CroMecka

Hi All,
Recently had my SBC Brake Unit fail on my 2006 CLS55. All ok. I found out on this forum that there is an unlimited 25 year warranty on them. Sweet! Get my car towed to the dealer. Dealer calls me and says it's all covered. No worries.
They call me back while they're doing the work and let me know that one of my back rear brakes can't be bled due to a rusted bleed screw. For them to complete the SBC warranty work they need to bleed all the lines etc but can't because this bleed screw is stuck. Now they have to replace the whole rear brake caliper ($1,300 CAD parts + labor)!!! WTF??
I asked them if they can replace the bleeder valve or drill out the bleed screw? Nope, due to liability issues blah, blah, blah they can't and have to replace everything.
My question is; Would this be covered under warranty because it part of the SBC unit replacement to bleed all the lines but this was preventing it from being done? My indie local mechanic could have drilled out this screw and replaced it for $10! But he's not allowed to work on the car while it's out for warranty work at the Mercedes dealership.
It's total bull****. I don't think I have any arguments here to recover any of this money. I just wanted to rant.

machild

Bleeders rust in all the time. Calipers can easily be salvaged by welding a nut over the protruding bleeder nipple. Betweeen the heat of welding and the addtional size of the nut that will allow a good size wrench on it, the bleeder is simply unscrewed. Install a new bleeder nipple, complete the bleeding process, and all is done. This is even faster than drilling. But, dealers don't do that and they hide behind the liability issue. They are the worse when it comes to just being parts changers.

CroMecka

OMG this is genius! If only dealers had some brains to fix issues rather than replace parts ***** nilly then we (the owners) would be happier.