Newish battery cold weather funny business in 2006 E320 CDI
#1
12-31-2012, 05:43 AM
Newish battery cold weather funny business in 2006 E320 CDI
Car: 2006 E320 CDI with 31,000 miles
Main Battery: Deka AGM Exact Fit EAS9AGM49 purchased from AutoBarn.COM ($195) in November 2011; installed spring 2012 (car stored on battery maintainer all winter)
Auxiliary battery: original battery that came with car
Problem: the original battery (which came with the car) was replaced because in Fall 2011 it began to give the "weak battery/convenience features disabled" message which would then go out after a few minutes of driving. At its age, I was not surprised, so I bought a new Deka AGM battery from AutoBarn.COM. and installed it in Spring 2012. (Car was stored all winter.)
Well, this fall the same thing started happening, again. After standing all night, I get the weak battery/convenience features disabled message regularly. I took to car to Grand Blanc Motors (M-B dealer) for another problem and when the car reached them (60 highway miles from my home) and it was being checked in, it gave the weak battery message...on a cool, but not cold Fall day. The service manager mentioned this to me and I told him about the 1 year old main battery and that I thought that this was due to the old auxiliary battery still in the car. He said that a failure with the aux. battery gets you a different error message. So I asked him to check the charging system and load test the battery. The charging system was OK, but the battery load test gave a "charge battery and re-test" result, which is indicative of a failing battery. It passed after the re-charge. I got the car back and for a few days the weak battery message did not show up, but now it has gotten cooler (mid-20's at night) and Iget it regularly on a first start of the day and sometimes even when the car has been run long enough to extinguish the "convenience features disabled" message, then been turned off as I shopped for ~30 minutes and started back up. It takes about 5-10 minutes run time to get the message to extinguish.
The car always start w/o issue, although it seems to turn over a little slower than in summer, but not much.
I imagine that I just have a bad battery, but it puzzles me that the message comes up even when the engine is still warm. Seems to me that a battery that weak would be near dead standing over-night in mid-20's temperatures and take a lot longer than 5-10 minutes running time to charge back up.
Anyone have some thoughts?
- nopcbs
Main Battery: Deka AGM Exact Fit EAS9AGM49 purchased from AutoBarn.COM ($195) in November 2011; installed spring 2012 (car stored on battery maintainer all winter)
Auxiliary battery: original battery that came with car
Problem: the original battery (which came with the car) was replaced because in Fall 2011 it began to give the "weak battery/convenience features disabled" message which would then go out after a few minutes of driving. At its age, I was not surprised, so I bought a new Deka AGM battery from AutoBarn.COM. and installed it in Spring 2012. (Car was stored all winter.)
Well, this fall the same thing started happening, again. After standing all night, I get the weak battery/convenience features disabled message regularly. I took to car to Grand Blanc Motors (M-B dealer) for another problem and when the car reached them (60 highway miles from my home) and it was being checked in, it gave the weak battery message...on a cool, but not cold Fall day. The service manager mentioned this to me and I told him about the 1 year old main battery and that I thought that this was due to the old auxiliary battery still in the car. He said that a failure with the aux. battery gets you a different error message. So I asked him to check the charging system and load test the battery. The charging system was OK, but the battery load test gave a "charge battery and re-test" result, which is indicative of a failing battery. It passed after the re-charge. I got the car back and for a few days the weak battery message did not show up, but now it has gotten cooler (mid-20's at night) and Iget it regularly on a first start of the day and sometimes even when the car has been run long enough to extinguish the "convenience features disabled" message, then been turned off as I shopped for ~30 minutes and started back up. It takes about 5-10 minutes run time to get the message to extinguish.
The car always start w/o issue, although it seems to turn over a little slower than in summer, but not much.
I imagine that I just have a bad battery, but it puzzles me that the message comes up even when the engine is still warm. Seems to me that a battery that weak would be near dead standing over-night in mid-20's temperatures and take a lot longer than 5-10 minutes running time to charge back up.
Anyone have some thoughts?
- nopcbs
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