I would definitely call HQ or someone who can handle it because first off, if not one mechanic can find a problem that is causing a loss of compression, they probably need better mechanics especially if they are working on $30k+ car. I think at this point, they are just trying to get more money out of you guys or they just have no ****ing clue whats going on.

 

I used a Lemon Law attorney to go after Nissan, it worked, but be warned the second you say "lawyer", nobody at the dealership will talk to you anymore until its settled.

 

But I feel like you have to bring up laywers, cause I mean your car is in the shop for weeks which is unnecessary. If you dont, its just going to sit there for weeks or months.

 

I did leave the dealer a, what I felt to be, comical voicemail (of course nobody was available when I called) about how I haven't heard from anyone in weeks and that I wondered if they ever planned to fix my car. The advisor called back just before closing, saying she thought her manager was going to be in touch some time ago, but that obviously never happened. Her story was that they were working on it (despite then saying the tech was out sick and not working on it that day), that they broke a head bolt during disassembly, that it took them "like a week" to get the tool to remove the broken stud, and that yesterday they had "two guys working on it for hours to get the broken bolt out"...so all this time nothing was done. Apparently, based on what they told me, that would completely prevent them from doing any further diagnosis, which I'm not stupid and I know that isn't true. Her claim was that she would be in touch today or tomorrow with a diagnosis if her tech decides to show up for work.

The advisor also did mention that at this point they weren't even sure if this would be covered under warranty or not. My original permission for diagnostics only included what they described to be as a compression and leak down test. I did not authorize anything further so it was my assumption, at this point with MBUSA being involved to approve the next steps, that this was now a warranty case. I told her bluntly that "we would have serious problems" if this was not covered under warranty.

I made no mention of getting a lawyer and calling MBUSA customer support weeks ago did nothing to get the dealership in gear. I'm guessing I should call again if, for nothing else, just to show my urgency and the complete lack of regard on MBUSA's part.

You mention the dealer won't speak to you after mentioning a lawyer. Did you tell the dealer themselves you were getting a lawyer or did it come through the grapevine once the lawyer gave Nissan notice?

 

That's some bs, if the damn technician knew what he was doing, he wouldn't have broken the bolt off. As you said you only gave them permission to do a compression test and not a full on surgery of the car. I would definitely let HQ know that they were hiding the fact that they broke a bolt without letting the customer know what happened. A good dealership/Service manager would have given you a call daily to update you on their progress, no one should be worried about their car going in for a compression test. And I bet they gave you a crappy C300 as a loaner.

 

I actually have a GLS450 this time, which my wife and I love. Supposedly they sold this loaner and wanted me to bring it back, but three days later they still have not called to arrange a loaner swap. I'm guessing the buyer doesn't realize it isn't new and has 2k miles on it now.

I've usually gotten GLC's, once a GLE, once a C300 couple that was pretty sweet but they forgot about the two baby seats that needed to go in, so that car was replaced with something else that day. Never a bigger sedan, but I'm guessing it's because they just don't sell that many of them and don't keep as many on the lot.

 

Oh, i only get C300s when I get my service done. But anyways, I would call every day to the dealership, its just not right to have your car sitting in the shop for weeks.

 

Apparently they have decided to replace the cylinder head and that it "should" be covered under warranty. I'm not sure why they couldn't have examined the cylinder head while dealing with the broken head bolt, but whatever.

They told me to plan for end of next week on getting the car back.

 

that can be an advantage. My Infiniti was in for 30 days and TADA they instantly lost the Lemon Law case because that was the cutoff for my State. Even though I pointed this out, Infiniti STILL forced me to go after them with an attorney.

 

I think the real problem here is the lack of communication from the service department. Your service adviser should be giving you regular updates on the status of your vehicle. They should have provided you their cell and should be providing updates by text or voice (they are supposed to tailor this to customer preference).

Call the service adviser and ask for an update. Be prepared for them to ask if they can call you back as they will likely need to check in with the shop foreman as to the status of repairs. If the service adviser is unable to give you an update ask to speak with the service manager. Stay calm and polite. Don't rant about any legal stuff (you're not there yet since CPO cannot be covered by lemon law and there is no evidence that they have violated Magnuson Moss...yet).
If you are polite and patient the level of service should improve as this gets escalated.

