Rudeney

I do all my own work, but my car had the "balance shaft" failure (actually, just an idler sprocket on the V8), so the dealer repaired it at 30K miles. Had I know all the problems this was going to cause 50K miles later, I'd have just done it myself!

First of all, you may remember I found the flywheel broken, most likely because they improperly mated torque converter and transmission pump. Also, ever since they did the job, my lower oil pan has leaked just enough to keep the lower engine cover wet. It was time for an oil change, so I decided to reseal the pan.

It was an easy job, but I got a bit of an unpleasant surprise. The pan was full of crap! There were lots of what looked like gasket pieces in there, and even the oil pump pickup was full of it. There were also some metal bits, likely pieces from the failed timing chain idler sprocket.

They did such a poor job applying the sealant on the pan that a bunch of it was inside the pan. I also find it odd that there were those metal fragments, presumable from the idler sprocket, still in the pan as these should have been cleaned out when they dropped the pan.

Even though I worked at these dealer for a while an new first-hand how crappy they do things, I just can't believe it's this bad!

JimVonBaden

But, but, but why cheap out on a high dollar car like a Mercedes Benz?




















(Because some think doing your own is no to go just because it is a Mercedes!)

Fatz

I've been driven to the belief that the vast majority of dealerships "suck"..... They treat you like second class when you're out of warranty, charge too much for the work required, seldom take ownership for their errors, act as if they are the only option for maintaining a MB, and believe you should be honored to be in their presence.

Since I don't have the expertise to do much of the work myself, I use 1 of 3 INDY/service shops, depending on the issue. I do what I can myself.....

As my Dad told me; Nobody will care as much about your family, your money, or your car, than you....

Yidney

Other than a wheel alignment 3 years ago, nobody has touched my car but me since my warranty expired just over 4 years ago. But I'm not sure why there is an assumption that indy's do better work. It's still just some guy with a wrench working on a strangers' car. I doubt he's thinking "I'm at an indy shop, I better clean more crap out of this oil pan." I did take mine once to an indy for something before my warranty expired - the top indy in Denver - and it was by far the worst repair experience I have ever had in my life. But my closest dealer was horrible too.

Hoserbenzo

Thank god I still have my warranty till September....

Rudeney

My car has only been to the dealer for two thing - the timing sprocket repair (warranty) and the transmission conductor plate (only a dealer can do this due to SCN coding). At least they didn't damage anything else with the conductor plate change. I do have two good indy shops within a few miles of my house. One is not much less expensive than the dealer, but they do very good, even "obsessive" work, have a nice clean customer lounge, gourmet coffee, wifi, etc. The other has no lounge, the place looks like a junk yard, but the owner is a European car expert and solves the most complicated problems and is not terribly expensive.

Of course I do all my own work unless it requires SCN coding or very expensive special tools that cost more then the job. It is funny how some people thing working on a "Mercedes" is impossible. I find it quite the opposite - it's much easier than working on a Honda or Toyota. Those cars seem to be made to be disposable as so many parts are just darned near impossible to get to.

zip439

Sorry to hear of your dealership experience! When you find all sorts of junk in your pan it must make you feel what else will go wrong! I too have recently had a bad experience with an indy repair shop. I went there, because I had talked with several people who where happy with them. They specialize in Euro imports, and I do not have access to a lift. I wasted $900, but hope that the Lucas "Stop Leak" oil treatment I just put in the crankcase will stem the drip of oil from the bell housing.
It will be awhile yet before I get a lift in my shop; it may well just have to drip until then!

merceBENZ

All I can see that we can not trust anybody because nobody cares as much as we do. Dealer scraped around rear bumper on my van and of course didn't admit it, he said that I brought it like that which is FBS. Scraped to the bare black plastic and I Saw them maneuring backwards in tight spots. A-holes..

Top Hydraulics

Rodney,

really sorry to hear about your trouble.
We work with a lot of Mercedes dealers, and literally with thousands of indies. There are good Mercedes dealerships, and there are lots of good indies. The tricky part is avoiding the bad ones. Proportionally, we hear of far more jobs bungled by bad indies than by bad dealers. Pricing is a different issue - I am amazed on a daily basis at how much dealers are charging and how some of them will throw parts (pumps in particular) at problems when they could have known better.

I have to admit that I am a little bitter right now myself, because my local dealer is trying to charge way more than I think they should for a transmission job on my R320CDI, plus front strut replacement ($715 labor) and power steering gear head replacement ($915 labor). The transmission needs a new torque converter and a new conductor plate ($1521 labor). I guess they know that I'm stuck using them because of the coding needed on the conductor plate. Negotiating a price reminds me of the struggle when buying a new car. I simply don't have the time any more to work on my own cars. I feel like letting my local indie do the main job and letting the dealer replace only the conductor plate and do the coding.
This has me worried in my own case. I haven't heard of my local dealer doing poor work, and I'm more worried about the indie messing it up. My local indie was dead certain that the torque converter in this transmission locks up only in overdrive, so I know he does not have any expertise with 722.9 transmissions.

