Attention. Please start engine....

[SG94]

2015 W205

Every so often a warning message appears as I get in the car on the info screen in the dash.
"Attention. Please start engine. See owners manual"

Except there is no reference to this in the manual. I have logged calls with MB and 3 dealers, no one has come back to me. The car never fails to start, and this can appear minutes after switching the engine off, if filling up for instance. Conversely, I can leave my car for a week if I'm flying away on business and on my return, no warning, so can't think it's battery?

What gives? Any ideas folks?

Thanks.

 

[markjay]

The "Please Start Engine" message means that the battery voltage has dropped below the normal threshold, and the car is asking you to start the engine to recharge the battery.

If you say the battery is fine, then the battery charging may be intermittent (e.g. Alternator issue).

 

[SG94]

Cheers, will get it checked out. Wonder if they didn't tighten all the connections after the service.

 

[Jeremy A-H]

Sorry to awaken an old thread, but I've just had this message after going on a week's holiday (battery pretty much fully charged before I left)!

I left my previous Merc for two months while I was away on business and started fine when I returned, does this mean the current model might run out of juice while away on a two-week holiday or does it start to shut down systems so that the engine will still start after a few weeks?

 

[markjay]

Sorry to awaken an old thread, but I've just had this message after going on a week's holiday (battery pretty much fully charged before I left)!

I left my previous Merc for two months while I was away on business and started fine when I returned, does this mean the current model might run out of juice while away on a two-week holiday or does it start to shut down systems so that the engine will still start after a few weeks?

Difficult to say.

On one hand yes modern cars have more systems 'alive' when the car is parked up, so may drain the battery more than older cars did, but then they usually have an auxiliary battery these days so you would expect it to compensate.

On the other hand, you old car may have not had the low voltage warning feature, so at the same time it's quite possible that the battery drain is the same but you were just not aware of it before because the old car did not have the warning message feature.

 

[Jeremy A-H]

You are correct, I'm pretty certain the message is new to the C205.

I suspect a modern car will drain the battery more quickly immediately after the engine is turned off (it looks like something around 200W) and should then settle down as the various systems switch off.

For the battery to drain after a week, suggests either something isn't switching off correctly or that the car is a tad too sensitive to the battery level before showing this message. Anyone else had this message after only a few days?

 

[John N]

You are correct, I'm pretty certain the message is new to the C205.

Anyone else had this message after only a few days?

Seems to be the same problem I had here:


https://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/general-discussion/224033-mercedes-me-useful.html

 

[Jeremy A-H]

Thanks for the link - from your experience, it doesn't sound like the car is being paranoid, it really is running low on battery-powered electrons and it really shouldn't be draining the battery that quickly. I'm assuming it hasn't happened since?

 

[John N]

Jeremy,

Regarding the Link, did you read the 7th Post?

 

[Jeremy A-H]

The bit about the battery usage logs? Yes, thank you - I might have to ask Mercedes to take a look at these as I've noticed, after a couple of days sat on the drive, the car takes an hour's driving before the start-stop function starts working.

 

[Deleted member 166119]

It may be worth reading this MB service bulletin prior to paying out.

 

[DSM10000]

The thread was last replied to 6 years ago

 

[HappytalkAgain]

I’ve been having the same message pop up every time I get in the car for the last 6 months or so. It’s never failed to start yet. Hope I’m not riding my luck.

 

[topdown]

I had this as well as no stop start and the Alarm would go off during the night. Although I charged the battery after a few days it would happen again. Replaced the battery 4 years old low use. Fault gone. Left car for 6 weeks and after a 15 min drive start stop worked.