My 2004 Mercedes Benz E320 aka The Benz

[87gtVIC]

Took care of the plate....

This is how it looked like on the car before removing it today:



This is how the new compares to the old:



All installed:



Looks like the plate frame was the only things holding things together!

[sly]

wow. I've never seen any plate delaminate like that. Then again, I'm in Texas and not New York.

[friskyfrankie]

What the hell are they making those plates out of? Is it the materials or manufacturing process? Never seen that before. That new plates does look sweet especially on a really clean car which David is a master of. Just gotta love a guy that has that much attention to detail!!

[DerekTheGreat]

Aluminum. Terrible choice, as contrary to popular belief, it corrodes.

Props to David for actually replacing his plate once it wore out. Nobody does that around here in the D- essentially gives 'em free lease to be assholes without retribution.

[87gtVIC]

Driving into work this morning and while on I80 running ~70mph I get the red screen with a battery behind it and visit workshop on instrument cluster. OH joy..Make it to work just fine. Checked voltages to both batteries..main and aux and they are ~13.5 while running and stood that way with a load on the system. Static voltages were seemingly normal too. Swung back home in the work van after doing our morning deliveries in Manhattan and picked up the voltage regulator I had purchased months back in preparation for this day, in addition to my tools.

After work I change out the voltage regulator and car now charges at 13.9/14.0 with load and all the way home. Get home turn off key and the damned message/malfunction pops back up again.

Load tested the main battery in the trunk and that tests good. The aux battery under the hood I cannot use my load tester on.

Money is on that one tripping the visit workshop message. Will see what comes of all this tomorrow.

If lights still appear the little aux battery will be replaced. Was replaced back in 2014 just before I purchased the vehicle...with a cheap ~40 unit. I really hope it is not the battery control module. Will return to this once the story unfolds.


Regardless the old VR was tired compared to the new replacement.

New and old:



And the crusty alternator:

[87gtVIC]

21 minutes into my drive to work this morning and the same light appeared.

After work today I went and replaced the auxiliary battery. It was last replaced in early 2014 before I purchased this car. To my surprise the case was a little swollen. Drove home today and no light turned on after the battery was replaced. I did slow charge it before installing as per AZ's request. It had a good static voltage of ~13v with a manufactures date of 1/22 even before the charge up.

Will find out for certain tomorrow if things are healed now.

Speaking of surprises...check out that price tag. Ouch.



The fallen soldier:

[Arquemann]

99 bucks for an AGM battery, not too bad. My diesel beemer has 105 amp hour 950cca AGM main battery, "more suited for cold climates"... Not particularly cheap to replace, but the OEM BMW battery which is 90AH/900cca is almost 500 euros, which is utter bullshit.

[87gtVIC]

This is a battery that fits in your hand. The top is the size of a cell phone! Seems crazy.

[Tiggie]

Any idea of what the little battery does?

[sly]

battery backup for all the system memories in the vehicle for all the modules in case the main battery dumps and during startup is what I would imagine.

And yes, battery prices are stupid.

[87gtVIC]

Any idea of what the little battery does?

What Jason said PLUS as a backup for the SBC system. Braking system that uses the DC system. If main battery was toast one could lose all brakes.

All good on way to work, work to AZ for core return and back home. Happy here.

[jaywish]

So brakes are not physically connected to to the pedal?

[87gtVIC]

I had to google it myself as all I ever here is "SBC" and that "the aux battery is a back up for it."

Sensotronic Brake Control (SBC) is an electro-hydraulic brake system, where the wheel brake cylinders on a vehicle are operated through a servomechanism.

In short. Yeah Jay. Not physically connected like our box bodies that is for sure.

[Arquemann]

Also the SBC system was regarded as pretty shit and failure prone and was dropped when the W211 Facelift came to be. '06 or '07 I think.

[jaywish]

It seems they threw shade on my Sl500. Which looks an awful lot like the red car in the video. ( Color aside.)