Klaus

Rudeney

I don't mind paying top dollar for top quality work, and that is the way my local dealer advertises itself, but they are sloppy and careless. I worked there for about 9 months, so I know what goes on behind the curtain. Here's a story that I think tells it all:

When I was doing my rotation in sales, I sold a a brand new $135,000 SL55 AMG. The customer wanted to add Sirius radio, so we charged him something like $1700 for the job, added to the sale. The part was $500 and it was about 4 hours labor. During the job, the shop gouged the trunk lid. I believe the tech drilling the hold for the antenna on the trunk let his drill get away from him. Now, mistakes happen, but the shop at first tried to say "it came in that way". Well, it certainly did not - it went literally from the showroom floor to the shop. They said they would take it to a local MB-certified body shop for repair. The customer actually demanded a new trunk lid as he wanted a factory-painted part. I went to bat for him, but lost. The dealership told him they would only pay to repaint it, still claiming they did not do it. When he came to pickup the car, they told him he owed an extra $50 or so for "shop supplies" that were not factored into his deal. Talk about adding insult to injury!

Top Hydraulics

Agreed on paying top dollar for top quality work. I didn't tell the whole story why I'm upset with my dealer, and it's not worth telling.

On my end, I hope that I will not turn greedy as our business grows. I'm actually not worried about it, because I am very conscious about the way I conduct myself, about balance in life, and about giving back. That is different for most larger corporations who have to answer to their stock holders, and it will usually make me prefer giving my business to a smaller supplier rather than to a larger one, as long as they have the experience to do the job right.

DanielFD

Guys thats nothing, local dealership once sold a 150,000$ CLS (they are that expensive here due to customs) and a "tech" filled the engine with i think it was 20-30 liters of oil to the brim and was pissed of it didn't start. It seems anybody can work on a costumer's car here.. oh and there are a lot more stories.. a lot more worse stories though i don't know how smart it will be posting these online as we have only 1 dealer haha oh well it slip..

PeterUbers

The majority of people have good experiences with dealer repairs and none of this drama

merceBENZ

That is also true. My MB dealer has exceptional customers service.

megacrazy

Based on what research?

The majority of people don't know how to check repairs performed by the dealer to justify their "satisfaction". Good service in this case mostly refers to quality of coffee and breakfast offerings in the waiting room.

I've had **** poor experience with pretty much every car dealer I went to. If you're going to be overpriced at least perform good quality work. I've seen it all from spark plugs that weren't torqued properly, to scratched interior from a "repair", to scratched wheels from their free car wash etc etc.

I simply refuse to pay them anything because I don't trust their ability to perform service. Sure there are exceptions but it's a good rule of thumb. I'd rather do the work myself and take them out the equation altogether. Way less headaches int he long run.

JimVonBaden

IMHO The majority of people haven't a clue if the experience is good or not. Most have never touched a wrench, so do not know when they are getting screwed. This is why so many dealers get away with it.

Coruscator

Had mine indy 'b' serviced a couple of months ago and when I was pottering around under the bonnet
I noticed the engine cover was loose on the one corner. Further investigation revealed they had cross-threaded
the back right thread. When I tried to remove it the torx teeth on the bolt stripped! Had to heat up a socket
and squeeze it over the head of the bolt to get it out in the end. Then I had to re-tap the thread to clean it up.
What kind of mechanic doesnt realise when he's cross threading a bolt?

Then I noticed he had also put the wrong length torx bolt in the front right. He'd obviously noticed this screw
was too long because to remedy it he put 3 washers under it. If that wasnt bad enough the three washers
weren't enough to make up the gap and the engine cover was still loose.

I'm a bit worried about the work they did on the service now.

Needless to say I wont be going back there again.

My dad was right, I should have taken it to MB.

clydem

Read the various forums on the net. All Marquees.
You'll always find some people who swear by a shop, others who curse them.

mbnz230

who doesn't hate when stuff like this happens. the best mechanic is yourself. even changing tires, i worry my rims will get scratched and lug nuts over torque. i haven't had to bring my cars to a mechanic in a long long time other than some warranty work and state inspections.

exhaustgases

In any shop its fast fast then faster. Wrong size fasteners in holes etc.? Why not the cough cough Technician ( I think that's a misnomer, "technician") tosses all the bolts and screws he/she removes into one bin or can, and then its a guessing game when putting stuff back together. It does not matter what shop you take a car to, the name of the game is go fast, that is how you make money and pay for the $20 plus K of tools in a fancy $10,000 tool box, that alone tells everybody your it when it comes to twisting wrenches and fixing cars. None of them are going to slow down and do it correctly, like all the gaskets in the oil pan from scraping them off.

Rudeney

Having been "on the inside" of this as I worked for a dealer (this dealer!) for nine months and did pretty much every job in the house, I can tell you that service is THE #1 profit center. Used cars are second, parts are third, and new cars are last. There is a huge push for techs to work faster and push more cars through. Things like A/B services and brake job are HUGE profit makers because they end up charging something like $500/hr as an effective labor rate on those jobs.

The only thing that keeps the service center somewhat honest is the threat of a bad customer satisfaction survey. If you want to get their attention, give them bad marks. Bad surveys mean the service manager may miss a bonus. Money is the name of the game, so hit them where it hurts and you'll get their attention.