Hi All.

First time poster here.

My wife has recently bought an A140 manual which has had a starting issue from the outset. The issue is intermittent, but seems to be more frequent when trying to start the car from cold.

Here is what happens.

Insert key in to the ignition, and turn the key, the SRS light is lit in red on the dash but there is no other life. Seems like the imobilizer is fooling around.

Turn key back and then try again, usually same result.

We can normally get the car to start after the 4 or 5 attempt.

The car has recently been MOT'd and Serviced by a Mercedes Garage, and nothing was bought to light then.

Also the car has 2 months left on a warranty, so if this sounds costly then I would like to try and put it through on the warranty rather than to be out of pocket.

Any ideas please?

Cheers.

 

Does it still have the original car battery from 2003? When you turn the key is there a ticking noise from the dash or not?

The first thing I would do is check the battery. Connect a second battery that you know works, and is full, to the one in there with jump leads and try and start, if you can then start each time without problems then that is the issue.

I recently changed the battery in my o/h's A190. It had the original one in there still, never needed to be changed, but was not keeping its charge so well. New batteries are much better and have massive reserve power for starting; I now notice it starts instantly with no problem at all, even when frozen outside. In fact I would say it starts better than when it was new!

If you have battery that has a low voltage out the immobiliser doesn't always disable fully either.

So check that battery, it would be the first thing I would do!

 

Worth saying, if you are in the UK, I am not surprised. They don't seem to do any preventative maintance, they just do the things on the servicing list, nothing else.

Take it to a well known independent, who will in most cases service them much better! They are a cheap Merc to run, unless you take them to a main dealer!

 

Just an update.

The issue turned out to be the ignition switch, which our local Mercedes Specialist fixed for £100. So it wasn't as pricey as I thought it was going to be.

Thanks for all your help though.