mikefamig

Did Mercedes ever do anything to help owners of the early 2015 C300 with defective piston wrist pins? Is the owner completely responsible for the repair after warranty runs out on the car?

Mike.

GreekUPS

Most likely the owner is responsible. I haven’t read anyone claiming MB picked up the tab after warranty ended. I think it’s a $8k job or somewhere around there. Also heard it’s only a noise issue and that it won’t harm the car in the long run. Not sure how true that is.

mikefamig

It is a serious problem that will get worse in time and cause early engine failure but if you own the car for two or three years of normal mileage you will probably have no problem. I have one here that has a noise that I suspect is the wrist pin and would like to know if and how Mercedes addressed the problem.

Mike.

riotrhythm

I've had my 2015 W205 since 2017 and only had the wrist pins repaired in February of this year. I haven't seen any claims of engine damage due to wrist pins, just an ugly noise. My dealer never saw any engine damage due to it and they said they've done over 70 of them. My dealer also told me that Mercedes would not cover wrist pin repairs outside of the warranty but I've seen some people have it good willed or willing to cover half of the cost, etc. Not guaranteed and take it in if it's under warranty because you'll probably be SOL if you're out of warranty.

mikefamig

I learned in another forum that the cars involved in this problem were those manufactured before April 2015 so they are all out of warranty as of april 2019. Mine was manufactured in December 2014.

Mike.

rivensoul

I just got mine back from having this fixed but mine is a certified pre-owned with extended warranty. They also updated the ecu and fixed a bad shift point.

GreekUPS

What shift point? I have a rough shift from 5-4th gear in cold temps. What was the fix?

rivensoul

In and out of 4th. The transmission shifts based on pressure and they can change the shift points in the transmission ecu.

GoHuskies

Are there any cases of engine damage caused by this issue?

I've read a great deal of paranoia but have not seen much to backup the idea that the wrist pin issue is any sort of ticking time bomb.

mikefamig

Ask anyone who knows the workings of an internal combustion engine and they will tell you that it is a real problem that will shorten engine life. The piston is connected to the connecting rod by the wrist pin and that connection has play or looseness in it. This looseness will increase at an accelerated rate due to the parts banging against each other which is the noise that you hear.If the looseness becomes great enough the piston will hit the valves. It can also cause the piston to wobble just ever so slightly in it's bore causing the skirt to contact and mar the cylinder wall.

Mike.

C300949

So I bought my 2015 c300 luxury on November 2017 with 37k on the clock. After driving it 1k miles the turbo fails. I take it to the mb dealership for warranty work and they fix it I ask about the noise coming from the engine that sounds like a tractor they tell me it’s normal and that it’s just the injectors ok then it the “injectors” fast forward to last week I’m driving the car to work and it looses all power starts smoking and I hear a rattle in the exhaust metal hitting metal.i have the car towed to the same dealership @58k. out of warranty now and I’m told I have catastrophic piston failure on piston 1 Now I started doing research and my vehicle fall under the dreaded wrist pin failure and now it needs a new engine I’m told that it would cost 6k to remove the engine and diagnose the failure. POS I owned my 2008 c350 for 9 years and it was the best car that I owned.How do I reach out to mbUSA? Any Advice would be greatly appreciated.

mikefamig

For all of the reading that I have done I can't find any help online. I also talked to a dealer yesterday and they told me that Mercedes was fixing them under warranty but not afterwards. There really ought to be a law. If you learn anything please let me know.

Mike.

mikefamig

Why isn't this a sticky note? It seems to me that a little heads up would be a public service.

My father-in-law bought one of these from a used car lot and got stuck good. He's 90 years old and was an easy mark. The car was off lease, passed through auction and he got it at a used car dealer. When I got my hands on the car it looked like the oil had never been changed and there was tree leaves in the air filter box. Unfortunately the car had sat in his garage for months before I got it and has no warranty or guarantee with it.

He is also a long time member here and a heads up here may have saved him and may save some other people some pain. These cars are coming off lease now and a lot of people are going to get stuck with one like I did.

