starlight
Active Member
This question relates to the above C-Class, just under 4 years old, with only 23,000 miles on the clock.
The "Auxiliary Battery Malfunction" warning flashed up on the instrument cluster a couple of days ago. Although the warning isn't critical - and the car is perfectly driveable - the warning continued to flash every few seconds. Remember when malfunctions alerts simply came up and could then be stored in the malfunction memory without being a pest?
Anyway... the next day I took the car for a run of about 50 miles or so and the warning disappeared.
I've being trying to figure out - so far without success - whether the problem could have arisen because the car isn't often used for anything other than short local journeys; and it really doesn't need replaced.
I have an approved used warranty expiring next month that would cover a replacement. I'll probably take out a Tier 1 warranty after that, but I'm not sure it would provide cover for this. That policy has a lot of wriggle room in the area of "fair wear and tear".
So, the question is, at this low mileage, is it just possible there's no fault and the aux battery just needs a decent charge from time to time?
Incidentally, I have a feeling that the aux battery kicks in when the car stops in Eco Stop/Start mode, but I disable that at the start of every journey. Apart from being a pest, it hardly ever works. In fact, it will only work when the weather is blistering hot; and where I live that doesn't happen very often.
The "Auxiliary Battery Malfunction" warning flashed up on the instrument cluster a couple of days ago. Although the warning isn't critical - and the car is perfectly driveable - the warning continued to flash every few seconds. Remember when malfunctions alerts simply came up and could then be stored in the malfunction memory without being a pest?
Anyway... the next day I took the car for a run of about 50 miles or so and the warning disappeared.
I've being trying to figure out - so far without success - whether the problem could have arisen because the car isn't often used for anything other than short local journeys; and it really doesn't need replaced.
I have an approved used warranty expiring next month that would cover a replacement. I'll probably take out a Tier 1 warranty after that, but I'm not sure it would provide cover for this. That policy has a lot of wriggle room in the area of "fair wear and tear".
So, the question is, at this low mileage, is it just possible there's no fault and the aux battery just needs a decent charge from time to time?
Incidentally, I have a feeling that the aux battery kicks in when the car stops in Eco Stop/Start mode, but I disable that at the start of every journey. Apart from being a pest, it hardly ever works. In fact, it will only work when the weather is blistering hot; and where I live that doesn't happen very often.