I have a 2015 C300 loaner right now, and I also noticed this oily substance on the MBTEX last week. I thought the dealer sprayed something in the car... but it's gone now I think. Will check tomorrow morning since I still have the loaner. Never had this issue on my 2012 C350 with MBTEX.

 

Yes ~ 4 Cyl for NA. C400/450 engines from Bad Cannstatt.

Nissan will do a fine job. I have zero concerns there.

 

Stan, Are you worried about the ooze staining your clothes? Are you having to sit on a towel?
I would not still be driving this car. Loaner now please and thank you! Be sure to also provide MB with your daily dry cleaning bill

 

No, this stuff seems to have no effect on clothing. I checked, and there's no stains on my clothes at all.

I will continue to drive it until they get the parts in. My car has snow tires on it and the loaners do not. That's a strong argument for holding on to my own car as long as possible.

 

I had a car bought back under the Lemon Law about five years ago. The car had to be in the dealers possession for at least 30 business days (holidays excluded)...that's much different than 30 days total. I'm not sure what New Hampshire law dictates but that's the way it is in Colorado.

 

Since it only happens in the cold, maybe you need to stand in those clothes outside for a couple of hours?

loved the Virgin Mary bit...thanks for that

 

Since Renault owns Nissan, and Nissan already makes some of the engines, it's not a far stretch.

 

Correct. I will not have a Lemon Law case, and the dealer won't take the car until they have the repair kit in their shop. My guess is that the car will be out of service for a week. During that time, I'll have another 2015 C300 as a loaner, so I will have absolutely no case under the NH Lemon Law.

The service manager, after leaving a message, is gone until Wednesday so I have had no further discussion about what will be done. I'll call my salesman today and talk to him about this, but I know my options will be very limited since it's not a safety related issue. It will all boil down to goodwill, and I don't think that will take me very far. BTW, MB-USA has still not responded to the email and pictures I sent them on Monday.

 

It took them about a week to repsond to me when I asked them to correct the spelling of my first name so I could set up an online owners account. Their response began with "Dear Mr. XXXX", ironically mis-spelling my last name.

 

Stan, FWIW, I purposely left my car outside lastnight to see what would happen and to my surprise I opened the door and was not greeted to the horror scene you pictured. I'm stumped, none of the Tex was glossy, everything looked 100% normal. I even sat on both front seats for a few minutes to see if my body heat would draw the residue to the surface but that didn't do it either.

EDIT - I should have added that it got down to the mid-20s overnight. I'll try it again when it acutally gets cold

 

We're in the middle of a cold snap and last night I noticed my passenger seat is much worse than I thought. I've experienced a few shiny spots on the cushion before, but last night all up the side bolsters was a combination of shiny and streaky stains.


Looks like it's going to the dealer to see what they know about it.

 

Seems to happen when the car is warmed up, after being in sub freezing temps.

 

Yep, that's what I've noticed too.

 

Probably limited to one production run and/or supplier of the material, so it may not affect all cars with MB-Tex.

Having said that, my car was fine until about a month ago when I noticed an oily film on the seats. I thought the dealer had sprayed something on the seats during the last service visit, and just wiped it all off with a damp cloth. It's been a month since that happened, and now this. The weird thing is that the seats look different every time I'm in the car, so it changes dramatically with temperature variations.

 

Could be but as I said in an earlier repsonse to your thread I've noticed the oily residue rise to the surface in my car too but it's been mainly limited to the areas where passengers have sat and it only appears when the temps dip below freezing. Once the temps rise the residue disappears.

 

Even now, as bad as it's gotten, it also comes and goes with temperature changes. It looked almost normal this morning then, as the car warmed up, the white residue started forming again and it looked a mess by the time I parked it.

I'm just going to let the factory and my dealer work this out ... I'm sure I'll get some sort of bone thrown my way before it's all done.

 

Just a thought. We are all associating this with the cold weather activating the stain, but could it perhaps be because we are using the seat warmers?


I noticed a very slight smell every time I used my seat heater which to me meant something was gassing when heated.

 

But that wouldn't explain the staining/whitening on the back seats and headrests.

 

Are the heaters only in the cushion?

 

There are no heaters in the back seats or on the headrests, so it can't be related to that as a primary cause.

 

So much for the light bulb going off in my head... Lol