Gzigg

Hi MBworld. I have arrived at this site seeking your help and advice because I dont know where else to turn. I own a beautifully babied 2006 Mercedes C230 with 78,000 miles that ran like a champ, never a single "check engine" light or anything to complain since I purchased it used in 2008. I seriously take care of this car, drive it like an old lady, and pour money into maintenace (spent easily $4K-$5k in the 5 years I've owned it on all sorts of regular maintenance items to keep it running at its best). This car was my life, the most beautiful possession I've ever had, seriously, and I so loved driving it.

Two weeks ago, I pulled up to a stoplight off the freeway, and the car started sputtering like never before. The check engine light came on - for the first time ever. The car stalled and engine died. It restarted, but when i pressed the gas there was no power, I sputtered back home, and was able to sputter the car to a mercedes benz shop the next morning. After a lot of testing it was determined that the intake manifold needed to be pulled to look deeper into the engine. Thats when they found that the problem was caused by a defective plastic bushing of the intake manifold which broke and was sucked into cylinder #4 and #3. This caused the valves to bend and compromised the integrity of the cylinders and valves, according to the mercedes qualified technician. There is extensive damage to the valves. They requested to keep going and pull the headers off. Turns out the valves wont properly seat because of the damage on the head so the cylinder head has to be replaced as well. The cylinders have to be sent to a machine shop to see if they have any other issues as a result. Who knows what they'll find. As of this writing the total cost to repair the car is $6,700!!!

The mechanics stated that this is not the first time they've seen such a problem on the C230. They claim Mercedes benz is aware of this problem, that those moving plastic bushing in the intake manifold are known to crack and cause problems and should never have been made out of plastic, but i dont see recalls on what appears an obvious engineering & manufacturing defect. I looked on the NHTSA.GOV site and sure enough, several people reporting the exact same issue. Then I got a hold of the Technical Service Bulletins for this year/model but see nary a mention of any issues with the manifold!!?? Yet the TSBs are riddled with ridiculous things about the back window shade screen not rolling up and stuff like that. I dont get it. It almost seems like MB is trying to sweep this under the rug. How can they have such an obvious engineering flaw and completely ignore it?

Bottom line, my beautiful car is a metal brick disassembled in a dealer garage. Prior to this problem it would have been worth in the neighborhood of $12,000, according to KBB. But its not about the money. I feel sad and betrayed, as if my dog was poisoned. My faith in Mercedes has been shaken to the core. I feel like I've been cheated, lied to. What should I do, is anyone else having this issue?

GotDaBenz

I feel your pain also. For that money I would replace the engine altogether, at least you would be starting from -0- miles.

Glyn M Ruck

I would be very suprised if the engine is as damaged as these buggers suggest. This has not been a common problem on the forum & forums concentrate "issues". Many, like you only post if they have a problem.

I can understand bent valves. Even when the cam chain jumps due to wear it is usually just a matter of replacing & reseating bent valves & putting it back together. Rods are never bent & pistons are OK. See Hogger's thread in this regard.

I would question them very carefully in this regard. Unless you are very unlucky they sound as though they are making a mountain out of a mole hill at your expense.

Good luck!

p-hod

Same thing happened to mine. 6800 later it's fixed. I think I should have just sold it as is.

Glyn M Ruck

Whatever ~ get a second opinion from a decent mechanic. e.g. what is wrong with the head? Are pistons damaged beyond use & do you have bent conrods? - most unlikely. Are the bores damaged? Also most unlikely.

sammydragon3

I wouldn't trust a mechanic if my life depended on it. its their business to take your money whether your car is broke or not. my uncle is a mechanic at a jeep dealer and i wouldn't let him touch my car.

get a second opinion and don't mention anything to the second guy.

have them run a compression test and go into the shop area so u can see for yourself the compression values.

Gzigg

I appreciate everyone's input. Its bitter sweet to hear that it has happened to others (my condolences p-hod), but shocked MB is not stepping up to this flaw in design.

