Rayvan

They likely got it by removing the glove-box.

catmandoob

How long did it take, I just got mine scheduled for the 21st and my service adviser said it will take all day so they are going to do valet for mine since I'm a couple hours away. My letter said an hour and a half so I got a bit confused, of course he did mention I have 4 recalls to do on top of the airbags, assuming its the tail light one and he mentioned a module.

S70Houston

WHERE are you guys at to get yours replaced? My car is waiting for over two years now, I am in Sacramento, CA.

NO WAY THIS TAKES ALL DAY, I would imagine your dealer says that in order to have more flexibility on shop scheduling and you not being disappointed if it takes longer than what they would say.

catmandoob

I'm in what is considered the Northeast US location, live in WV. I'm guessing since they are focusing on area's with wide temperature swings first from what I have read is why. They still had to order the airbags he said but apparently they are available and all should start seeing them now possibly. My letter came literally 3 days ago. Mine is both driver and passenger as well.

Also, we have all been waiting 2-3+ years haha

And the whole time I just keep praying I don't get hit in the front if I wreck. Some of the videos showing what these airbags do scare the bajeebus out of me.

S70Houston

Thanks for the info.

I think I will place a call on Monday to find out the details, hoping to get this resolved soon, as it has been going on too long.
Here as well, my wife's car needs both replaced.

ezshift5

Please post anything concrete resulting from your call.

Thanks,



ez

Rayvan

I'm in San Jose. (Mercedes Benz of San Jose did the work) Mine took only a few hours, but they didn't finish washing the car until I was almost there. They did allow me to rent a car for the day, as I have to travel for work.

What was funny was that they told me to wait in the waiting room, and they'd bring the car around. Then a few minutes later the guy came and got me and said the car wouldn't start. I ask if he pushed in the clutch. He looked real confused after that. Didn't know that Mercedes made cars with manual trans. I then had to follow him back as he admitted that he'd never driven a clutch before, LOL! Car started just fine when I pushed in the clutch pedal.

Adi-Benz

LOL. One of the lucky guys with a manual huh! That's pretty funny.

catmandoob

Well I got my old trusty 08 C300 back from dealership today. I'm perplexed as to what they did, I just hope it was right. Interesting story though as I never have used this particular dealership.

It started out great, easy setup of what I wanted serviced along with recalls that were due. They came gave me a '19 C300 and they took mine at 8:45am on the 21st, so I figured by end of day it would be done. I didn't hear anything back and knew they were closed Thanksgiving day so no biggie since I had the loaner car. The work order I signed authorized the airbag recall listed, transmission service since I wanted it done as well as a wheel alignment and balance of tires. I wouldn't think more than a days work, so they finally call about 1pm today and say its ready and ask if I want it dropped off at the same place they picked it up, I say yes and asked if all went well, Phil said yes. At this point I'm like ok, sounds good, no mention of how much yet but figured when I met with the valet driver we would hash it out then.

I meet him and he gives me my keys back says paperwork is in my passenger seat and he takes right off. So I go over look at the paperwork and to my surprise only thing done was recalls, the airbags which is original reason for service visit and then I see there are 3 other recalls listed for various items, camshaft solenoids wiring harness and couple other things. Thought ok but where is the actual work I wanted done, it was obvious they did only recall work and nothing service wise as I had asked and clarified to be done.

So first off, no I had not ever used Phil as my service adviser nor had I ever used this dealership. Ok, they don't want to work on someone else's car, fine I guess. But I wanted to call to see if there was a reason or issue that prevented it. Suddenly Phil no longer wants to speak with me and when I call after the third time of me reaching out trying to understand why authorized work when I gave them essentially a blank check to get it done and instead they choose to do nothing, no multi-point inspection no car wash, just nothing at all but the very bare minimum. The lady politely tells me that Phil will be unable to speak with me and he suggested I contact another dealership for further assistance. I understand this car is a 10 year old car and obviously no one cares about it anymore there but this just blows my mind.

Why on earth would any company want or expect people to buy future cars from them when this is how they operate? It totally boggles my mind.

I guess I'll have to go for the 4 hour away dealer next time for service haha. To top it all off I had to re calibrate all my windows and sunroof myself as they didn't even bother to do that when they disconnected the battery apparently. Only plus side was since it was all warranty work they didn't charge me a dime for the valet service, if there is a silver lining I guess that's it.

