I am helping a friend out who has parked his car in a small garage for several months and been overseas. He is remaining overseas and is selling the car by SureSell. I have the keys and went this morning to start her up.
The battery is cmpletely flat. I tried jumping it from my Subuaru Outback. I attached the black cable from my negative terminal to the bodywork of the Merc. I attached the red cable from my positive terminal to a terminal on the Merc hiding under a red cover with a + sign on it. The dash lights flicker at regular intervals, but there is no sign of life.
The car is being collected on Tuesday by Suresell and they will bring a power pack with them, but is there any way of getting this working beforehand - I have little time to deal with it.
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Best thing for an absolutely dead flat as a pancake battery is an overnight trickle charge.
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But no power source nearby. Don't fancy removing it.
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Try a better earthing point, maybe on the engine itself, with a bit of luck you'll be able to then open the boot and get the battery out for a proper charge up.
Depending on how new the MB is, be wary of jumpstarting the beast, it's not unkown for the pesky SAM unit (whatever that may be used for, how did we manage before such things) to 'blow' during jumping ops.
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At the garage, we always used to jump from a fully charged, but disconnected, battery, to limit any damage.
Espada,
Unlikely, but have you any way of getting such a battery to the the stricken Merc?
Another point, cheap jump leads are simply not up to starting anything bigger than a petrol supermini.
Generally, the larger the cross-section of the cable, the better they are.
Are yours up to snuff?
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They are pretty strong and I have jumped larger cars (but petrol only).
The battery is not in the boot but under the bonnet, but at th rear covered (but easily uncovered).
I will try again when I have more time later!
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Would second the earthing suggestion. I'm assuming the jump leads are copper cored and with enough cross section for supplying the current required for jump starting a diesel.
Switching on the headlights of the donor car should dampen any voltage spikes and reduce the risk of damaging any of the ECUs in the Merc. Well, assuming they're not HID in which case it won't make any difference.
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go to mb forums via HJ link via 'car-by-car' and look up any merc and you will get link. i post there - when i got my first w203 merc over years ago, v helpful
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