Annual Battery Certification No Charge- Mercedes Nanuet, NY

Brakes shutter sometimes ? Happens to me too. Similar to the ABS self check that happens every first time you brake after starting the car. But this is different it can happen at any time especially when braking abruptly. And it is not ABS pulsing it is way more severe. Feels like you've been rear ended. Let's start a topic a share what you find out!

I was pleasantly surprised today! Took my '14 B Class in for its annual battery certification and went prepared with a copy of the battery warranty addendum and copy of Bill's invoice from M-B of Nanuet.
The service advisor's first response to me question, "This is covered under the warranty isn't it?" was "I don't think so". Then I presented Bill's documentation and the advisor scurried into the manager's office and came out stating "It's covered".

I still got hit for $258 for a brake fluid flush and the cabin air filter change. But, that was certainly better than the $500 I had been quoted.

So, congrats to this forum!
Paul R.

Paul,

Great. The forum is here to help each other. Perfect.

I wonder if anyone is in the same boat as i am.... I purchased my 2014 B E-Cell just 3 months ago from an independent used car dealer in Seattle. They acquired the car via online auction as a lease return to the Portland Oregon dealer. My question, belated, concerns warranty status: do I have the remainder of the car's 4 year warranty and the battery's 8 year warranty or not? A call and a visit to the local Seattle MB dealer was not terribly reassuring as they knew nothing but that the car had been in for software updates this last January. A call to the portland dealer was a little more informative but rather disconcerting in that they could not tell me or saw no indication that the battery had been certified at all in it 2years on the street. A call to MBUSA was even less reassuring as they tried to tell me there was no 8yr warranty and all I had was the car's 4yr warranty. They didn't even have the warranty booklet insert I was reading to them about the 8yr warranty. So I'm left with several questions....

1. if the car has never been in for battery cert is my warranty now void? Or can it be "re-instated" with an A service as my local dealer claims.
2. How could a leased car never have been in for either A service or battery cert? I was told that the car was actually leased by MB Finance! I think that meant MB Finance was using the car as a company car.
3. What is included in the B E-Cell A Service? I am assuming it is different than a gas car A Service despite the local MB dealer not knowing

Dave,

There are posts on each of your questions so please do a search. However, on the MBF question, MBF is the leasing company, someone like us was the leasee. If the leasee did not bring the car in for service, that is not MB problem. It is now yours to deal with for better or worse. MBUSA should have a record of any battery check as they would want to know too.

Welcome. Enjoy the ride.

None of this is that serious. You can reset the Service A yourself and insist that it was done on time by an independent dealer (that is your right) The service A is basic : fluid checks, tire rotation, etc. It's an electric car -- all service is basic, less service than a gas car. The battery certification (free) is changing two desiccant bags in the battery container under the car -- it is a yearly thing , it helps the battery longevity. the bags are like sweat socks filled with gravel and they cost over $100 for the pair. The parts and labor are supposed to be free every year, it is documented in the manual and addendum (2014 model) and can be confirmed by calling Mercedes CAC (Customer Assistance Center) in New Jersey. 1-800-FOR-MERCEDES (1-800-367-6372)

PRESS 4 Customer Care, then 5 for Mercedes Customer Care.

Research resetting Service A here: (At bottom)

As for transferable warranty, I think it is the law that the warranty transfers with the car not the owner. Check with Mercedes CAC. If I were you I would be more worried about motor (DU= Drive Unit) or Gateway failure than traction battery failure. DU failure is what has been the issue with the Toyota RAV 4 EV. Good luck.

Mercedes Service Indicator Reset


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bLjAhIamyc

Turn key on to READY, then back to position 1

Go to odometer screen, reset trip odometer

Make sure you press and hold the answer call button first -- and within 1 second, hold the OK button.

Secret Menu Assyst Plus Click OK
Full Service Click OK
Confirm Service Click OK
CONFIRM

Thanks for the responses... I did search warranty threads but so far haven't found situations where there is no record of annual certification having be done by previous owner/leasee. I will search more about lease returns and warranty xfers. If I understood the salesman correctly it was MBF that was the leasee and using the vehicle. Possible I misunderstood though.

