Stop / Start inactive on A180d Sport, possible battery issue?

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Tanfies2

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Nov 28, 2018
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me15
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A Class 180d Sport
Hi guy's, first post, apologies if this doesn't go here, so please feel free to move it to the correct board.

Just bought an A180d Sport on a 16 plate, private car dealer, who bought it at auction from Mercedes, used to be a pull/test car, had only done 939 miles.

Car is absolutely clean, not a mark on it, looks, smells brand new, for something that is 2 years old.

Anyway, picked it up, drove it all the way back to Kent, 257 miles, and the stop/start eco mode didn't kick in once (Odd I thought) On the dash display, there is a yellow A with a strike through it, normally it's an A in a green square.

I've owned one of these for 3 years previous, as a company car, and the stop/start eco mode normally kicks in within 5-10 mins of the car warming up.

It went into Mercedes today, as it had a couple of re-calls to do, and software updates under warranty, so I brought up the stop/start.

Guy was quick to dismiss it, and said that it's most likely not kicking in, because the battery is not operating on full charge, and if the car had been sitting around, due to the 939 miles, it wouldn't be covered under Mercedes warranty??

I called my private dealer, who I also have a 3 month warranty with, who is adamant he's never heard Mercedes say that before (he's sells quite a few).

Who knows where I sit with this, and is it a battery issue?

Thanks in advance.
 
If it has been serviced according to the schedule, and it’s clearly within the maximum mileage limit(!), and unless anyone knows different, MB don’t stipulate a minimum mileage, then surely it has to be covered by the 3 year MB warranty. Besides, dealers aren’t the arbiter on warranty claims, MB are.

Insist they contact MB about it, or try another dealer.
 
Unusual for me but I’m with the dealer on this.
If you can charge the battery, give it a go, otherwise give it a week or two and see what happens.

Enjoy the new car! :thumb::thumb:
 
Thanks Ted, had one as a company car for 3 years, and couldn't fault it, so went and bought one, as we've come away from a company car policy.

Like I say, car looks/feels brand new for a 16 plate, still has that new leather smell etc, but, has only done 939 miles from new, well, 1,200 once I drove it home.

It's been up to Mercedes today, they've done the couple of outstanding re-calls, plus the software updates, and given it their 42 point spot check or something, and the car is in very good health.

The guy at Mercedes was fine at first, but started getting all funny when I mentioned the car had done low miles, and said they wouldn't cover the battery under warranty, as it's most likely because the car has been sitting around, and caused a defunct battery. Eco stop/start won't work unless the battery holds a certain level of charge (apparently).

Told him I'd just done a 257 mile trip back to Kent, so, surely that'd re-charged the battery, but he weren't having none of it.

Anyway, spoke to the private dealer who sells a lot of Mercs, and said to me he's never heard that before?!

Is it best for me to drive it around for a couple more weeks and see what happens? I'll be using it daily for work, so, if it's still not working after that, I know the battery is faulty.

I've still 3 months warranty with the private dealer, and a Mercedes manufacturer warranty until the end of next July.
 
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Let it charge up fully over a week or so. It's all quite sensitive. When we put the latest cars on the stable power-supplies we use when updating maps or firmware it often confuses the system and stop-start doesn't work for quite a few miles.

There is no minimum mileage on the warranty, take it somewhere else !

Cheers
Richard
 
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Let it charge up fully over a week or so. It's all quite sensitive. When we put the latest cars on the stable power-supplies we use when updating maps or firmware it often confuses the system and stop-start doesn't work for quite a few miles.

There is no minimum mileage on the warranty, take it somewhere else !

Cheers
Richard

Thanks Richard..
 
Another quick question, going to be cheeky here, is it unlikely the car hasn't had it's first service yet, and is it advisable due to the age?
 
I had this problem when my B Class was new. Often the green light wouldn't come on for the first 20 - 30 miles. After been fobbed off by the dealer saying "they all do that sir", I found connecting my Ctek charger to the main battery overnight for a few nights cured it.
 
I agree with the above. My Glc was parked for over a month. Driving it for several hundred miles did not help the stop/start system become reliable. It was only when I fully charged the 2 year old battery with a Ctek that it all started working as it should. I have noticed though that stop/start rarely works if the ambient temperature is below 10* C.
 
