Got a situation with my 2001 CL500

[cardigankid]

Car in garage. Some well meaning dope disconnected the trickle charger and shut the boot. Battery which is in the boot is dead. I have bought a new Varta battery which is fully charged.
When I went to put it in, my skeleton key (out of the Larger remote plastic key) wouldn't open the boot, no matter which way I turned it.

I can get into the car, and as a result I can get the bonnet open and into the engine compartment.

Any suggestions?

[London GT3]

I believe that the Mercedes has positive and negative terminals under the bonnet. Can you connect a jump box to these terminals, get the car started and use a remote boot release from within the car?

Best of luck.

[Monkeylegend]

Does yours have a separate starter battery? The aux battery is in the boot of my SL and the starter battery under the bonnet so I can still access the starter battery to charge. This will start the car and usually after a 20 min run or so this puts enough juice back into the aux battery to operate the soft close function on the boot.

That's assuming the aux battery will still take/hold a charge.

Maybe a squirt of WD40 into the boot lock might help?

Edited by Monkeylegend on Saturday 28th October 12:31

[DKL]

London GT3 said:

I believe that the Mercedes has positive and negative terminals under the bonnet. Can you connect a jump box to these terminals, get the car started and use a remote boot release from within the car?

Best of luck.

This. My 04 e class has a small brass (coloured) -ve terminal, although any body part will do and the positive one is under a black cover with a big + on it, about 2 inches by 1 up by the bulkhead on the passenger side. You should be able to connect your new battery with jump leads, pop the boot and continue.

[86DA]

The emergency key can seem to just spin.

I seem to remember that the trick is to push it in (up as the boots closed) & then turn it, cant remember which way.

[therevday]

If i remember correct there is no positive point in the engine bay of 2001 CL. When I had the same problem I opened up the fuse box on the offside of the car under the bonnet near the windscreen. The fuse panel can be unclipped from the box. Turn the panel onto its side and you will see a live terminal powering the fuses. Connect a live to that and a nedative to the chassis then press the boot open on your key fob. The boot will open.

[CarsOrBikes]

The positive terminal iirc is on the left inner sill/a pillar trim area, then earth to body, ball ache to release really but I did.

These always seize the lock barrel, years of using the remote key, and poor cleaning of the dirty vacuum area behind the car. You can take it all apart and most likely free the slides of the barrel off, I did this after doing the stupid 'leave your only key in the boot thing' and at the time I worked for Mercedes haha

[cardigankid]

Thanks guys I will give the above a go.