I understand the procedure for resetting the service A. But I don't feel right insisting that annual cert has been done when I don't that and neither MBUSA or the MB dealers (seattle and portland) have no record of it ever being serviced. The dash has always said 365 days till next service. Like it's not counting down at all..... The warranty states pretty explicitly that the warranty is void if annual service hasn't been done.

I did talk to CAC in NJ spending a long time on hold while he looked for the warranty that talked about the battery, he came back insisting they wasn't one! I think I need to make another call and talk to someone else.

MB Seattle is going to charge me $250 for the A service. I don't mind paying that especially if it means i will have what's left of the car/battery 4/8 year warranties. But I will also show them the warranty booklet that says there is no charge to the owner for battery cert.

And yes I will and have been enjoying the ride. it's a great car! Much nicer than my conversions ;^)

I wanted to follow up again on a happy ending to this.

I tool my B into Fletcher Jones in Newport Beach, CA for it's annual service. The guy wanted to sell me on the $249 annual service for the B-Class. I told him it was under warranty, he brought up the warranty book and said that it's "not clear in there." He also stated that they have b classes come through here all the time and they all pay $249.

I emailed William for his documents and he replied ASAP (Thank you!) - I forwarded those as well as calling the customer service center that called the dealer and got it all figured out and COVERED FOR FREE.

Nice work forum! Saved me $249 today!

So I went to MB Laguna Niguel (Orange County, CA) this morning for the battery cert, no Service A.

The guy was reasonable enough and understood the difference between Service A + the battery cert, so that was good, but he insisted that there would be a charge for the desiccant cartridges (parts, not labor). I argued for about a minute, and then just told him, "OK, no thanks, I'll go elsewhere."

I looked at the Maintenance booklet, and mine says in a couple places that consumable things like fluids, wiper blades, etc. will be charged. It also lists the desiccant cartridges under "Additional Maintenance Work", for which there is a footnote stating that this is a separate invoice from Service (ostensibly prepaid-service doesn't cover these items).

So while I'd love to not pay for the desiccant cartridges, I'm also wondering why exactly we are expecting this consumable item to be free of charge to us? Nothing else is. My read of the warranty card suggests that the Annual Certification (free) is a different thing than the desiccant cartridge work; and that the recent stories that the customer support is telling people that there's a charge for parts makes sense. I kinda feel like a jerk for insisting that parts are free. Is there something magical in William's documents that clarifies this?

Also, curiously, the "activated charcoal dust filter" is a Service B item, not Service A on my 2016. The 2015 manual calls it a "combination filter" and has it at both A+B. So be aware of paying for that on a '16 if you don't need it.

I have a 2014 and I think that wording is a little different from the 2015 and 2016 warranty. The person to ask is Michael Schweizer, who now works for Chargepoint. He was involved at the time as Mercedes-Benz USA
Program Manager, E-Mobility

Over the past week I have had to make three calls to MB customer care. Finally today they agreed and told the dealership that the annual certification service for your lithium-ion battery(including the desiccant filter annual replacement) must be performed by an authorized Mercedes-Benz Center; and it will be completed at no cost to the vehicle owner. I called my dealership Fletcher Jones of Fremont to confirm this. I was told that yes, it is now covered and he just received a notice dated September 8th about this. Up until this time he said it was not covered. I guess they don't read this forum.
Thanks to everyone that has contributed to this discussion, it is saving plenty of people lots of money.

Can someone provide me information on how get the Battery Warranty Addendum sheet for 2014 models?
Thanks,
Robert

diggerdave said:

Thanks for the responses... I did search warranty threads but so far haven't found situations where there is no record of annual certification having be done by previous owner/leasee. I will search more about lease returns and warranty xfers. If I understood the salesman correctly it was MBF that was the leasee and using the vehicle. Possible I misunderstood though.

I understand the procedure for resetting the service A. But I don't feel right insisting that annual cert has been done when I don't that and neither MBUSA or the MB dealers (seattle and portland) have no record of it ever being serviced. The dash has always said 365 days till next service. Like it's not counting down at all..... The warranty states pretty explicitly that the warranty is void if annual service hasn't been done.

