StanNH

My car is in for its A1 service at 30,000 miles. I have not heard any unusual noises related to the wrist pin issue, and I have listened for it. The engine has always performed perfectly. While at the dealer, I asked them to check for the wrist pin issue. I was very surprised when they called me and told me that the wrist pin noise was there, and they were ordering the parts for the repair. They expect the parts to be here on Monday, and expect to keep it another three days after that.

They gave me a 2018 C300 loaner with 800 miles on it, so I guess I can get by while they fix it. Really surprised my car has this issue, but glad I had them check. As an aside, twice before I had asked the service writer to have the car checked for the issue. She seemed clueless, and was even confused when I asked for a navigation update. I was suspicious when the wrist pin check never showed on the service orders, which is why I submitted a request in writing this time. This time the service writer, not the same person, called me right back to update me on what they were doing.

hogdad

Hi, I think you responded to my initial post about the concerns on my 2015. I just had it done and picked the car up yesterday and all seems very good. I did find a clip broken that is molded onto one of the thinner diameter radiator hoses that is attached to front of the thermostat housing right under the oil filter. I called the service writer and told him about it so next time I'm in that hose will have to be replaced. If its any comfort to you I can tell you my observation here is that there are more success stories than horror stories with regard to this repair, which leads us to believe it's largely due to the experience and attention of the Technician. Now 10 or 20 thousand miles down the road who knows-but I think as a whole we are okay with this. I worry about higher than normal oil consumption due to seating new rings on engine block cylinder walls that have had multiple heat and cool down cycles. But again, I think I'm just thinking about too much and the rings are softer than the cylinder walls so the proper tolerances will be obtained after break in. Which leads me to my next point- I am changing this oil after about 2500 miles. Can't hurt- maybe the microns of the filter can filter out any micro metal shavings and still leave adequate oil for lubrication. Why guess, just change it, that's my take on this repair. I had a loaner 2018 and initially I thought I liked it a bit better with the 9 speed. Now after getting my 7 speed back I prefer it for the type of driving I do. The 2018 felt more buzzy and of course a bit more rev happy due to the interim gears and the way the ratios are spaced out. I hope all goes well for you with this and I'll let you know if I encounter any problems as I drive mine during this break in period.

hogdad

You know in retrospect the technician who initially diagnosed it and did the repair on my car, kinda matter of fact said if your car is in that date and serial number range, it more than likely has the bad wrist pins. Some people just aren't listening for it. Service writers and techs included, as evidenced by your situation.

ItalianJoe1

I wouldn't agree with that. The range is tens of thousands of cars. Some do have the noise and nobody notices, it's only present when cold normally so if you bring the car in for a service, it's never actually cold when we have it and we may not hear it. The percentage of cars that we do that actually have a noise is very small. Many of them get replaced because a piston melted or the writer/tech just want to get paid to do the work whether it's needed or not.

There are 5 270/274 engines in the shop right now apart for pistons, I think 1 or 2 of them may actually be for noise. Two have broken pistons, one was just done for money.

StanNH

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hogdad

Hi, you are in the front lines in this field so clearly I digress here. I guess as is the case with most anything that has unhappy customers those are the ones we hear about on the internet and the workplace water cooler- am I dating myself here?-. Although if I were a potential buyer of say, computers, and saw 5 of a particular model apart for repair that could be inherent to that model, I would probably buy a different or later model. I didn't know about this when I bought this 205 car, if I did I would have looked for a 2016 or up. I think my particular car is one of, if not the highest mileage wrist pin repair engines that I've seen posted here. Which supports credibility that the noise is just in fact that,noise, and the piston itself is not moving within the cylinder(s) bore enough to cause damage to the sleeve or block. Cliff notes version is that what you have posted in the past appears to be correct and substantiated about this issue. I had a few GM trucks many years ago with 5.3 engines with the GM piston slap as it was called. Those trucks clattered every morning but ran fine for well over 100K miles, which again affirms that basically you could have less than perfect internal engine tolerances, some which may cause noise, some may not be loud enough to be discernible,and still attain a full service life for the engine. On the other hand you could take a 30K mile engine which has not had proper oil changes, run it to red line a once and it will crap out- I did this about 35 years ago with a low mileage 350 Buick motor-. So I guess some have it, some don't. Some hear it, some don't.

