SickSpeedMonte

I got a call from my SA saying that my thermostat was in, so I scheduled an apt for yesterday morning to take the car in. I go in, enjoy the free soda/donuts/wireless, and wait for my thermostat to be replaced. When it's done, the SA tells me that they might have found another reason my car was feeling rough at 15 mph, like I had complained about the first time I had brought it in. (At that point they had to backorder the 'stat, so this is the second time bringing it in.)

A lug bolt was missing on the front left wheel, and the rim was bent. I'm not very happy about the bent rim, but I'll get into that in a sec. I buy the lug bolt and they put it in... and the car is smooth as butter now. (Tell me why they didnt notice that the first time I asked them to look into it...)

So I go into work, and when the day is through, I come out to leave. I notice that the F/L and R/R tires are low... which has been a chronic problem since day 1. So I fill them up with the shop air and head to a Mr. Tire to see if they can find a leak around the bead or a puncture wound. An hour of waiting later... and they call me into the shop. This can't be good...

Turns out both of the offending tires have bent rims. And the one in the rear has a nice crack all the way up the inner bead surface. Now I'm furious...

I take the car back to where I bought it from, and the guy says he has to talk to the other guy about replacing the rims. My argument is that the car was MD inspected, and advertised as such with the ticket taped to the windshiled. There is absolutely no way this should have passed inspection (or the missing lug bolt, or the directional tire that was mounted backwards, which I had already had them fix)

The car has a very slight pull to the left at highway speeds, and now I'm thinking its related to whatever the previous owner whacked with that front left tire. I'm starting to wonder if they even did a MD inspection... how could they not notice all of these problems?

I'm hoping that I can take the car for an independent MD inspection and have the used car dealer fix everything that they overlooked, including a couple of new wheels.

Let's hope today goes better...

advans

oh man!

good luck! My C55 had a cracked wheel, I was furious with the dealer.

SickSpeedMonte

Thanks man.

So far they seem to be cooperating. Or at least aren't refusing to fix it. We'll see how ugly it gets when they call back today.

SickSpeedMonte

Front:




Rear:

maccooper79

not sure wat a MD inspection is but I am sure a MB inspection should of picked that up...but I hit curb once and dint realize I cracked a rim for months.

SickSpeedMonte

http://mva.state.md.us/AboutMVA/INFO....htm#appendixA

Wheel alignment and wheels/tires are both on there, so I feel like a lisenced MD Inspector should have caught that with no problem.

The air leak is getting progressively worse, so the main thing I am worried about is crack propagation and the eventual catastrophic failure at speed.

Glyn M Ruck

Oh! man SSM - that's bad news - be tough on them to get it right. Your car should not have a slight pull left. It should have a slight pull to the right on a LHD car. Benz offset this tendency by setting the passenger side, (RHS in your case), castor 1 degree more positive than the left (the reverse applies to RHD cars). Many alignment shops don't know this trick to offset road camber.

SickSpeedMonte

Speaking of alignments, Mr. Tire said that only the dealer can do them because of tools needed. Is this true?

I'm hoping I can get a dealer alignment out of this whole ordeal, as well as anything else that may be damaged replaced.

Midnight Koop

hey man... sorry to read about your troubles... maybe a good excuse to get new rims?

if you're in MD area, you should take your car here to be checked out:

http://www.mitchcarr.com/

they're really honest and do good work. i've been going there for about a year now and have been really happy with their service.

they also do inspection/quotes for free... so it would be nice to compare to dealership and elsewhere if you need to.

SickSpeedMonte

Yea, I was thinking about new rims if they don't cover this by replacing the two. That would be pretty f'd up if I had to pay for this out of pocket though. The car was sold with an inspection sitcker taped to the windshiled... clearly it was not inspected properly.

Thanks for the link! You say they do free inspections... as in state inspections? That would definately be worth the drive if they tell me to get it inspected on my own dime.

Glyn M Ruck

Certainly not - There is nothing a decent alignment shop can't do. Our dealers do no alignment in South Africa - They send it out. The only thing an alignment shop needs is a stock of castor & camber fluted 3 position bolts because the car comes with standard bolts ex factory. If they can't get the alignment in spec with these they need the fluted bolt which is standard to all 4 bushes. Every tire shop in South Africa carries these bolts.

