A worker error means that 165 2021-2022 Mercedes GLEs must be recalled over a loose battery ground
As someone who has written an article and then, while editing, added a mistake into it, I can sympathize with the worker at a Mercedes plant who has caused a recall of 164 GLEs because they incorrectly re-tightened the bolts connecting the ground wire to the 12-volt batteries of several vehicles.
While I feel for the worker, the fact that they were supposed to be correcting an error, and were not, caused a big headache for Mercedes, which has only now figured out what was going on. It is recalling certain model year 2021-2022 GLE 350s and 450s produced between February 9 and November 15, 2021.
The automaker was first alerted to the issue pretty early on. In March 2021, a customer complained that they were unable to start their SUV, and that it was showing a battery warning message in the dash.
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Mercedes investigated the issue but initially couldn’t find any evidence of a production problem, so they didn’t pursue it further. However, later in the year, another battery-related problem surfaced, and this time it was discovered during a post-production quality feedback check.
Upon closer examination, it was revealed that the quality assurance team had identified an issue with the vehicle during production and sent it to the rework team, which had marked it as repaired.
What Mercedes eventually uncovered was that a single employee on the rework team had incorrectly adjusted the 12V ground connection and mistakenly listed it as fixed. This occurred over several months, meaning that any vehicles that left the production line with a loose battery wire were not properly rectified.
This oversight could potentially cause problems for vehicle owners. As mentioned earlier, it could prevent the GLE from starting, and in a worst-case scenario, an increase in electrical flow through the connection could pose a fire risk.
Fortunately, Mercedes is aware of only one field report, and no injuries or accidents resulted from it. In order to fix the remaining vehicles, it has started a recall campaign, and will reach out to owners on February 6. They will be asked to return their GLE to a dealer, where the battery connections will be inspected, and tightened where necessary.
