govertime

Took my car in last week to get my cam sensors fixed/upgraded (as per https://mbworld.org/forums/c-class-w203/226338-m271-leaking-cam-sensors.html).

Picked it up Friday. Drove maybe 30-40 miles over the weekend. Today at lunch heard the engine tapping enough to catch my attention at a light. Decided to recheck their work (I suspected they only upgraded the sensors and not the updated/longer wires) and found this....







Its like a magnet or something in the sensor is missing. It looks like you can see straight through the little hole in the sensor into the engine.





So of course I decided immediately to check my oil through the computer.



Now this is probably overstated since my car was at an angle with my engine lower than the rear. I wasn't about to start it up and move it to even ground.

I can't even imagine the damage that has been done! Even if they didn't kill it there's no doubt irreversible damage that's been done. How could they possibly compensate for that? I don't see a way they can. Years of meticulous care down the drain.

Every single time I've had my car in for service I've had problems. I'm talking fixing a sunroof track and leaving greasy fingerprints on the headliner...then the sunroof exploding while driving down the highway because they misaligned the tracks, fixing a door actuator but putting a big crease/ding in the outer door panel, having to replace a b-pillar but ordering the wrong color...three times in a row. There's just no excuse. I'm done venting.



Also...I don't think they ever put in the new wires.
And what's this thing? It was going haywire when I had the hood up.

tozfeekum

Yeah, thats ridiculous...you need to go somewhere else to get service..

capt_paul

I didn't see the isolating wires installed that you went to have done. Also, in the last picture, if I am correct, is the Throttle Valve (electronic gas actuator). It seems as though they did not put new new seals on either. Good luck with your repair.

govertime

capt_paul - Which seals are you referring to? I know the cam sensor have a thin rubber o-ring that sits in groove but you wouldn't be able to tell from these pics if they're there.

capt_paul

The ones around the cam sensors is what I am talking about. They may have damaged the new ones or reinstalled the old seals when they did the sensors. Are the 3 screw tight on ech one?

FrankW

damn ...which dealer did the work?

might want to update your location btw.

jo17jC230

wth ... damn what dealership is this????

shizo

That's brutal dude. They forgot to put the cam sensor plug in the middle. I don't know how something like that could be missed. I simple visual inspection by the dealer would have caught that. I don't know the part number of the plug for the M271 engine, but the dealer will know what went wrong as soon as you show them. Demand that they clean your engine and insist that they give you an oil change.

slammer111

Oh snap.

The good news is that your engine probably isn't wrecked, but yeah that's a helluva mess. I'm sure they'll make things right.

govertime

The dealership that managed to perform this royal f' up is R&H Motorcars of Baltimore (Owings Mills, MD). This was my second visit there (first was for the PVC recall a week earlier) after I had decided to switch from Valley Motors (Cockeysville, MD) after I'd been pissed on there for a few years.

What should I ask for at this point? Clearly they need to fix it properly and clean up the mess (you know they'll never be able to get it clean again, basically putting a hit on resale value with a grimy engine bay). But what about protecting myself? There flat out has to be irreversible engine damage. The tapping noise was metal scraping metal. While this may not result in immediate problems, it clearly is gonna be detrimental to life/performance of the engine. Is there a test or something else that I can request where the results would have to fall within a certain range (compression test/oil analysis/something else)? If so, how would I know which results/measurements would deem a positive test result?

Thanks for your sympathy, input. When I tell friends/family/coworkers about my experiences with MB, they simply laugh at the irony of such inexcusable shoddy service from a "reputable" company like MB.

govertime

Valley Motors of Cockeysville MD

Yeah, my trunk lid and rear was gouged from the broken glass flying back. Scary as hell. Sounded like a shotgun went off next to head. I'm just glad the cloth sun blocker was closed because that caught most of the shattered glass that wanted to fly into the car. The sunroof ordeal was about 4 months and maybe a dozen trips to the dealership (wrong parts, not getting all the glass out of the headliner, greasy fingerprints on headliner, then scuffing/pulls on the headliner cloth from scrubbing the headliner to clean it...it goes on and on).

Kristen

I did this by mistake, since I assumed the dealer sold me everything I needed so I didn't inspect the parts, just swapped the sensors and went on my way only to discover 6 months later a litre of oil had leaked out and the belt sent it flying over everything.