I see you have 2 threads running.

See my comments on other one; as car hasn't been serviced MB's warranty would have been invalidated in approx Aug/Sept 2017 as a condition of the wzrranty is 'serviced in accordance with etc etc'.

Stop-start almost certainly due to battery, which might be poor due to lack of use. However, numerous factors affect stop-start, including aircon etc. . The fact that it doesn't work is probably a bonus in disguise as it cuts down on the wear/tear on the starter and either the cam chain or belt, depending which engine you have (chains/belts are but under slightly more 'pressure' when starting than just ticking over. No doubt others will now disagree :))
 
When I phoned to check originally, they said to me over the phone, that they could see the car was still under manufacturers warranty, they didn't say anything about it being invalid due to the non-servicing? I also took it in to have 3-4 re-calls done, plus, they did a software update, FOC, as it was well out of date. When I went in, I questioned the stop/start, and the guy even said to me, they won't cover the battery under the warranty, due to the low mileage, as it'd been sitting around, and that was most likely the issue. Again, he never said anything about the warranty being invalid. Sorry, I'm not telling you that's not the case, just passing on what I've been told.

Anyway, as advised, I'm going to drive it around for a couple of weeks to see if it resolves anything, failing that, the private dealer has agreed to replace the battery under their warranty.
 
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Hi all, bit of an update on the stop/start issue. Drove it around for a week, and, it started to work, only for day, then not the next, then the day after it came on when I used the car for the second time, but, stopped working all together after that.

Booked it in at Mercedes for its A & B service, and they investigated the issue under the cars warranty, and the technician said on his video report, that it was a low battery or something, and advised taking it on longer journeys, or, giving it a charge.

Personally, I'd have thought the battery got a good charge on the way back from Manchester when picking it up, it was 300 odd miles, plus, I've been using it for work every day, even went from Kent to Eastbourne to Brighton in one trip.

As it's been coming on and off, surely the battery isn't holding a charge, or, how do I even charge it?
 
I think that what the dealer was trying to say about the warranty is not that there's an issue with the low mileage per-se, but that the battery on a car that has been sitting with the battery fully discharged for a long period of time might suffer permanent damaged.

Ultimately, batteries are consumable service parts, and if not used in the way they are meant to (i.e. kept fully charged for the majority of time), their service life can be shortened considerably.

Hopefully your battery will revive itself after a few more long drives, or using a Ctek trickle charger.

In the mean time you can take advantage of thia free offer:

Free Battery Testing - Helping You Avoid Battery Failure
 
...Booked it in at Mercedes for its A & B service...

Surely it's one or the other?

If your 2016 missed it's Service A in 2017, it will now be due a Service B plus pollen filter and brake fluid change.
 
Remember too that the stop/start system is designed to not work during cold weather. This is to avoid putting undue strain on the battery. As Markjay said above, use a Ctek 5.0 battery charger to bring the battery back to full capacity. I don’t think the car’s alternator will bring the battery capacity back above 80% or so on its own.



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Quote Remember too that the stop/start system is designed to not work during cold weather. This is to avoid putting undue strain on the battery. As Markjay said above, use a Ctek 5.0 battery charger to bring the battery back to full capacity. I don’t think the car’s alternator will bring the battery capacity back above 80% or so on its own. quote

This is the problem, stop/start is intermittent, if you need instant acceleration to get into moving traffic from a junction the last thing you need is intermittent hesitation from stop/start, this can be dangerous, do you go or stay.
As said, the cars ECU will not allow the alternator to charge the battery beyond 80%, this is to leave room for rapid charging from any type of overrun or brake recovery system and is controlled by the ECU, this means your battery is often near to flat.

There are marginal fuel economy gains with stop/start for the owner, on the other hand an expensive AGM battery is required with stop/start which was unnecessary prior to this device and your car will go through many hundreds of thousands more starts than a car without stop/start.

If you want to deactivate this device perminantly and have a fully charged battery at all times simply disconnect the negative rail battery sensor, the car runs as normal with NO warning lights, the ECU puts the alternator into default standard charging mode between 13.8 volts and 14.2 volts, you will loose brake hold, other than that the cars runs exactly the same as Merc`s prior to Stop/start, if you don`t like the hack just reconnect the sensor.
 

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