Glyn, you'll be happy to hear that this _is_ my second opinion. I left out that the car was at my trusted non-official MB shop (very good guys) first, where they diagnosed it. Then upon contacting MB to ask for help, they had me take (tow) the C230 to the dealership before they made any determination. That is where it sits now.

Someone here suggested replacing the entire engine, which I had never thought of since this car ran smooth as a whistle prior to this, but that may not be a half bad idea. I cant believe im in this predicament. MB is not accepting responsibility saying its out of warranty but c'mon not even a friggin advisory to let us know, split the cost PRE-plastic chunks all up in the valves and cylinders. I see other topics on this list like "the 200,000 mile club" which I always thought this car was destined for, not 78,000.

Still grieving over my baby.....

Glyn M Ruck

A used engine with some warranty can be a reasonable alternative but sometimes better the devil you know. I would still be interested to know EXACTLY what is damaged. Pleased you got a second opinion.

It might be time to shout & wave your arms around at a busy dealership with the factory rep present. At 78K Benz should offer some assistance.

Good luck! I feel for you. I have had utterly reliable Benz products for years.

Carsy

Can anyone please explain about these plastic bushing.

Why they are there ?.

What is their function ?.

Why are they made of plastic?

How common are they in other cars?

Are they found in diesel MBs? !

Thank you.

I cannot understand why they have to remove the engine . Surely a through inspection of the top of the pistons & bore should suffice with the engine in place .

Its is not an aircraft engine ie safety wise. Repair the head & valves & take a chance of saving lots of money. I would also question what exactly is the damage done to the head & whether it is worth changing .

Have you complained to MB USA ? Jump up & down & get your point across.

Good luck.

John.

Gzigg

Hi Carsy. This other thread here in MBWorld has some great analysis and pictures of the part in question, in case it may help answer some of your questions.

It should also underscore the fact that it is happening to other cars with similar engines (though Im not a mechanic nor expert to know precisely which engines may be afflicted with this defect).

Link: https://mbworld.org/forums/clk-class...ld-broken.html

Glyn M Ruck

The difference being that in these cases the plastic rods that broke are external & harmless other than messing with runner length.

EDIT: That is not one of my better threads.

Carsy

Thanks Gzigg, to my mind it is another example of over complicated & underdeveloped engineering by MB if they are internally coming apart .

I think you should take firm control of the dealer situation & decide what work should be done so you do not experience over servicing & over capitalising your car.

Have you approached MB USA ?

Use your anger energy to achieve a result !!

Gzigg

Total repair bill: $7,000
Mercedes dealer would not guarantee the work unless I replaced the entire head on the side where the manifold's plastic pieces shot in and ruined the valves. The mechanic even wrote on his report that the plastic was melted so bad it was stuck in there. So they had to replace the cylinder head, the intake manifold (with the same flawed design of course), the valves, the gaskets, etc. etc.
Mercedes covered 20%. That's what "german engineering" quality was worth to them.

A total of $5,800 (with tax) went into my credit card to pay for this repair. Now I am affraid to drive this car. I read the forums and there are other posts about flawed parts on it, like some transmission thing someone was mentioning. I drive it in complete fear. Zero faith. I cant wait to park it in the garage and run into my house so there is zero chance of a failure before I try to sell it and get rid of it. Ridiculous.

Bottom line: I dont think there's much to sway me from telling anyone that is looking at luxury cars that going with a Lexus is the way to go. I may have to do so myself. My trust and faith in Mercedes will never be the same. If Mercedes had at least owned up to the problem, offered to pay 80%, or a lesser % with a mileage warranty, something more significant than 20%, I may have felt better. But at this point, I feel they know this is a fundamental flaw and are doing nothing about it. I maintained and treated this car like it was going to drive to 200,000 miles. Now I doubt it will make it to 90,000, maybe not even 85,000. Really bummed out here.

