Help!! Can't shut boot ...

[Major774]

Do you mean the "comfort connect" cable with eyelets to allow you to permanently leave it on the battery? It is actually since then that I've had problems charging it. The other different thing I did then was a full recondition, which I'd not tried before.

I took the comfort cable out on Sunday though in case it was shorting. Still wouldn't charge. Unless it's damaged the battery. Or a red herring and nothing to do with it

I'm using the clamps now in the kitchen. 2nd attempt at charging has stayed at step 3 for a couple of hours, so it seems to be happier currently. Go figure ..

I got the comfort indicator panel installed in mine, no issues with this. It was the CTEK 2.5m extension cable that was causing my charge problem, once removed the battery was charging properly. So I ended up extending the 3 pin wall plug, happy days.

FYI - If you are going to use the recon. mode, disconnect the car battery terminals and connect the CTEK charger directly to the battery. This is from the CTEK website, just easier to play it safe.

Does the battery have to be disconnected from the vehicle when it is being charged with a CTEK charger?
No, CTEK chargers cannot damage sensitive electronics. So, you don't have to disconnect the battery from the vehicle! However, you should take extra care when using recond because the voltage is 15.8V. Most manufacturers consider everything to be fine as long is voltage is below 16V and CTEK is under that limit by a good margin, even during recond. Note that the service life of some components is shortened by high voltage. A rule of thumb says that a light bulb's service life is halved by increasing voltage by 5%, but this is normally not any great danger. If you have any sensitive electronics for which the manufacturer warns against high voltage: disconnect them!

 

[AlanD]

For the W211, you have to take the surrounding plastic trims off, then you can pop off the seal that goes around the boot. It will come out easily and will not stretch, once popped off it you should be able go over the boot lid to take it away for cleaning. Because it has moulded to the shape of the boot you can easily fit it back in the original position.

On my car, I guess the previous owner tried to solved this water problem with some form of grease/silicone (there were traces of it in the seal). This probably makes it worse as the seal should make it's own seal once fitted. I cleaned as much of the grease/silicone off the seal and the boot, fully dried the seal off, then reverse the above to fit.

Yep, I'm with you re silicone .. it's a royal PITA if you ever need to touch it again. What I can't figure out is how it leaks just so much with no visible damage at all (and as far as I can see, it's all on properly).

 

[Lyserman]

I had the same issue on my S203.
The amount of water getting in suggested the rear washer pipe was leaking or there was a big hole somewhere.
I took off the rear light cluster, checked window seals, sat in boot whilst the outside was hosed and eventually came across the advice about the boot seal which fixed the problem for me.
That capillary action can certainly move a large amount of water when it puts its mind to it, lol.

A small amount of silicon grease will help seal it but will allow easy removal in the future.

 

[AlanD]

So something like this:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00W6Q3B1G/?tag=amazon0e9db-21

Assume that wouldn't attack/perish the rubber, whereas other greases would be unpredictable ..

 

[AlanD]

Battery update: 26 hours later, it's taken a full charge (~21h) and recondition (~ 5h). Which sounds about right for a flat battery that size. Comes up green like nothing was ever wrong. What do you reckon - battery good or not (remembering it was an outright fail at step 5 previously and fail at step 2 while in the car)?

I'm thinking of leaving it on the floor till Thursday and charging again. It should only take a few minutes presumably and come back green quickly. If it takes 15-20 hours, then it must be loosing charge.

 

[Major774]

You need to get it tested with a cold cranking amps (CCA) tester. A battery may look fine because it takes a fully charge, however, it may not supply the CCA when required.

There should be a CCA/EN number on the label of your battery. When testing, it will tell you what the battery can actually supply, hopefully it should be close to the CCA/EN number on your battery.

 

[AlanD]

Took the seal off the boot last night and did my best to clean it up (in the dark!). Was a botch job with silicone by someone before by the look of it - spent ages rubbing down the metal to remove previous remnants. The rubber itself was full of water towards the bottom and had lots of mould (slimy type like you'd get on a communal shower seal which no one bothered to wash!). Seems a likely culprit ..