If you are still unable to get reasonable updates to your inquiries after following up with the service dept call MB Customer Care and start a case. DO NOT MENTION ANYTHING LEGAL OR THEY WILL CEASE TO HELP YOU!. Ask for their assistance in getting updates and a timeline for resolution of your issue. This will escalate you issue further and ensure that the SM and GM of the dealership become aware of your issues if they aren't already.

Good luck.

 

So they upgraded you two tiers above your C400. Clearly they are trying to keep you happy with the loaner. I think you just need a better service adviser.

 

This is never a good idea. It chokes off negotiation and does nothing to help a potential case. In fact, keeping a good relationship with the service department can be extremely helpful when you are gathering evidence for a warranty case.
So the moral of the story is; even if you are going the legal route, don't talk about it and don't threaten any of the involved parties with it.

 

I'm closely related to a car porter at this exact dealer. From what has trickled down to me they don't think about things like that, more like send whatever car we have left, as the whole department is extremely unorganized. Nobody ever knows what is going on, they will schedule cars for appointments, then the car sits outside for four days until they even begin to look at it. This has happened repeatedly with me and I agree that the major problem is more with the dealership than with the car itself. Taking four days to diagnose a door that has excessive wind noise and a door handle with an LED not working is unacceptable and if they have to order parts you repeat this process again two weeks later. If you aren't the squeaky wheel the car will sit forever with nothing being done. This has been my direct experience and this car has been in the shop at least 60 days in the two years I've owned it, most of this time sitting there with nothing being done to it.

100% of the times I have called during this now month long ordeal, no adviser has been available to talk. I would go, literally, days of begging on voicemails for an update with no return call. The lemon law lawyer seems to think there is something worth going after, so we will see how this week goes and if they can stick to last week's promise of the car returning by end of this week.

Is all this OK? Should I just wait to get the car back and let the whole thing go and hope it never happens again? Should I push Mercedes Customer Care to make an offer to get me into something else for a fresh start? Should I get a lawyer?

 

Customer care is not going to offer a buyout for something like this. Just enjoy the GLS. Drive it like you stole it and put a zillion miles on it.
When it comes time to trade the car in you should jump brands. Personally, I wouldn't own an MB if I was more than 30 min from a decent service center for warranty work. They are nice cars but they always need warranty work, usually for minor stuff but sometimes not so minor. Hopefully, you have a decent Indy German car shop nearby for regular maintenance items.

 

not necessarily, **** happens

 

Day 36 update. Called the dealer last Thursday since they said it should be done by the end of last week, and was told it would be more like early this week. Wasn't given any more information than that. Just called to see what the plan is for this week and was told they needed to order a couple more parts and now the tech is saying end of this week at the latest.

I did ask for what the actual diagnosis was and it sounds like there was an issue with the valve guides failing. This of course was second hand information through the adviser, who told me once everything is done we'd have a better report on what was actually done.

 

Day 43 of the car being held hostage by the dealer. After being promised the car by end of last week, that slipped to today in order to not rush things on Friday. Sure, whatever. Just called the dealer, who informed me that the tech stripped a bolt while putting everything back together and they need to order another part. I'm being promised that it will absolutely be done tomorrow.

I spoke to someone through Mercedes Customer Care with the title of Executive Referral Manager. Made the decision to open a formal case that Mercedes claims to look into, which I'm not expecting them to assume any responsibility in all this. The call went as I expected, with the agent offering no opinion on whether 40+ days consecutive in the shop was excessive or if MBUSA has any policy to make good will with their customers in these instances.

 

Finally got the car back on day 45. The final diagnosis was that the exhaust valve seats on two cylinders had failed at 51k miles. The official write up from the dealer us as follows...

VEHICLE SHAKES WHILE IDLING. CHECK AND ADVISE
VERIFIED CUSTOMER COMPLAINT, FOUND ENGINE TO IDLE VERY ROUGH
WHEN IN DRIVE AND FOOT IS ON THE BRAKE PEDAL. CHECKED CODES
AND DID NOT FIND ANY FAULTS IN THE ME. PERFORMED COMPRESSION
TEST AND FOUND READINGS ON EACH CYLINDER TO BE: 1. 185
2. 175 3. 175 4. 130 5. 140 6. 180.
PERFORMED LEAK DOWN TEST AND FOUND CYLINDERS AT : 1. 6%
2. 6% 3. 5% 4. 48% 5. 40% 6. 6%
DURING LEAK DOWN TEST FOUND AIR TO BE ESCAPING THROUGH THE
EXHAUST, AND CONCLUDED THAT THE CYLINDER HEAD MUST BE
REPLACED.
REPLACED CYLINDER HEAD AND VERIFIED REPAIRS. VEHICLE NOW
IDLES AND OPERATES AS DESIGNED AT ALL TIMES. PERFORMED
EXTENSIVE ROAD TESTING TO ENSURE NO LEAKS/ISSUES ARE PRESENT

