Car has been in my hands two weeks now. Went in this morning for Brake, Coolant, and Oil change/flush. The tech calls me back to let me know that the crank pully has done damage to the upper oil pan piercing it creating a leak. I have gotten under the car before purchase and noticed nothing...there was a pan below that was catching this leak.

They qouted me $850 to fix this. On top of the $300 service I took a good shot in the nuts this morning. A friend of mine is a tech at a benz dealer a few miles away who does side work. I will have him repair at a much better cost.

What I don't understand is how the crank pully could do such damage to the upper oil pan??? Another one of my concerns is how long this could have been damaged. If it was a good amount of time then I would assume the car may have been ran with low oil levels. Would a sensor pick up on this indicating a low oil level or would the engine just run until a problem associated with low oil happens.

I really hope this isn't a start to a love hate relationship. The car won't be with me long at this rate. 2 weeks and almost $1000.00 in work needed.

 

Wow strange!

 

Strange indeed, I'm really curious as to what my "inside tech" tells me. Maybe different than the dealer. I just don't understand this. Once we get the car on the lift this saturday or sunday I may be able to better explain.

The crank pully kickin' the shiat out of the oil pan enough to cause a leak??? Strange indeed........

I don't really feel good about this.

 

I know that a friend of mind mentioned something about a recall on the crank pulleys ,but I have not researched this.He has a CLK 430 and he's about to have MB chng his under recall.

 

HArmonic balancer. There's a recall for it. Have your dealer pay for it.

 

yeah it can cause some pretty expensive damage...only recently they put out the recall for it

 

Any idea where this info could be found. If a recall is in place there is no way I'm going to let it slide if they would pay for it.

 

There will be light illuminated on dash if oil level has dipped to low levels

 

That makes me feel alot better. I've been pretty nervous about this.

 

I went to the dealer today for some parts and the parts manager confirmed that there is a new recall on the crankshaft pullies.I will be getting mine done in two weeks!

 

if you can call up your parts manager and get the service bulletin number, that would prolly help out nitrogenbalance. some places like to pretend they dunno anything about it unless you got a letter in the mail

 

It seems to be a problem with all the cars that have the M113 motors 98-2k.I cannot speak for any kats with the v6 engines READ:https://mbworld.org/forums/showthrea...hlight=recalls This would go for ANY 4.3L,5.0L,5.5L M113 engine. C43,CLK430,E430,S430,ML430,CL500,E55,CLK55,ML55 made from 98-2k

 

Nitro,they should take care of yours right away without you waiting for any letter since your car has been damaged.Make sure they understand that the stupid harmonicx balancer failure caused all of the damage.It should be ABSOLUTELY NO $$ out of your pocket.I'm definitely going to get mine done.

 

Had my guy look at the car(not MB dealer) yesterday. He confirms that there is damage to the oil pan caused by the HB/Crank pully. However, the pully and or HB has most certainly been changed however because the car runs great just like the day I bought it. The car idles perfectly and is smooth and quiet throughout the entire serp. system. So what this tells us is that the HB/Crank pulley was fixed without fixing the oil pan correct???

No since this part may have been fixed and the broken oil pan (which was caused from the pully) wasn't do you guys think I have a whole nother issue at hand. I mean MB's damn pully did this so I'll be letting them know I just wonder if they will give me some bull about an incomplete fix.

I'll be going back monday morning coffee in hand.

THANKS GUYS, your alot of help.

 

Maybe the guy who owned the car chgnged the pulley himself or had someone else do it and never had the oil pan fixed.I would get in touch with the prior owner and find out what was the story. You still bought a great car,I am just sorry about the issues your having and the fact that the prior owner never said anything to you. If the dealer did this then you have a case but you will need the help of the prior owner.

 

ususally when the HB goes out, it does cause the exact same problem as you are having or described. what happens is that the inside the HB ballancer, there is a rubber balancer and it has been known to sort of fall off its seating and when it does that, the HB balancer is not balanced anymore, it wobbles and if not caught in time, it starts to wobble so much that it starts to tear away at anything the balancer hits while rotating, - one of the common things that the HB will tear up is the top of the oil pan.

as coolcarl suggest, it would be best to talk to the person whom you bought the car from, hopefully a car dealer of some sorts so that you can take action against them if they dont help you out - also if need be, there is always a lemon law to protect the buyer. if you bought it from a private party, it might be a bit harder to get infromation out of them - depending on how honest they are. but either wa its always easier to work with a car dealer on issues as such than a private party purchase. i just dont see this as being fair to you, the buyer, to have to go through this and it being only 2 weeks old. wish you luck..

 

READ: http://www.club202.com/forums/showth...&threadid=7703

 

Called the MB dealer that does my service today. After talking with the service manager for a while we found something strange. According their computer it shows various vehicle #'s pointing towards the recall but the vin# shows that this model is omitted from the recall.

So the engine falls under the recall but since the chasis is W202 it doesn't??? The service manager finds this as strange as I do which is good. They are going to contact an MB upper this week to find out if this should be ommited. I mean if it's an engine part that is recalled what the hell does the chasis have to do with it???

This is becoming more and more odd as the days go on.

 

Your dealer is absolutely STUPID! My buddy chked my VIN and it absolutely does qualify.I mean,What gives? I mean we both have 98 C43's unless they are detecting that it may have been done already which may or may not have been the case.Remember you are not aware of any wrk that may have been done! Don't forget.

 

yes, w202 c43 is included in the recall.

 

*$#%$%#$@! My HB went out in Feb. this year and I paid $$$$$$ for it. The only saving grace was that the pulley didn't shear my oil pan. I hope MB would have admitted to their problem much earlier.

 

i believe the recall stated that they will reimburse you for the parts and labor if you already changed it prior to the recall notice. check with the dealer again for that.

 

yea it did, they'll pay you back

 

Got a call back this morning. The MB dealer here tells me that when they looked into it my car it shows that the pulley was fixed/updated almost 4 years ago???

So she can't find the actual MB dealer because she doesn't have codes for dealers that far away. I'm in NH and the car was purchased right outside of Chicago IL. I'll have to contact the dealer out there and play cat and mouse.

So the question at hand. Why wasn't the oil pan fixed when the pulley was??? Obviously it would take a serious moron to leave a leaking oil pan for 4 years or not fix it when the pulley was done. I also find it hard to believe that if this oil pan leaked for 4 years they wouldn't be promted to fix it every oil change when the tech would notice it. Thats probably about 8-12 oil changes over the 4 years where this could have been noticed.

The posibility that I see is that maybe the oil pan took a beating at first but was ok, and finally gave in to a leak somewhat recently. I also have a feeling that everyone is going to do their best at avoiding this fix.

 

nitrogenbalance,
even if the HB was replaced 4 years agao they could have still replaced the part with another faulty HB as the new updated ones were not available during that time. check the PN on the HB and if the PN matches any of thses two, you still have a defective HB that could go bad. the PN that are affected are PN A112 035 00 00 or A112 035 06 00. with a flash light you should be able to easily read the PN on the HB, you might have to crank the engine a few times to get the PN to show form the top of the engine area, easy to do, worth the check. also in my opinion, the oil pan should still be covered under warranty because that is one of the items that HB messes up when it fails. i hope they dont give you the run around, any mercedes dealer shold be able to just take care of the situation without hassle, because MBUSA pays the dealer for the indicident anyways.