W210 E240 Wont start

[ICY75]

I went to start my car yesterday and all I got was a single click, I presumed it was a dead battery (battery is about 3 months old) car is not used, when I took the battery off the earth terminal was wet and rusty, in fact the nut has rotted away the terminal pulls on and off the pole with slight force, I dried the pole charged the battery overnight, I put the battery on this morning and I still just get a click, I know the battery is fully charged and is healthy, if the battery was faulty my charger would tell me.

Where is the moisture coming from on the negative terminal nothing else is wet?

 

[ICY75]

Wow 160+ views but none could answer I desperately need to move the car but I cant start it

Would simply replacing the earth strap fix this or is there something more sinister, what's causing it in the first place, I don't want to go putting a new earth strap on and it happen to that too.

 

[brucemillar]

Have you put a meter across your battery terminals after you have charged it and before you connect it all back up to the car? You should see 12.X VDC not less.

You earth that you refer to? Is this the earth strap from the body work to the battery?

If yes? It needs to be absolutely clean where it contacts the bodywork. No rust and no paint. You need a good earth or you will not get a good push from your battery. Make sure that you have a good earth BEFORE you connect the battery back up.

Now with a a known 12.x VDC battery and a good earth give it a turn over.

If the battery drops below 8vdc when cranking you may well have a duff battery. Assuming that the car does start check that you have 13.8vds minimum at the battery.

Regards it getting wet? Check for bonnet seals leaking, drain holes blocked in windscreen scuttles (very common). Make sure you are not parked under broken gutter or other constant source of water.

If unsure get the AA or RAC out. They will test your battery on the spot.

 

[ICY75]

I don't have a meter, but I have changed the earth strap, I will post a picture later to show why, the old one was a mess, on the E240 the battery is under the rear seat and there is nothing else under there damp just the terminal.

The car now starts perfectly fine with the first turn of the key, however a new problem has manifested in that I have absolutely no power whether it be forward reverse 1 or 2, on tick-over it isn't steady and rapidly rises and falls, if I put my foot on the accelerator I get a miniscule response, I do have a 38 pin fault code reader which didn't pick up anything.
When I last moved the car about a week ago it was running very smooth it seems strange that suddenly after the battery incident the car has thrown its teddy out of the pram and stubornly refuses to move

 

[ICY75]

I have had BAS/ESP & SRS lights on for a while which I was going to get reset this week or see if there's any problems if it wont reset, but today since putting the battery back on I suddenly have anti skid warning flash up on dash as well as the ABS warning on screen (the car wasn't moving )

the car wont accelerate past 1k revs which made it interesting as I had already rolled off the drive ok in reverse before discovering this fault

 

[ICY75]

OK I have replaced the earth strap and the car starts fine, BUT, now I have no power at all, there is also now an extra warning on the dash Anti Skid, which was certainly not there before this issue, the accelerator does not respond in any way.

When the engine is running the battery is reading 14.2