While driving my 2006 Crossfire limited convertible yesterday, everything appeared fine for about half an hour. Then, out of the blue, the spoiler raised up. When I tried to restore it to the stowed position it kept redeploying. Then when I stopped at a stop sign, upon accelerating it would not shift out of first gear. Then the a/c quit and the windows would not open. I quickly turned into a convenient parking pace and just as I did the motor quit. Turning the ignition key produces a clicking sound, but no results. Anyone experience this kind of total failure before? Any ideas where I begin my search for the problem? I has it delivered by flatbed back to my residence where it now sits. Thanks!

 

My guess would be a bad battery or battery connections. Could the cable have come loose? Is it corroded?

 

Brand new battery installed last month, connections all good.

 

I would take it back and have them test the NEW battery and check the connections on both ends. New batteries have been known to be bad, and installers make mistakes. Your symptoms point to your battery, connection or alternator. It wouldn't hurt to scan for codes. Please share the solution.

 

How would that cause the transmission to remain stuck in first gear?

 

No power to the BCM, TCM possibly? What caused you to replace the battery in the first place?

 

When they installed the battery they may have screwed up. Crossfires/Mercedes are very temperamental when it comes to voltage spikes.
When removing the battery, the negative cable should always be disconnected first. When installing the battery, the positive cable should be connected first.
You can try disconnecting the negative cable on the battery for a half hour and let the electronics go to sleep. Then reconnect it and start it. If the spoiler deploys again and won't go down, your new battery may have a dead cell in it.
Then as ZERACER said, take it back and have it load tested.

 

WHY a new battery? What issue were you chasing? If the battery had gone dead, it is very likely the issue was the alternator not charging properly (or charging all the time).

Sounds like the alternator has failed. The exact same thing happened to me two weeks ago with my Ranger. $149 tow home, $169 for an alternator and $9 for the right 13mm socket and I was good to go.

OH, and my "Battery light" never came on - the battery light is operated by the alternator, sometimes it comes on when the alternator fails, other times it does not.

 

The electrical system is required for the transmission to shift. The TCM is an electronic control module with a microprocessor in it, it operates the transmission to a large degree.

 

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Don't forget, a loose belt can cause the alternator to slip, check the belt tensioner before buying a new alternator.


.

 

Okay, removed the battery which was now dead and let it charge all day. Checked good, replaced in vehicle and when I connected it (positive first, ground last) the ground connection sparked a lot while attaching - in my mind indicating a short somewhere. Tried starting and it started just fine, but immediately started to smell like something electrical burning. Shut down and disconnected battery. Battery still tests good. Any ideas where I go from here?

As to queries as to why I replaced the battery, it was 7 years old and it was having problems holding a charge. Car was running fine when battery replaced.

 

Maybe the first thing is to check how much current is being drawn while he car is off. Disconnect the negative terminal, put a DMM between the battery negative terminal and the battery negative cable. You should get around 0.3 amps initially, but after a few minutes (~10min) everything show go to sleep and the current should be below 0.05Amps, probably closer to 0.03amps. If it stays high, or is much more than 0.3amps, you have a short. First place to look is the alarm - most people remove it and throw it away. (If you don't know how to use a digital multimeter, youtube has plenty of videos on how to use the DMM to measure current. Harbor freight sells cheap DMM's for around $10.)
-Jerry

 

 

Tried the Amp test, draw pegged the meter (old style analog) so something is definitely shorted. Battery still tests good, so I've disconnected it again. As to the alarm, I had it disabled about a year ago when I met with a group of Crossfire owners in Pasco County. Was having battery drain problems at that time, but had no problems once the alarm was disabled. Car had been driving fine up until this event. My guess is I will have to trace all the circuits to find the culprit. Any advice on where to look, or do I connect the battery and start pulling fuses until I recognize a drop in draw; or, would it be easier to pull all the fuses and check the draw as I add each one back in? Since no fuse has blown, would this method even work? I am aware that chasing a short is a challenge, so I'm trying to figure out the best and most efficient method - other than taking it to a shop that specializes in Mercedes vehicles nearby.

 

Did you watch the video I posted?

 

Update: watched the video and sprung for a digital volt/ohm/amp meter. Measured the voltage this morning, shows 12.7 volts on the battery which is still disconnected. Selected the 10 amp range on the meter and got no indication when measuring between battery ground terminal and disconnected ground cable. Selected 600m range and got a reading of 24.6 milliamps. If I try to connect the ground cable to the battery it sparks as if trying to weld itself together, so I haven't tried to test the individual circuits yet. Still trying to figure out how to proceed without welding the terminal to the cable.

 

Do you have any accessories plugged into the cigar lighter? Like one of those multiple USB outlets? Have any of your fuses blown?
Also, you might want to test the alternator as pizzaguy suggested.
You've said that you haven't reconnected the negative cable yet. That means all of your systems should be asleep. You could also try disconnecting the positive cable and see how many ohms your getting between those cables. Make sure all switches are off and the windows, doors & trunk are shut. Remove anything connected to the cigar lighter, etc...
If you measure close to zero you definitely have a short. Then you can try pulling fuses and see if the reading changes.
Remember to reconnect the positive first.

 

Update: Don't have anything plugged into the cigarette lighter port, no accessories, nothing turned on. Seems 24.6 millamperes is within normal range so not sure why the big arc when trying to connect the negative terminal/cable. Will be a day or two before I can get back to playing with the vehicles, will post whatever I encounter at that time. Thanks for all the support!

 

Just tried to run an alternator test but it immediately smelled like something burning and smoke started pouring out of the alternator, so I shut it down. So, obviously I have a bad alternator. Now trying to remove it, I got the bolts out, but it will not pass around the mount wings that the bolts go into, no matter how I turn it it doesn't seem to have enough room to come out of the hole its in without removing something else. Anyone else run into this problem?

 

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