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560SEC battery tray

On my trip to Victoria last last year, the alternator on my 560SEC packed in. I was able to limp the car home by swapping batteries with a friend in another W126. I also purchased another battery on the road. When I arrived back in Sydney, it was this new battery that was still in the car. I was just going to leave that one there, until I noticed a slight creaking from the bonnet hinge. The bonnet was also a few mm too high.

Turns out the new battery I bought along the way was slightly too big. It […]

March 11th, 2024 | Tags: , , | Category: Mercedes | Leave a comment

Preparing my 300TE for a family road trip

In January, I’m taking my family to Tasmania on holiday. Instead of renting a car down there, I’m driving down and taking the Spirit of Tasmania. I’ll collect my family from Launceston Airport as they will fly down. Due to the cost of the Spirit of Tasmania, its actually cheaper to do it this way. It works out well, as they are not interested in the long drive down.

I’m taking my 1990 Mercedes 300TE on this drive. Now I could have taken my wife’s modern car – a Mercedes E350 Wagon. However, I far prefer driving the 300TE. The […]

December 23rd, 2023 | Tags: , , , , , | Category: Mercedes | 3 comments

W111 Battery

I had recently noticed that the battery on the 250SE was not in good health. The battery disconnect switch I built a few years ago has a battery health indicator included. Even when connected to the trickle charger it was showing orange. I also noticed that the trickle charger would sometimes go into error mode. My battery tester showed that it was well below where it should be. I had only replaced the W111 battery in the 250SE about four years ago, which is a pretty short life.

I was never happy with the battery I put in the car […]

March 10th, 2021 | Tags: , | Category: Mercedes | 2 comments

450SLC Battery tray

I had not driven my 450SLC since early march due to the COVID19 lockdown. When I first started the car the battery seemed quite weak. After a drive, I put the car on my Ctek charger. The charger showed an error where the battery will would not hold a charge. This was confirmed by my Solar battery tester. The recondition mode helped a bit, but ultimately the battery is almost 8 years old.

I probably would have tried a bit harder with the reconditioning if it wasn’t for a 30% off sale on DIN batteries at Supercheap auto. It seemed […]

May 18th, 2020 | Tags: , , | Category: Mercedes | Leave a comment

Citroen DS Battery

I’ve known the battery was going out on my Citroen DS for a while. I had to start it on the jump pack after only a few weeks of inactivity, and my Ctek charger started to indicate it could not hold a charge. The existing Citroen DS battery had served me well for about 6 years. I like to get the biggest battery I can possibly fit in the space allocated. They last longer, and work better especially on a car like the DS which can be a slow starter with its mechanical fuel pump. The current battery didn’t take […]

May 1st, 2020 | Tags: , | Category: Citroen | Leave a comment

CTEK MXS 5.0 battery recondition mode

My E-Type has a habit of eating batteries. I seem to get about 2-3 years out of them before they struggle to start the car when cold. You might be thinking that these batteries are left discharged all the time – but not so! The E-Type is connected to a trickle charger when not in use and is parked indoors in a moderate climate.

I think there are a few reasons for this. Firstly, the battery is quite small, and like many things on the E-Type is under specified for the car. The series 1 radiator fan is the classic […]

June 30th, 2019 | Tags: , , , , | Category: Garage, Jaguar | One comment

W111 battery mounting frame

When I last replaced the battery in my W111, I was unable to fit the correct sized battery. In the end I fitted one smaller than I would have liked, but it was the only one that fit into the mounting frame I had. I knew the mounting frame was not original to the car as the previous owner purchased it on eBay. When he purchased the car, the battery was held down with ocky straps. At the recent German car day, one of the other members suggested my mounting frame might be from a W113 SL, rather than the […]

January 6th, 2018 | Tags: , , | Category: Mercedes | 2 comments