Cleaned the rubber as best I could and scooped out some of the goop. I applied a line of silicone grease all the way around the metal and into the rubber groove on the bottom half before refitting. Noticed when refitting that one side wouldn't actually stay in place without popping back from the metal slightly (does once plastic trim back on).

Good news today is that after the heavy rain overnight, the boot was dry. Apart from when I parked on a hill and loads of water trickled down from other hidden bits of the boot!! Guess it will take a while to dry out completely, but will be good news for the rather wet looking wiring at the back reaches of the boot.

When it's dry and bright sometime, I'll take it off again for a proper clean and get it dry (which I couldn't completely at the time). There are bits of rust under it too, so will rub that down and apply rust protector.

Anyone know how much a new seal would be (a LOT easier than recuing my old one!)?

One final problem - the plastic like trim pieces on each side of the boot which sweep down to the bottom (look like seals but aren't) ... how do you get them off? They have one torx screw holding them in at the side each, but have a bunch of little plastic things holding them down vertically. Do you just pull up? Staple remover do the trick? Look a little fragile so don't want to destroy to find out! Love to know if these are cheap to replace too since they're a bit perished with cracks at the bottom and a previous owner snapped off a couple of inches at the top on one side (invisible when boot closed).

 

[Major774]

One final problem - the plastic like trim pieces on each side of the boot which sweep down to the bottom (look like seals but aren't) ... how do you get them off? They have one torx screw holding them in at the side each, but have a bunch of little plastic things holding them down vertically. Do you just pull up? Staple remover do the trick? Look a little fragile so don't want to destroy to find out! Love to know if these are cheap to replace too since they're a bit perished with cracks at the bottom and a previous owner snapped off a couple of inches at the top on one side (invisible when boot closed).

http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/parts-maintenance-servicing/220217-part-number-request.html

To remove the plastic rivets. First make sure you have access to the sides of the boot, just loosen the boot trim so that you can fit your arm in. Have one hand (inside) behind the plastic rivet and the other hand (outside) to push the centre core of the rivet. The core of the rivet should fall out into your hand (inside).

Once all the cores of the plastic rivets are out then you should be able to pull of the plastic trim for cleaning.

 

[AMGeed]

^ Those plastic rivets are £1 80 each from MB. Ask me how I know

 

[AMGeed]

One final problem - the plastic like trim pieces on each side of the boot which sweep down to the bottom (look like seals but aren't) ... how do you get them off? They have one torx screw holding them in at the side each, but have a bunch of little plastic things holding them down vertically. Do you just pull up? Staple remover do the trick? Look a little fragile so don't want to destroy to find out! Love to know if these are cheap to replace too since they're a bit perished with cracks at the bottom and a previous owner snapped off a couple of inches at the top on one side (invisible when boot closed).

I replaced that plastic trim on my E55 very recently. The parts are probably very similar on the CLS55 and cost £8 00 each + VAT.
Mine were perished as well so thought it best to change them. You'll be surprised how much crap collects under those trims coming off the rear screen.

 

[AlanD]

Thanks AMGeed, for £37, it's worth replacing outright me thinks! Just need to get the part numbers for mine. Will try and find out how much the boot seal is too ...

 

[Will]

Returning back to the original issue for a moment - have you refitted the battery yet and have you been able to close your boot lid yet?

 

[AlanD]

Boot lid .. it's a strange one. With no battery in, I could close it if I had two hands in just the right place and closed firmly. Anywhere else, even quite hard, it would just bounce off the latch. So it does close. Sort of.

As I mentioned, once the battery was out and in the kitchen to charge, it wouldn't take the first charge. It did take the next one then, and then a full recondition, and then a few days later a simple top up charge (all green light at the end). Put it back in on Saturday and it worked fine (apart from the alarm going off initially and everything reverting to German on COMAND!). Did a 230 mile drive and it still looks ok today (not moved since Saturday evening.

I'll see at the weekend if it's dead again I guess ..

 

[Major774]

If it's dead on the weekend then it will be either a electrical drain or a dead battery.

 

[AlanD]

Or both!

Test @ PCS showed 1A drain with COMAND out, then 50mA drain once back fitted again. If the car is behaving in sleep mode, then 50mA shouldn't drain it anytime soon ..