If you want the procedure & bolt PNs etc I will post again.

BTW if one of those wheels was on the front when the car got that knock - check castor bushes & sway bar bushings & links. They are almost always damaged by a knock like that. The good news is I've never seen a body suspension mounting point damaged by wheel destruction. The mount points are strong compared with lesser cars.

Midnight Koop

sorry for misleading... i meant they inspect your car's problems for free if you have an idea of whats wrong. basically, i've been to the dealership and they tell me a few things are wrong and go here and get a second opinion. i ended up going with mitchcarr to do the work in the end. cheaper, more honest, and they do good work.

hopefully you can get those *******s to pay for the rims...

SickSpeedMonte

Yea, that info would be great Glyn! Thanks.

It sounds like I definately need to have it re-inspected. Or maybe its just inspected (as in the for the first time)

SickSpeedMonte

Got ya. I figured that's probably what you meant, as a free state inspection is too good to be true.

Where about in MD (VA?) are you?

SickSpeedMonte

Alright, now I'm getting upset...

I just called the place that I bought the car from, and they are trying the "you could have hit something between then and now" angle. They offered to get me dealer cost on the rims. Not good enough, by a long shot...

So the MB dealer (Hunt Valley) has it documented that the directional tire was backwards, and the lug bolt was missing... two faults that should not have made it through MD inspection. Replacing the lug bolt fixed a problem that was present since day 1, and the leaky air has been a problem since day 1...

They dont want to fix it because they didnt put enough profit margin on the car... That's not my problem, nor is it relevant...

GRRR

Benzben

If you talk to them again, you should stress that the additional cost for them to fix your car and get it right will be nothing next to the additional cost of lost sales from a bad reputation that will certainly develop by the time you get done with them.

C230 Sport Coup

Try non verbal "communication". he he....just kidding.
I'm not laughing at you, I'm laughing with you.
I could tell dealer stories...oh man....

Glyn M Ruck

Here we go:

SickSpeedMonte

Thank you

SickSpeedMonte

Update:

The used car dealer is trying to say that this problem wouldn't even be part of the MD Inspection.

Unfortunately for them, I know a MD licenced inspector... so I called him and he said that, reading from the book, any bend, crack, or weld which renders the wheel unsafe will need to be repaired or replaced in order to pass inspection. He said that if it leaks air, it is unsafe.

He said to file a complaint with the state troopers and they will initiate an investigation, and the entire car will get re-inspected with a state trooper there watching. I'll want him to pay special attention to the castor and sway bar bushings as well, as mentioned by Glyn.

I think I'm going to speak with the manager of the used car place (who is incredibly... or conveniently... hard to get ahold of) and tell him what I expect, and what I'll do if he doesn't want to cooperate.

Glyn M Ruck

SSM - Used car dealers the world over are at best a thinly disguised bunch of hoods - read VERY thinly disguised.

SickSpeedMonte

Yep, I had dealt with some sleezy ones and was able to sniff them out pretty easily, so I stayed away. These two guy seemed to be trustworthy, but I didn't realize that it wasnt them who calls the shots. It's the guy who is never there because he is constantly at auction. He's getting a voice mail and 24 hours notice. This time tomorrow I will either have a deal or the troopers are going to be scheduling an appointment.

laneshift

Sorry to recover an old thread from the buried stack of threads, but I just wanted to clearify- my '02 pulling to the right is normal?

Thanks.

LILBENZ230

I think they all pull to the right, laneshift.

I trust what Glyn says is the corrective measure for this, but the pull hasn't been noticeable enough on mine to justify an alignment and my tires are wearing pretty evenly.

SSM - if you check back in - did you get this resolved? You have 05 rims on your 07, it seems? My car was missing a lug bolt on its left front wheel for about 20,000 miles and it never caused any weird vibrations.

Glyn M Ruck

Yes - on standard alignment your LHD car will pull to the right with the camber of the road. The fix for this for LHD cars is to set the castor 1 degree more positive on the RHS of the car than the LHS, typically 10.6 deg Right - 9.6 degrees Left. If the car still pulls rotate the tyres from the back corner to corner to change their rolling direction. Sometimes the front tyres wear into this pattern of behavior without castor correction.