Mercedes C240 Flat Battery

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Leviathan

New Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2015
Messages
2
Car
Mercedes C240 Sport
Excuse the long explanation but this is a comedy of errors which I am struggling to sort out and would welcome any guidance anyone can give me!

My 1999 Mercedes W202 C240 Sport auto will not start. It was running fine until a couple of weeks ago when one morning all the lights on the dash came on with the turn of the key but all that happened was an audible click from under the bonnet. Assuming the battery was on its way, I tried to jump start it but with no success. A few days later, the battery seemed to die altogether as no dash lights came on, the central locking would not work and the electronic key would not turn in the ignition.

The problem now is that I cannot open the boot to access the battery since the manual key does not seem to work in the boot lock. Also, the last person to use the car parked it face on to my house in such an awkward way that I cannot get jump leads to go from my main car across to the other side of the Mercedes bonnet where the positive (X-marked) jump box connector is. To top it off, I now cannot get the car out of Park because there is no power available. So I can't roll it back to get my other car in front of it and the W202 apparently has no manual shifter lock override button. I even tried to tow and drag the car backwards in frustration, obviously with no success.

I wonder if the fault with the car is something that anyone recognises from experience or how I can make some progress? I received some helpful tips on getting into the boot without a key but am reluctant to follow this except as a last resort.

I am frustrated because whilst the car was cheap (and had all the normal rust and faults one would expect from a £500 car), it was running quite well, has an MOT until February next year and is really clean inside so I am reluctant to scrap it. At this point, I just need to be able to move it on my driveway and might consider selling it as a project or for someone to break for parts.

Any thoughts or guidance would be appreciated - thanks!
 
If you search on here there is a post that shows you how to connect the jump leads underneath the car to the starter and earth hopefully that may help so you can get to a better position to sort.
 
Since all you need is a limited level of current to power the electronics any bit of insulated reasonably sized dometic electrical cable would do to extend the jump box connector to the side of the car where it can be accessed by your jump leads. Obviously you wouldn't try to start the car with this set up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! just to gain access. That or connect a couple of sets of jump leads together with the "clamp to clamp" junctions suitably insulated with gaffer tape.
 
Thanks Flango and Grober for your prompt responses; both useful ideas
 

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