) and re-installation should do the same as installing a new battery.   I do this every year to all my batteries as a check and test!

I have just done this discharge/charge to our R129 accidentally, as I left the inside lights on for about four days!.  I disconnected the battery, charged it up again, re-installed it, and one minor problem has so far not re-occurred. 

I have copied in Eddy Fischer ( National President of the Mercedes Benz Club of New Zealand) into this email as he has finally 'seen the light' and added a 1992 Silver R129 to his 'collection' .  Good on you Eddy. 

For information and thoughts.   
Regards, Peter S. 


----- Original Message ----- 
  From: William Alborn 
  To: SL Mailing List 
  Sent: Tuesday, September 11, 2007 10:02 AM
  Subject: Re: [R129 SL] ref electrical gremlin


  David,
      Indeed that was the problem; a new battery made all the seemingly unrelated problems disappear.  Thanks for your input!

  Bill
    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: David Elliott 
    To: r129list at mbcoupes.com 
    Sent: Monday, September 10, 2007 6:00 AM
    Subject: [R129 SL] ref electrical gremlin


    I had a very similar experience with my 98 sl500. After a couple of months of strange behaviour, windows staying up when the door opened so that they would not close, strange lights coming on etc, then on sunny day the car would not start despite having done 60 miles earlier that morning so I bought a new battery and everything returned to normal, I hope your solution is as simple.

     

    David Elliott 



     

     



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