Racin_fool

Having worked at the dealership during this issue, I can tell you this isn't exactly the case. The technicians do hear it, but they know how much of a pain the repair is. Warranty time is a joke for the teardown and rebuild and unless this is your only job you do all day, every day, all week... it absolutely sucks to have to do this repair. The techs are chasing a paycheck in most cases (and if they argue that, they are lying to you). Not every dealership is the same, not every technician is the same, not every service department is run the same. Yes those engines all had wristpin issues.. The major parts of the engine were supplied to Infinity (yes the Nissan guys) for them to put together your engines since they had an agreement with them to share engines in some of their vehicles. They used sub-par parts from their suppliers and as a result your wrist pin issues are popping up left and right. In the last few years, Mercedes decided to go ahead and start putting the engines together themselves to help resolve this issue. I don't know the exact dates, but after talking with enough technical trainers and service engineers, they confirmed this to me years ago.
With the timing chain stretch issues on the M271 turbo and the wrist pin issues on the M270/M274, I'd steer any friends/family away from the 4cylinder cars.

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skullboy

Just out of curiosity, is this wrist pin issue only apply to the W205 C300's 4 cylinders engine or does it apply to W205 V6 C400/C450/C43 too ?

StanNH

ItalianJoe1

Some early N/A v6 cars were also included in the bulletin, but I haven't seen one. Would be before the C class time, would only be in E class vehicles before the 213 came out.

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rustycruiser

Can you expand on this? Piston melted? Is this common? Is it because the engine is a turbo and runs hotter? Or because people are running regular gas instead of premium? Or a combination (so pre-detonation from lower octane gas from the higher temps?) Or something else? Cheers!

hogdad

hey StanNH I was just out driving mine. I have about 220 miles on it since yesterday. Feels even better tonight when I was playing around with it. Look at it as a positive, your getting alot of new parts and having a quiet tight motor makes the car complete..

ItalianJoe1

Dude is this really necessary in every thread related to the M274? You don't even own one, what's the benefit for all the hate?

It doesn't really happen often in the 274 but there are more of them than affected 276s, so they are less common.

ItalianJoe1

I believe it's a symptom of poor quality fuel, but it's always the front side of #1 piston, either breaks the ring lands between the second and third rings, or I've seen them melted from the crown down to the top ring. Looks like when an injector sprays incorrectly but it doesn't seem to need injector replacement after. The engines do run a decent amount of boost a low rpm to give enough torque, I feel people are running ****ty gas and that's causing detonation and breaking stuff.

StanNH

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ItalianJoe1

I don't share my opinion on the cars, I just try to share info and real world experience. Would I buy a 4 cyl C300, no. But that's personal opinion, doesn't mean I go from thread to thread saying what a turd the car is. In my opinion, all the 205 chassis cars drive like crap. Should I go into every thread in the 205 section and tell people to buy a different car? What's the point?

chicago-guy

Any "hunting" or hesitation from the 9G during the time you had it? That's my biggest complaint about the 7G -- that and the sluggish acceleration in any mode but S+.

MBSebas87

haha people with too much time on their hands. He's probably trolling every thread on MBworld lol

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ItalianJoe1

Warning people who are tempted to what? Have their car repaired?

I don't care for the CLS styling, I'd rather have an E class for the functional rear seat. I'm a coupe guy myself, I have an older CL, next pickup will probably be a 207 as it's still on the 204/212 platform, the new 238 coupes drive like a 205, short travel stiff suspension on a car with no real sporty driving character, just harsh for no reason.

I get that you enjoy trolling the c300 turbo kit thread, but every 205 thread seems a bit much.

ItalianJoe1

Haven't driven it in the C much, but in the 213 it seems to drive much smoother than the 7 speed unit. It feels a bit busy, it's always shifting up or down it seems. I had a new BMW 430i for a week with the ZF 8 speed and the same thing bothered me, any real change in throttle input means 3-4 gears down to accelerate, and as soon as you go back to cruising it upshifts as far as possible. I know it's for efficiency but it seems excessive. Not that the old 5 speed was a spectacular trans, but it was simple and predictable.

Also, behind a 177 with the new 4matic+ in a, E/S AMG, it's just fantastic. Shifts very well. Haven't seen them with high mileage to tell how it works as it wears in, but initial driving is smoother than the 7G MCT for sure.