Mike.

C300949

Attached is the repair cost from Mercedes Benz of Anaheim I reached out MBUSA to start the investigation on my vehicle

ItalianJoe1

Never seen one fail from this issue. Have had several cases of pre-ignition destroying pistons on cars that were run on poor quality fuel, it usually only affects hot climate cars.

There is no evidence that the piston noise will ever be anything more than just a noise, and there is absolutely no way the car will have extended warranty coverage for something like this that isn't a safety issue.

C300949

I see you posting this but I’m never seen or heard about it besides you talking about it.It must be fairly common since the Benz department told me they had another car in the shop for the same reason blown piston still should not be happening on a 50 k car can you share some threads on the board that talk about “pre ignition detonation” thanks !

mikefamig

It's still early for these engines to fail, give it time.

Mike.

fabbrisd1

I think this thread might get around to clearer understanding ....

1. Actual Wrist Pin "Issue" - was isolated to "possible" for specific year and specific VIN sequence.

2. Was questioned by "many" W205 owners due to the "metallic" nature of the sound of the W205 high pressure fuel injection system - when listening from outside the car, especially with hood up !

3. I have not seen - and ItalianJoe has reported he has not seen - any case of engine failure due to the wrist pin issue. The original # of "wrist pin possible" W205's is small as compared to total W205's sold - and the # of "confirmed wrist pins" has been very/very small.
On regular dealer maintenance with customers - I have seen two "wrist pin possibles" that were confirmed during service - both were corrected under warranty at that time.
Again - I have not seen a engine failure attributed to "confirmed wrist pin issue".

4. That said - since this C300 was dealer serviced - and if the VIN# was in "the possibles" and this wasn't checked and confirmed when serviced under warranty - heck ya - I would hound MBUSA and hound the Dealer to make this right 100% - go boy go !

4.

mikefamig

This is not completely true. People who lease cars aren't as likely to get the repairs done as owners are and just drive the car to the end of the lease. At that point the cars go to a used car lot or auction and then a used car lot and some unsuspecting buyer gets stuck with it. I'm in this situation. I have bought a carfax, autochek and talked to a local dealer about the car and it does not have any record of being diagnosed with the problem but it does appear to have the problem. I don't believe that they would diagnose it unless the lessor complained about the noise and many lease owners can't be bothered.

Mike.

rustycruiser

I had the wrist pin repair performed at 15,000 miles, and had the engine replaced at 45,000 miles after #1 piston failure. The engine started burning a little oil at 35,000 miles. I brought up the oil consumption and was told it was in the normal range. My gas is about 80% Costco sourced, the other 20% Sams Club or regular gas station. I bring it up as Costco is meant to be Top Tier gas with additives

TYB

I'm a fellow 2015 C300 owner. Regarding your engine replacement at 45,000 miles: Was this under the MB warranty or a 3rd party? How painful/painless was this experience? Did they give any indication as to why or what went wrong to cause such an early engine failure?

The context of my questions is that my 2015 C300 has 20,500 miles on it, out of warranty, and I'm pretty sure I have the wrist pin noise. I am debating getting a 3rd party extended warranty for peace of mind given the problems this engine can have.

Thanks for any additional information you can provide.

Elbandito

Will extended warranty cover this repair? Just drove my SO”s car and hear the noise clearly

dwpc

Without statistics, like percentage of engines that had wrist pin and/or piston failures, the affected engine nos., miles at failure, and engine source, the discussion is circular. As long as the data is held by M-B and not likely to be released, owners have no way of knowing whether the problems are statistically significant or anecdotes.

benzdude

Me too! in C when I slow down

Demarko7

Hi Everyone, I am thinking of buying a c class W205 C220 Bluetec (12/2014) with 75k miles.

I have the VIN and engine number, how can I check online if the car was on the list of affected cars with the wrist pins issue?

VIN: WDD2050042R031271
ENGINE: 651921 32 455428

Thank you!