Noodles77

I just bought an '03 c230 yesterday. Ran great while I was test driving...4hrs later the check engine light came on & then the sputtering starting & the loss of power. It sounds like I might have the same problem that's being described in the above posts. Great��

Carsy

Boomerang it straight back & stop the cheque.

polarbexar

Uhh, an 03 C230 has a totally different engine than an 06 C230...

ncmudbug

Realizing I'm late to this party but I'm a bit skeptical of this. Unless this is a very stout piece of plastic, I would not expect it to cause this. Many years ago, I had a fuel injected Open sedan. There was a relief valve in the MAF sensor (not sure what they called it). It relieved the pressure on a flapper in the sensor in the event of a fore fire. The shop I took it to just glued a piece of aluminum over the hole where the valve was - rather than make me buy an expensive piece for a car that was not very expensive. Eventually, that aluminum piece fell off and was sucked into the engine. At that point, I glued another piece of aluminum over the hole and I and a friend I sold it to drove it for many miles after that. There seemed to be no negative effects from the cylinder chewing up, burning, and spitting out that piece of aluminum.

Maybe I was lucky... I didn't take the head off to inspect it, but as I say, it still ran fan fine after I plugged up the hole in the flapper.

fix3850

11/16/13 Santa Clarita Ca,

2006 C230 Sport, 83000 miles

Number one cylinder miss-firing. Problem was fixed by replacement of the entire intake manifold ($1900 after a good customer discount)as one of the plastic bushings broke and was sucked into the cylinder bending the post of the spark plug shorting it out. These bushings would last forever if made from any other material usually brass or nylon.Sounds like we might be lucky as no further engine damage was indicated or needed. In the last year the trans had a problem with a repair cost over $1200. The driver door would not latch because of a cable miss threading (maybe due to a factory oversight) 500 more hard earned dollars.
The trade in value of this car quoted by KBB makes it vary hard to get rid off due to the dollar loss.
It looks like the only way to stop the bleeding is to bite the bullet and get a car that's not over engineered with a 10 year 100,000 mile warranty made in Korea.
Best of luck to all and have a great holiday season. We are not buying many presents this year as we gave MB an early Christmas.

cvx

I Feel your pain and feel exactly the same about my W203.

It's been in garage every single month I've owned it and last week I was told the turbo is leaking oil to the (PLASTIC WTF) intake manifold and they are both about to be ruined and need to be replaced. Preliminary quote $3200 right now.

Also the stepper motor is broken and I recently read about the common problem where coolant gets to the automatic transmission... Worst car I have ever owned, wish I had my old trustworthy W202

BF_JC230

Please post year/model/engine/trans when working in these types of threads please.

e.g.
2005/C230/m271(I4_Kompressor)/716(MTX_6 Speed)

Carsy

Don't be too shy. Your location would be interesting too .

dlambert

I have a 2006 C230 and just received the same news. They want $3,000 to take everything apart and analyze the damage. I already paid $540 for new spark plugs but that didn't help matters. They expect a plastic bushing broke off and damaged my valves. My car has also been beautifully maintained, but the stereo amp also went out - $2,000. It could be close to $7,000 by the time I get it all fixed.

I think it is trade-in time.

ncmudbug

MB fees are ridiculous. $540 for spark plugs is insane. So is $2000 for a radio.

I'm sorry about your problems. I don't blame you for wanting to trade it in but on the other hand, after you've gotten all that fixed, it should be pretty reliable. Whatever you do, good luck! You certainly deserve better luck than you've had!

mercedes4ever

Is yours the 6 cylinder?

stepsidejon

I too have a 2006 c230 with a bad intake.
Can anyone tell me more about the plastic bushing that comes loose?
Where is it located?
Can I tell if all parts are still in the intake by looking?
I found a used one for sale listed as a 2007-2012.
Will it work it has the same part number as mine A2721402401.


Thanks for any help