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M-B Battery - 4 years & 1 week old - DEAD as roadkill

Owners whose cars have electrical problems are often advised by me and others to seriously consider a 4+ year old battery as the prime suspect behind the problem. I eat my own cooking when it comes to auto maintenance, here's my experience.

1/17/02 I preventively replaced my car's then six year old, original, new car battery with an identical M-B battery: $122, self installed.

Four years and 1 week later nothing - even the dome light was dead! That's after only 13,650 miles, driven weekly, in the mild, SF Bay climate. This turkey of a battery must have been made at least a year before I bought it from the local M-B dealer!

So this time I bought an Exide Autolite 84 month Group 48 that was manufactured last month: $103, self installed.

Always consider an old battery a prime suspect.

Reply to
T.G. Lambach
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Apparently, you are correct again sir! I put an exide group 49 into my '72 mercedes (the older cars take the bigger group). It was the first battery in my fifteen years of ownership that I have felt really good about. It even makes the clock run on time.

Reply to
Hazey

Good examples of preventive maintenance. Any experience with Interstate batteries? I had a heavy duty Interstate that lasted 6 years on a '81 Volvo Diesel GT. Never failed to start regardless of weather conditions.

Hernando

Reply to
Hernando Correa

I hate Intestate... always short lived. Pricy as hell too.

Reply to
Tiger

You know... you drove so little with your MB for 4 years... only 14K miles in 4 years? Your battery is regularly drained more than usual by the electronics... which is why your battery don't last long. You should consider hooking up battery tender charger to keep it fully charged.

The more the battery is taxed or drained, the shorter the live it will have.

I prefer Autozone battery made by Johnson Control... 7 years warranty and only $70 for group 49 battery.

Reply to
Tiger

my interstate battery for a 300e cost less than $50 US and is now over 8 years old....on the other hand varta's gave me more problems.

cheers

Reply to
Guenter Scholz

Even with a new battery, I am still too late :o)

Hazey wrote:

Reply to
Jens

I use Optimas, knock on wood my 8 year old blue/marine one still starts the 300SD. I'll get Interstate if I can't get Optima. Next best thing.

Wal-Mart sells Optimas now. They used to be hard to find, now they're just expensive.

I'm happy to hear good things about Exides in the past few posts. Makes a 108 clock run on time? Nice trick.

Reply to
Richard Sexton

Last interstate I had leaked so I'm off them. The Exide has enough amperage to run the electrical system at full charge, which none of my other batteries had. Proper amperage and the armature on the clock gets thrown a little further which means fewer throws a day and hence it keeps time. Weird thing eh? I've had the exide about three years now. It really does run well.

Reply to
Hazey

It wouldn't be weird if you had a pair of 1000 watt amps driving a trunkfull of subwoofers.

But it's pretty weird for an otherwise stock car. But then "weird" and "mercedes electrical" can always be found together in any conversation about these cars.

Usually it's a bad ground. Shrug.

Reply to
Richard Sexton

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