Oh well, some degreaser and a garden hose and the engine bay will be as good as new.

capt_paul

I would think that as long as you didn't get a low oil message, you are ok as far as damage to the engine. Like Kira said, a little ddegreaser and wash off the oil and you should be fine.

BF_JC230

I would be careful with large amounts of water under the hood, especially sprayed or worse - power washed...My dad and I have replace two complete wire harnesses and a ton of electrical components on family and friends cars that gave their car...too good of a spring cleaning...

This one (cleaning) calls for a lot of time and elbow grease,
Good luck - Sorry about your mess...both with the dealer now and your oil...
Jake

Here is a picture of an exploded view for you...

C230 Sport Coup

Write a well crafted letter to MB in NJ, and all the various issues the dealers have caused.
Get a "regional tech rep" involved.

Also, not sure how far it is for you to drive to pickup your car, but
after going through issues with service with the local dealer here,
driving 45 minutes each way to pickup, and immediately finding issues, I
refused to pick up the car until the SA inspected it BEFORE I drove down there.
I mean like the 1st time I went back, and it was a pain.
So then after that, I wouldn't accept the car, made the SA look it over with me, and finally went to just refusing to drive to the dealer till he inspected.

On most occasions he'd call back and say don't come.

In your case they forgot the plug, and didn't even put in the
cable.

govertime

OK guys. Was told it is finally available for pickup today. SA said the plugs were installed, engine was cleaned and a successful compression test was conducted and results will be included on invoice.

A few quick questions before I pick it up...
1 - What numbers would indicate a success?
2 - Wouldn't I need to know the original specs to baseline them against?
3 - Couldn't the tech just put "successful" numbers onto invoice instead of providing an actual printout? (ie - cover his @ss against even more expensive repairs)

govertime

I just want to let you guys know that escalating your problems may cause you more grief than you'd expect.

In my case, I called MBUSA and had my problem escalated in the expectation that a regional/corporate customer representative would be proactive about correcting an exceedingly inexcusable pattern of negligent service. Instead the regional/corporate escalation rep decided to have their warranty department search my background on my car and under the suspicion of the car being sold at a independent dealer during its lifetime, canceled the extended warranty because the contract states it is only transferable between private parties. So halfway through my extended warranty (which was paid in excess of $3000 to MB) and only half way through its life (expires Dec 2009) it was canceled and my account removed from their system. Mind you this is after having utilized the extended warranty a number of times. So now that my engine has been damaged by their neglect, not only did they not provide any peace of mind against potential engine failures but they removed my last remaining recourse by removing the extended warranty.

I am now completely at their mercy and am struggling to provide documentation to prove transfer of ownership (privacy laws restrict MB and my State MVA from providing identification of ownership - basically a catch-22) in order to support my rights to the extended warranty.

I am in my mid-20s and will never buy a MB ever again. I may well have ben dedicated MB owner for the remainder of my life. My story will be told countless times for years. There is no other way to define this situation other than a complete customer service catastrophe.

govertime

This document was provided to the Regional/corporate escalated customer service rep.

Feel free to use it as a template.

I'll be adding to it, including my aforementioned experience with the warranty and submit to both MBUSA headquarters and the owner of R & H Motorcars.

C230 Sport Coup

Oh F_K !
I just read this. I'm so sorry...
I escalated a couple issues with dealers to the tech rep who I met early on
due to issues with alignment from new after writing a letter to MB USA, but I did buy the car new.

I know this doesn't help much, but the extended warranty can be sold, or cashed out, and they have a schedule for doing so based on time.
That being said, someone should be owed some money if they canceled something that was payed for.

I'm soo soo sorry. Never in a million years could I have guessed they'd be such shiits to you based on my advise to contact HQ.
Oh man...

govertime

C230 Sport Coup you have nothing to be sorry for. You gave sound advice and I was/had already brought MB Corporate into the picture.

FWIW, I drafted a letter explaining the circumstances to both President and CEO Mr Ernst Lieb and in fact received a response shortly after from a self-described escalated customer service representatives responding to executive concerns and essentially was told tough *****. Unbelievable.

If anybody can provide help identifying the the first owner of my car I would be eternally grateful! Neither the selling dealer nor MB HQ will not disclose it to me nor can the MVA legally provide this information. This information is basically the only thing holding me back legally re-instituting the warranty. I know it is in the MB Vehicle Master Inquiry (VMI) though.

C230 Sport Coup

Hmmmm...
file a case in small claims court, and subpoena the info .