PARTS------QTY---FP-NUMBER---------------DESCRIPTION--------------------UNIT PRICE
JOB # 3 1 276-010-24-13 CYLINDER HEAD
JOB # 3 8 278-016-01-69 CYLINDER HEAD
JOB # 3 3 276-016-00-21 ELASTOMER-MOLD
JOB # 3 1 276-016-01-00 CYLINDER HEAD
JOB # 3 1 276-203-01-02 COOLANT PIPE
JOB # 3 1 026-997-97-45 O-RING WARRANTY
JOB # 3 5 026-997-16-45 O-RING WARRANTY
JOB # 3 6 276-141-07-80 FLANGE GASKET
JOB # 3 3 276-141-04-80 FLANGE GASKET
JOB # 3 1 025-997-46-45 O-RING
JOB # 3 1 025-997-47-45 O-RING
JOB # 3 1 276-142-03-80 MULTI-HOLE SEA
JOB # 3 1 026-997-28-45 O-RING
JOB # 3 1 651-096-03-80 GASKET
JOB # 3 2 024-997-10-45 O-RING
JOB # 3 6 276-050-00-26 INTAKE VALVE
JOB # 3 6 276-050-40-00 EXHAUST VALVE
JOB # 3 6 000-053-46-58 VALVE STEM SEA
JOB # 3 3 278-053-01-00 TS VALVE STEM
JOB # 3 6 272-053-00-25 SPRING RETAINE
JOB # 3 6 272-053-01-25 SPRING RETAINE
JOB # 3 6 276-053-04-20 VALVE SPRING
JOB # 3 6 276-053-07-20 VALVE SPRING
JOB # 3 12 276-053-00-25 VALVE SPRING C
JOB # 3 24 000-053-11-26 VALVE COLLET
JOB # 3 12 642-050-00-80 HYDRAULIC ELEM
JOB # 3 12 276-050-14-00 ROLLER CAM FOL
JOB # 3 2 000-991-70-52 CYLINDER PIN
JOB # 3 8 002-990-09-14 STUD BOLT
JOB # 3 1 276-050-25-00 CHAIN TENSIONE
JOB # 3 2 000-540-23-05 CABLE HARNESS
JOB # 3 2 000-982-95-10 CABLE CONNECTO
JOB # 3 1 102-990-03-78 FITTING
JOB # 3 1 003-989-98-20-10 SEALANT MB
JOB # 3 1 270-180-01-09 TS OIL FILTER
JOB # 3 6 000-989-79-02-19BIFU MB 229.5 SAE 5
JOB # 3 1 007603-014106 SEAL RING,VLRU
JOB # 3 1 Q-1-03-0005 G40 ANTIFREEZE

 

glad it worked out okay, did they end up warrantying it for you?

 

It was covered under warranty.

 

And it's going back in. Sounds like a boost leak that popped up this morning on the bank they replaced the cylinder head. Clearly can hear the turbo spooling up, which I've never heard before. Spoke with the manager and he agreed it should come back. Sending a driver and loaner now to swap.

 

oof

is that the only dealership in your area?

 

This dealer is about an hour from me. The next closest is another 45 minutes in the same direction. Hopefully I'll have an idea of what's going on by end of day Monday.

 

Damn, you just can't catch a break with these guys. You gotta find a good Indy shop close by. Once you're out of warranty, you don't need those clowns messing with your ride anymore.

 

Quickly going from really bad, to a true nightmare in every way. Car was returned to me this afternoon after they claimed to fix the boost leak and did not make it 15 miles to my home without the low oil light coming on. It's leaking oil at a pretty good clip and will be towed back to the dealer tomorrow. What is even more concerning is that I'm finding multiple brackets missing some or all of their bolts.



Hopefully this video links will work to show what I could find. There is a lot of oil covering the bottom of the car and there is oil high enough that it is not just a loose drain plug. I'm at a complete loss for what to do, as I'm not sure the dealer can convince me the car will ever be safe to drive.