Charge battery (W211)

[Mathias-I]

Hi guys,

Since I had trouble with low battery on my E270, I decided to buy a charger. I bought an Einhell WLGN 15 , but was is the best and most correct way to charge it ? Take out the batteri ? Leave it in ? Disconnect it ? and so on

Thanks in advance.

 

[glojo]

Hi Mathias,
I would be very careful about charging these batteries and be more concerned as to the reason it requires it. There have been a number of service bulletins regarding this issue, and some models need replacement parts. Has your car had all of these carried out?

Good luck
John

 

[Mathias-I]

Yep I would think so. It's only a half year ago since the car had it latest service and got the "battery charger unit" replaced (whatever it's called ), but since I drive short distances every day the battery gets drained. I assume that's the problem because I read somewhere that you have to drive 10 miles before it has any affect.

 

[television]

OK you bought a good charger, when you plug it in and join up you must have the switch on the charger set to minimum, if you do that,you can leave the battery connected up, leave it ½ hour to settle then you can increase the charge a little if you wish. When the battery is connected up the max current is 4-5 amp, any more than that then the voltage will be too high for the safety of the electronic components in the car.

If the battery is disconnected then do not charge at more than 8 amps.

 

[Mathias-I]

#4 Thank you so much - Answer like that I neeed But a few things that I have to make sure I know exactly what you mean. When you say leave it connected, do you mean that I have to replace either the plus or minus on the battery with the plus or minus on the charger so i completes the circuit ? How do I know when the battery is fully charged ?

Sorry but this is my first time ever to charge a car battery, so I need it spelled out

 

[television]

#4 Thank you so much - Answer like that I neeed But a few things that I have to make sure I know exactly what you mean. When you say leave it connected, do you mean that I have to replace either the plus or minus on the battery with the plus or minus on the charger so i completes the circuit ? How do I know when the battery is fully charged ?

Sorry but this is my first time ever to charge a car battery, so I need it spelled out

Lets make this a little clearer
Do not plug the charger into the mains
Connect the red to the + and the black to the - on the battery.
Set the charger to the lowest setting.
Plug into the mains and turn on.

The reason for doing it this way is that no spikes are introduced into the car circuits. Your is not to bad on this count, but the 203 is.

When the charging current falls to a minimal level, then the battery is fully charged.

We could say that your car after not being used for 2 weeks would have taken 30% out of the battery, so with a 90 amp hour battery you would need to put back 30 amps. so a 15 hour charge at 2 amps would do the job nicely

 

[Mathias-I]

#5 Once again thank you - I'll give it a try tomorrow.

 

[television]

#5 Once again thank you - I'll give it a try tomorrow.

Jag kan inte Dansk, men Svensk är bra for mej, ingen problem

Hey då

 

[SL300-24]

I would suggest that you make sure that you manually operate the lights on your car rather than leaving them on automatic, and adjust the settings so that the lights go out quickly when you lock the car.
Otherwise the sidelights and interior lights stay on for too long, and the headlights come on when you do not really need them, especially when making short trips only.

 

[Mathias-I]

Jag kan inte Dansk, men Svensk är bra for mej, ingen problem

Hey då

Oh you are from Sweden or just learning swedish ? Swedish is as you may know very close to the danish language, so no problems for me to understand swedish

 

[television]

Oh you are from Sweden or just learning swedish ? Swedish is as you may know very close to the danish language, so no problems for me to understand swedish

Jag varit i Sverige för 15 år, det vår 10 år i Jönköping och 5 år i Stockholm, med Sveriges Radio & TV. Min problem = Svensk Flicka

 

[Diesel Benz]

Yep I would think so. It's only a half year ago since the car had it latest service and got the "battery charger unit" replaced (whatever it's called ), but since I drive short distances every day the battery gets drained. I assume that's the problem because I read somewhere that you have to drive 10 miles before it has any affect.

I don't see why it would take 10 miles before any effect. The only thing I can think of is the electric heater that takes all the surplus energy the charger can provide but even this should be anything left after the consumers and the current the battery can take for charging.

I only drive 10 miles to work and may not drive anything else for weeks, and would not have low battery issues with a W211 that has properly serviced, including the recent battery charging software updates (good if you charger regulator was changed, or was it just the SW?).

Would be a different thing if you had the stationary heater running often before driving. I have that too, the basic rule there would be to drive at least as long as the auxiliary heater has been used before the car had be started. I assume you don't even have the aux heater, not that important in UK.

PS. Television, people at my place say you should put a hot potato to your mouth, that makes your Swedish pretty perfect Danish. Not sure if it helps reading or listening though.

 

[television]

PS. Television, people at my place say you should put a hot potato to your mouth, that makes your Swedish pretty perfect Danish. Not sure if it helps reading or listening though.

The Swedes say that Danish is like a pain in the throat, I cant understand much of the spoken word, but OK to read it. Norwegian is easy to understand but for Finish, there is not one international word like Piano, hotel etc, not even yes-no

 

[jaymanek]

malcolm, now you are just showing off...

 

[Satch]

Yes, turn off the "welcome" lighting features. Another big source of current drain after start up is the electric cabin heater.

If you turn the A/C off it also disables the heating matrix.

(To show voltage, set the display to show speed when key is in position I then press the trip reset button three times. Will get a beep and voltage will be displayed when you put key to position II.)

With the various pumps, fans, glow plugs, lights, electric heater etc running on and shortly after start up draw a lot of current. IMO the 70 Ah battery fitted to mine is simply not big enough.

 

[television]

malcolm, now you are just showing off...

Guilty as charged

 

[jaymanek]

by the way on the subject, i do exactly as malcolm described with the battery connected to the car... I carry out this exercise almost daily as batteries do drain when sitting in a showroom... i tend to leave the boot open on W211's as chargers can get hot... just disconnect the boot bulb.

 

[Diesel Benz]

If you turn the A/C off it also disables the heating matrix.

This should be the case for a 2003 W211. This can be programmed by SDS to be on even when AC if off and MB even has instructed this setting to be used, at least on some markets. Could be a US thing mainly, they don't want to be involved with car owners asking why the car does not blow hot air when they have switched A/C off and didn't know it controls the electric heater too.

Anyway, a good advice for situations where one wants to save battery power.

 

[DieselE]

To answer a couple of points you raised.

Don't disconnect the battery when charging. If you do you will have to reset a lot of the electronics on the car.

I'm not sure that I agree with Television (Malcolm) that the charger you've bought is the right one. I think that you should have one where the manufacturer specifically states that it is suitable to be used with the battery still connected to the car. One example is shown below. I know it's a UK website but I'm sure that CTEK chargers are available in countries other than the UK.

http://www.theultimatefinish.co.uk/Store/Product/ProductDetails.aspx?ProductId=103

One advantage of this type of charger is that you can mount it semi-permanently in the boot of your car and just connect it to the mains when you want to charge the battery. It is actually designed so that it will cause no damage even if you leave the car on charge indefinitely.

The points made by other posters on turning off as many of the electrical options as possible (particularly welcoming lights and delayed switch off of the interior lighting) are good ones.

 

[Mathias-I]

The Swedes say that Danish is like a pain in the throat, I cant understand much of the spoken word, but OK to read it. Norwegian is easy to understand but for Finish, there is not one international word like Piano, hotel etc, not even yes-no

Off Topic:
I guess the Danes would say the same about Swedish but I agree Norwegian is very easy ot understand. I would say that Norwegian reminds more of Danish, than Swedish. I don't know about Finish - Never really heard it.

On Topic:
This morning I connected the charger like you told me to and it worked perfectly.
Thanks guys