I did talk to CAC in NJ spending a long time on hold while he looked for the warranty that talked about the battery, he came back insisting they wasn't one! I think I need to make another call and talk to someone else.

MB Seattle is going to charge me $250 for the A service. I don't mind paying that especially if it means i will have what's left of the car/battery 4/8 year warranties. But I will also show them the warranty booklet that says there is no charge to the owner for battery cert.

And yes I will and have been enjoying the ride. it's a great car! Much nicer than my conversions ;^)

Click to expand...

Hi. Has anyone had similar issue regarding the 8-year battery warranty?

I just purchased my 2015 B and it’s in perfect condition and my mechanic told me that it seems that all services have been done by the previous owner including the desiccant cartridges for annual certification. However when I went to my local Mercedes dealer the rep said that according to the notes it was only brought in in 2018 for a manufacturer recall and there are no notes for annual battery certification or any service A or B for this car. Not even during the 4-year warranty period.

I’m thinking that the previous owner was either a mechanic himself or closely related to one that did all the required service for it for free.

Is it right to do the desiccant cartridge replacement at a non-Mercedes dealer? Can I insist that all annual service was done and keep battery 8-year warranty active?

Alternatively, if the battery warranty is void because certification was done by non-Mercedes dealer is there any possible way to re-instate the battery warranty?

The car is in impeccable condition, has only 35,000 miles on it and it would be a real shame for such a like-new car to be warrantyless only because the required service was done at non-Mercedes dealer. Thanks.

Calhroub,

Very sorry to hear about your plight. It is important to check w a MB dealer about prior work on these cars and to request confirmation that the annual battery tests have been done. Not sure how your mechanic is able to say it was done. Is it registered in the car's computer? If so, it would not be beyond comprehension that the MB dealer did not know how to enter battery data into the system. Then you can submit the car's data to contest the lack of data in MB computers. Is there a way to track down the prior owner and ask them if they have the paperwork for the maintenance? All I know is I tend to keep everything and only periodically weed out my paper files.

As to the battery warranty the argument you have is to have the MB dealer do the battery test right now and if it is in excellent condition, write MB central to say the battery currently tests well so the lack of annual tests is of no consequence. MB is customer oriented and if the Tesla battery is in great shape, they would not be taking any extra risk by honoring the battery warranty. Don't know that anyone has tried this but give it a go and let us know if you get lucky.

Good luck.

The charge is year dependent. Indeed a 2014 is free. I was told but not verified that my old 2017 B was chargeable.

I just had my first battery inspection. My battery was at about 85% after the 12-mile drive to the Bellevue, Wa dealer. Here are the measurements from the battery inspection:

Battery voltage 326.25v
Isolation resistance 2380.00k OHMS
Battery charge level 85%
Max energy content 27.8KWH

They didn't tell me if this was good or bad. I have no idea what the battery was registering when it was new.
There was no charge for the visit.

How do these numbers compare to yours?

Arthur,

Well if Max Charge is 27.8, the battery when new was 28.0 kWh. So the degradation is approximately 0.7%. I forget, how long have you been driving yours? This seems pretty good to me unless you have had it for less than a year.

I picked up my 2015 in April of this year. It now has 17k miles. I thought those were good numbers. Thanks for the confirmation as I could not find any posts here of test results. This forum is great!

Arthur

Hi Arthur,
I have a 2016 registered B250e with 10k miles. For the last two annual services the report states a battery capacity of 28.2kwh. I've had the car from new (it was preregistered) and has always reported 120 miles range on normal full charge (E mode) and 137 miles with the additional extended charge (You need to reset the mileage trips to get the default mpkwh to see these numbers).
I do wonder as the real capacity is circa 35kwh whether it will continue to report 28.2kwh until the actual capacity drops below this.
Hywel (Wales, UK)

I called Nanuet for B service and annual battery check. Got sticker shock instead. Went to Benzel-Busch in Englewood instead.