S70Houston

Wow, you are way more patient and tolerant than I am.
I would have insisted on speaking with a Manager and would have let the Manager know that I would reach out to MB of North America to inform them of the dealers incompetance.

One thing I have learned over the years, ....... MB Dealerships are only to be used when a car is in warranty or in need of recall work. Otherwise, STAY AWAY.

Find yourself a good, trustworthy Indy, who will appreciate your business and go the extra mile to make you happy. A Indy in most cases also has a much cheaper labor rate.

Neither my S550, nor my wife's C300 (or my daughter's 330i BMW for that matter) will see the dealer based on what you have described as well as my own personal disappointments.

My Indy services all of our cars and is happy to see me each and every time, has never let me down and still insists in EXCELLENT customer service.

Good luckto you, I hope you will find a competent Indy, specializing in European cars in your area.

ezshift5

S70, your Indy sounds like a winner. Is he in Sacramento?

Best, ez.

S70Houston

YES, Indy is in Sacramento, www.eu-tech.biz

catmandoob

To be honest sometimes I'm too patient and kind. But I've worked in the industry a bit so I grin and bear it knowing what other people are like to them. Sad thing is I'm so nice I bought the whole service dept. at that dealership pizza for lunch that day remembering how nice it was when people would do those gestures for me when I worked in the shop. It was only $200.00 for it but still you'd think they would be a bit happy and willing to actually do what was asked when someone tries to treat them decent.

And that is my one issue around where I live in Huntington WV, no good indy's for Euro cars anywhere within a hundred or so miles, I have to go to Cincinnati or Lexington and that just doesn't work for me. I do all my own work unless I just get lazy or tired and that's what the case was on this, I thought I'd actually toss some work their way and let the techs make some money and have a good lunch to break up the **** customers they deal with more often than not. My wife said this is what I get for being such a nice guy, she's right, I'm used to this by now sadly. But I'll always treat others how I wish to be treated not how they treat me.

You hit the nail on the head, it's just disappointing all around. Now I even question if they did the recalls correctly or if they just drove it in the bay and then sat around eating pizza laughing at me.

superangrypenguin

Not totally on point here but the service, or lack thereof, at 3 Mercedes dealerships near me is why I finally threw in the towel and went to Audi.

I can't stand their lack of attention to detail, how they willfully ignore the WIS (for transmission flushes) and a whole bunch of other crap. I attribute this to the cheapifying of MB and how every Tom Dick and Harry has a MB now.

Lord knows they don't need our/your business. There's 10 other people in line!

ezshift5

I've been charmed with the three MB dealerships near our state capital................all have same ownership - - - - however S70's Indy gets rave revues..........................

ez (living with that recall since 2014...........but the tunnel's end is showing some lite.

townie15

Kind of off topic but not really...Did anyone get in with the class action lawsuit that was started last year? When Takata filed for bankruptcy? I believe I put a claim in and hopefully was successful. They have been dragging it as much as possible...

S70Houston

Guess you are calling me names???

Jokes aside, if you can afford to get a new Audi every few years, the power to you, they are nice cars. How do I know this? Growing up in Germany, my father was Line Supervisor for Audi, latest on the 100 and then A6 platforms. He is retired now, but as a factory employee drove a brand new AUDI EVERY YEAR, as he received an 18% discount as a factory employee and sold the vehicle after each year, in most cases with making a profit. BEAUTIFUL CARS indeed.
However:
- Did you ever maintain one after it had over 100k miles on it?
- Have you ever seen or heard of an Audi with over 250K miles on it, still looking and running as good as a MB, ........ which by the way today every Tom Dick and Harry drives?

I had an A6 Quattro years ago which was the best driving car I ever owned, but the worst car I ever owned to maintain.

Good luck with your Audi.

S70Houston

You must be a VonHousen guy.

I used to got to VonHousen when I was working with their best Service Advisor, who not only knew about MB cars, but was polite and proffessional. He moved on and the guy they send me to is useless.
Latest example was him telling me that noone had their Airbags replaced in our area as the parts were not available, even it was stated here that someone in San Jose had the recall completed.
I had to call MB of North America, who informed me that the recall was based on VIN #, and that I was in line right now for a Feb. 2019 replacement.

