If you have a dead battery, you’ll want to use a genuine Mercedes-Benz battery. Aftermarket batteries don’t have enough amperage and cause low voltage fault codes when the system is under peak loads. Low voltage confuses the control modules and causes a host of problems that just end up costing you far more then you could ever save with a aftermarket battery.

Aftermarket battery’s also aren’t vented correctly and that can be a major problem on some models. We’ve also seen scores of people damage their car’s electrical system when they tried to install a aftermarket battery. A voltage spike can damage your instrument cluster or a system control module. You may not notice a problem right away, but you have a good chance of seeing a dead battery if the car sets for more then a few days without running. Any of the modules can be damaged so that it doesn’t power down when you shut the car off. Better still, the damaged control modules can intermittently cause a drain in your electrical system that can very hard to find. Some of the tests take many hours to perform and require 6 electrical testers to be connected to your car in order to find the draw. New models have two batteries and are even harder to test.

We know the Owner’s Manual says you can jump start your car if you have a dead battery. This was a real mistake for Mercedes-Benz to tell people this. You’ll do yourself a favor by never jump starting your car or another car. We can’t count the number of people that have spent thousands of dollars fixing the damage caused by jumping the battery. If the car is stuck in a garage and the tow truck can’t get in to tow it, it will be cheaper to knock down the garage than to fix the damage to your electrical system.