My grandfather always said that if the starter, alternator or battery failed it was best to just replace all three as the other two were ready to die. For me on MBs that seems to be good advice. Every time I've replaced an alternator without replacing the battery the car has eaten alternators until I did.
Bob, you've gotten that which for me is the common failure mode on alternators which is to say total and utter failure. My 190D did it immediately upon leaving work, at night, in a snow storm. I just barely made it home... Replacing the alternator is the only answer. Sorry to say on a 240D its a pain in the ass lying on your back fighting bolts that are awkward. They definitely learned a lesson which they applied on the 190D. As Fred can attest I can do an alternator replacement on a 190D in about 10 minutes on the side of the road... -Curt Date: Thu, 5 Sep 2013 13:27:51 -0400 From: "Scott Ritchey" <ritche...@nc.rr.com> To: "'Mercedes Discussion List'" <mercedes@okiebenz.com> Subject: Re: [MBZ] My Wretched 240D Message-ID: <BEBDEFF3E5194A2CA20EA5926C5C0056@ScottPC> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" I had a 79 TD with electrical problems until I fixed them. I initially (it turned out) the alternator had a bad diode in the rectifier assembly that was sucking about 2 amps from the batt. After two tries replacing just the rectifier assembly with one bought locally (supposed to be the right one but both failed in short order) I got a Bosch reman from Rusty and it was 100% until the day I sold the car. Things may have changed so I'd discuss brands with Hursty if you need to order one. The second problem is that I nicked the pulley moving it from the old alternator to the new one. That little nick ate the belt in short order to the point it slipped to the point the alternator wasn't charging. So check your belt. Also at one point, the voltage regulator failed in a way that overcharged the battery. The symptom was the charge idiot light got brighter when I revved the engine. The replacement regulator was not expensive and I can install one without even jacking the car (without removing the alternator). In your case it's pretty obvious that the battery died so either it's not charging (alternator) or you have a huge load (like glow plugs) draining the battery. In either case it should be simple to diagnose with a meter, even a real cheapie meter will suffice. -----Original Message----- On 9/5/13 9:35 AM, Bob Rentfro wrote: > Pulling into the parking lot this morning I realized I could not see > because my headlights were almost out. Dash lights were out too. I'm not > even going to look at it until later This may be the last straw for this > car. I have battled this pig electrically from the day I bought it. New > cabling, new voltage regulator, several new starters. I am so over this. > Any suggestions? I may have to 86 this thing. This is the first one I have > ever had that has not been dependable in 35 years of driving MBs. > > Bob R _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