Why does a service advisor not know this, or at least obtain that info, rather than providing false info?

superangrypenguin

All valid points, and I'm not here to disagree with you.

That said, the joy of Audi vs Mercedes Benz here in Canada is that I can buy Audi's extended warranty, underwritten by Audi, up to 10 years and 200,000km. With MB, I can only buy up to 7 years and 160,000km, with the 6-7th year with Powertrain only.

So yes, the Audi won't be as reliable, that's for sure, but I can mitigate that risk. Audi's are beautiful cars and drive amazingly well, in the off chance that it works Oh don't worry, I know the hell I am signing myself up for (I've lived it in the past). LOL

CGC

Just had the driver and passenger airbags replaced at Lynnwood Mercedes (north of Seattle). In the past I was not impressed with this dealership, but they did great work this time. I asked for the transmission service while they had the car and was told it was on special for $369.00. When I went to pick it up I was told they actually had a 50% off deal that was better and did the service for $265.00. At that point they had already quoted me and I had agreed to the higher price. Kind of impressed they gave me the better deal, and washed and vacuumed the car as usual. Josh was the service writer that gave me the deal.

domwild

Transmission service: I am afraid to tell you for such a low cost you did not get a proper trans. service. If your gear box is a 722.6, it will need a full flush with 14 litres of trans. oil at a much greater cost. According to Merc. instructions, to get all the oil out of the torque converter, it will need an attachment of a drain hose, an engine start, removal of three litres precisely, fill three litres via thin pipe at back, flush, etc. until 14 litres have been used. And of course it will need the removal of the pan, cleaning of magnet and pan, installation of filter and new gasket. And that every 40,000 miles (60,000 km) and the box is not filled "for life". A special dip stick has to be bought to check the trans. oil at 80 deg. Celsius precisely, a few Dollars from Hong Kong, AUS$70 from Merc.!!

My trans. oil was not done at 60,000km nor at 120,000km, similar to the fuel filter, which was still the original (Made in Austria, July 2007!) - cut it open, full of contaminants. What the two Merc. dealers not did here in Western Australia (WA), I had to do it myself, the service manual states it must be done.

What they did for you was dropping the oil, dropping of pan, cleaning of pan and magnet and change of filter and refilling it with 3.5 litres of new oil, leaving 3 litres in the torque converter. May I suggest you check with your friendly Lynnwood agents what they did for you, I certainly do not wish to alarm you. Here in WA the dealers seem to know, that by not maintaining the Mercs properly, they can sell more cars after engines or gear boxes fail.

CGC

I am guessing you are correct. That is exactly what is showing on the receipt. Depending on how much material is on the magnet, wouldn't that tell you how many metal filings in general are in the trans? Are these transmissions so touchy that if you don't run 14 quarts of oil through you run the risk of it imploding on you? Has anyone here on the forum had that happen even though they had the same service that I just had done? I know, lots of questions and little homework on my side. I just am baffled that the dealer would not try to get the more expensive service done especially if it is a known problem.

domwild

Correct. It is not so much the amount of blackish gunk in the pan and on the magnet, my oil was black and stank after 67,000 miles (123,000km). It is the colour of the oil, which indicates it lost its lubricating ability. It is also said, that if the oil stinks like mine, then a full flush is necessary, so let's hope yours is in better condition than mine. Some dealers or indies use flushing machines for that purpose, with a three litre marking as per Merc. specifications. A transmission shop I visited had three jars full of trans. oil, one red, one "dirty" red and one black, showing the degrees of wear. I do not even have to crawl under the car and remove the heavy steel plate protecting the underside of engine and the lighter plastic protection panel. I got a cheap 12V pump from Hong Kong, with which I pump out the trans. oil via the trans. dip stick. I use the same pump for the engine oi, so no lifting of car and crawling under. Mind you, that pump was so cheap, it leaked after one pumping, so they sent me a new one.

S70Houston

And this is how a TAKATA AIRBAG RECALL thread turns into a HOW TO PROPERLY PERFORM TRANSMISSION SERVICE thread.

domwild

Am sorry for getting off topic here, but the OP with his remark re "low cost of trans. service" led me to reply to warn him.