Auxiliaries Disconnected?

[Brian WH]

When driving in the fog the other day I had to put my lights onto manual because I wanted to use the fog lights.

On the W211 for those who do not know you have automatic lights and also when you switch off the engine and get out there are surround lights which include the fogs and side lights staying on for 15 secs.

Anyway when I got home I got out the car and went in the house, obviously ignoring the lights being on. Two hours later I had to go out again and HELP my headlights were still on? I switched off the lights and started the car and a message flashed up.

"Auxiliaries have been disconnected"

My car has two batteries, one for starting and one for everything else. I assumed therefore that I had flattened the Auxiliary battery.
I had no air-con no rear heated window or any other luxury. Just lights and engine plus wipers. It was Freezing.

All was well again next time I started the car after an 18 mile journey.

The moral of the story is "Beware using Manual Lights in a W211 or any other MB with auto-lights"

 

[GrahamC230K]

If I read and understood correctly your lesson is not leave your lights on?

 

[fuzzer]

If I read and understood correctly your lesson is not leave your lights on?

Thats a bit crap it didnt come up and say .. Mine comes up with a big picture of a bulb and beeps for britain

 

[joe]

If I was to select a manual setting for my lights instead of Auto they would stay on after the Ignition was turned off...but there would be a loud audible warning as well as the dash display as I exited the Car.

I think you just left your lights on Brian (just like we used to in the olden days...lol)

Joe

 

[Brian WH]

Yes yes I did leave my lights on, because I shut my door and opened the back I didn't take any notice of the beep.

But the point is I didn't notice the lights were on because of the surround lighting which is on every time I get out the car.OK Ya

 

[marcos]

I can understand Brian.
Still a daft thing to do though. Ha Ha. Mind you at least your battery didn't go flat like mine. Even my air-matic and SBC were showing faults due to low power.

 

[RichardM]

I often switch mine to manual and get the very loud beep when switching the engine off and removing the key!

 

[richard]

I dont drive my SL (R230) that often at the moment, and it does the same. The biggest problem (for me) is that when its in "no auxiliaries mode", the park sensors dont work - which is scary, since bumpers are expensive on the SL - and when its cold its easier to crack them ...

After I drive for about 10 mins, its usually charged up enough to re-enable all the sensors/air-con/etc

Once, when it was really flat, the driver seat forgot where the end-stops were, so moving the seat back back caused the seat to go forward - winding all the way forward and all the way back reset it appropriately.

R

 

[SL300-24]

I have just had the same message come up on my W211 whilst driving "Auxiliaries have been disconnected" "then Visit workshop" in red, as per Brians 2003 post.
I am now charging the main battery which is only 6 months old (100amp). Can I charge the smaller battery......or is this only re-chargeable by the car? Is there a problem....or is this a glitch that will disappear on restart tomorrow?I believe that all the software updates have been completed.
Any help appriciated......thanks

 

[DieselE]

I have just had the same message come up on my W211 whilst driving "Auxiliaries have been disconnected" "then Visit workshop" in red, as per Brians 2003 post.
I am now charging the main battery which is only 6 months old (100amp). Can I charge the smaller battery......or is this only re-chargeable by the car? Is there a problem....or is this a glitch that will disappear on restart tomorrow?I believe that all the software updates have been completed.
Any help appriciated......thanks

The key words in your post are "while driving". That makes it a different problem to the one Brian had. The fact that the warning then moved on to "Visit Workshop" makes me think that the alternator has stopped charging.

Even if you don't get the same warning on restart, you ought to get the car checked out. Apart from anything else, if you disconnected/removed the battery to charge it then a lot of your car's settings will have been lost.

 

[SL300-24]

Thanks for your response Peter,
My wife has been doing a lot of short stop-starts lately. Last night I took it for a 25 mile blast around the M25, turned it off....... and the fault disappeared. Trickle charged the battery overnight whilst still connected and all seems back to normal.........for now.

 

[RichardM]

I have just had the same message come up on my W211 whilst driving "Auxiliaries have been disconnected" "then Visit workshop" in red, as per Brians 2003 post.
I am now charging the main battery which is only 6 months old (100amp). Can I charge the smaller battery......or is this only re-chargeable by the car? Is there a problem....or is this a glitch that will disappear on restart tomorrow?I believe that all the software updates have been completed.
Any help appriciated......thanks

I had the same message whilst driving along the motorway once, there was no way the battery was discharged as I'd already driven quite a way. Anyway after stopping and switching the engine off I never saw the message again - well apart from when it had been sitting at the airport for 10 days.