W211 270 cdi not starting

[digisatman]

This afternoon at 2 I drove my car from home. It started ok. Soon after consumers electrical turned off message appeared on the cluster. Then the fan went into very slow speed, I could still feel some air coming from the ventilation. After driving for half an hour I stopped the car for shopping for about 20 minutes. When I came back the engine would not start. I could hear the clicking noise and I could put the windows up and down. I phoned the breakdown service and the man came and put the jump leads to the battery. It gave half the noise but wouldnt start. Then we called the recovery truck and they had to bring us home. He says that the car needs reset by MB people. Thats why wouldnt allow him to jumpstart because of the consumer electric message coming on every time the ignition was turned on. I thought if the battery was low it should have started with jumpstart and this is the weekend so I cant even take it to the garage before Monday. Can anybody suggest anything that I can try to start the car? Very depressed man on the sunniest day of the year!!!
Appreciate any comments, thanks!

 

[BlackC55]

I would say either the battery control module is faulty or there is a power lead/earth strap come off or corroded.

With a jump start it should turn over. It does not have to be re-set by "MB people"

get it on a Star first

 

[digisatman]

How much do you reckon this is going to set me back? The recovery people are not very experienced but the car is recovered back to the driveway and im going to take to the electrician on Monday - as you said it should turn over with jump start but the recovery person tried twice and it didnt work. Do you reckon I can try something different myself or recharge the battery and if so can I leave the leads on when recharging? Im grateful that you have made the effort to answer!

 

[sean3513]

where did the "recovery man" connect the negative lead ???

it needs to be attached to the car body/engine NOT the battery

hope that helps.........sorry cant think of anything else......as said needs to be code read.

good luck

atb

sean

 

[digisatman]

i think he attached to the battery

 

[The Pan Man]

where did the "recovery man" connect the negative lead ???

it needs to be attached to the car body/engine NOT the battery

hope that helps.........sorry cant think of anything else......as said needs to be code read.

good luck

MOBILO attached mine to battery. The trick was fit jump leads, LEAVE for 15 mins to let the ECU know that there is power available then turn the key. Bingo.

 

[Diesel Benz]

where did the "recovery man" connect the negative lead ???

it needs to be attached to the car body/engine NOT the battery

What would be the reason to do that? First of all, it is pretty difficult to find any other ground point on a W211 at the trunk that can take the high current. There is the battery ground cable ground point but what difference would it make to connect to the other end of the very short and thick cable?

I'm afraid there are a lot of myths about jump starting because the SAMs are often blown up from incorrect jump start attempts.

I guess the OP cannot do much if he cannot diagnose the wring himself, if the car did not start when the roadside assistance jumped the car, it should not help if the battery was charged with an external charger.

Anyway the key for jump starting is to have ignition off when cables are connected and also the source car switched off to minimise the currents at the point the cables are connected (last wire connected to the source, preferably ground, to avoid fumes from the dead battery exploding although unlikely to happen on sealed AGM batteries). Once the jump cables are connected, the source car can be started. Jump start cables should not be removed when one or the other car is running.

 

[sean3513]

if the main earth lead to the body is broken, and the jump leads are connected to the battery, NO connection wil be made.

attaching the negative cable directly to the body/engine would bypass any possible earth lead fault.

cheers

sean

 

[Diesel Benz]

if the main earth lead to the body is broken, and the jump leads are connected to the battery, NO connection wil be made.

attaching the negative cable directly to the body/engine would bypass any possible earth lead fault.

cheers

sean

Correct, but if the earth lead was broken and you jump start the car and then remove the jump start cables, what would you say happens with the car electronics?

If instead the car is jump started with cables connected to the battery poles, no harm would be done to the car (OK, it would not start either if the ground cable was broken).

Or perhaps your comment was towards the importance of checking the car wiring before attempting to jump start it?