Yes w213 forum has a 5 page thread on this. Looks like theirs is more open than ours, and have noted a few issues of leaking coolers due to debris.
Thinking maybe a tighter mesh in front of our OEM mesh might mitigate this issue. Does EC or AMS offer upgraded coolers?

 

 

Well, to start off, I have had my car at the dealer 5 times now, trying to diagnose a rich coolant smell that I am getting when I pull back in my garage, typically after a spirited drive. They replaced turbo inlet lines, o rings, pressure tested, compression tested, and nothing. They dyed the coolant systems (hi and lo) and had me run a thousand miles to UV check afterwards. Nothing. I finally called Renntech, as Hartmut, the owner came from AMG, and after speaking to him, he said that he spoke with a guy in Germany at AMG, who mentioned to check the lower intercoolers, since they may have a pinhole leak caused by rock chips from the road surface. The guy told him that they have had numerous issues with this in Germany, as there is no real protective screening to speak of in front of these units, and that the lower right hand intercooler was the more common, as it is the side closest to the accumulated debris, etc., at the side of the road. Hartmut said that perhaps AMG might be working on some sort of retrofit solution. Ironically, I was so hoping that this was in fact my problem, as upon hearing this, my dealer replaced both on mine, but after another 1000 miles, the smell is still there and in 1000 miles, that small resevoir was 1/4 in lower in coolant than before.

 

 

 

I can see this happening often with this kind of design. I had plans to just buy some screen mesh sheets and tack it in front of the coolers. I first heard about this issue with Shmee's car I believe with his GTR.

 

 

 

I am located in the US.

 

 

 

 

Mesh would blocks some of the air, thus reducing effectiveness of the cooler? this is where the adage of "power, reliability, cost, pick 2" comes in.

 

I don't think the air flow would be reduced too much by the mesh. Maybe 1-2% at the most. Mesh is much better than coolers damaged by stones and a potential failure.

I have to make a custom mesh for my CLS soon.

My guess is damaged coolers such as mine below could have their effectivity reduced by ± 3-5%.

 

MB sure will be getting lots of complaints. Maybe it will turn into a recall.

 

 

Our cars (W205-C63)have a grill to help some and it cant be too small of mesh as it would stop too much air. I have been on this forum for 3 years and have not seen much problems with our cars. Maybe the GT has more??

 

This is exactly true as all performance cars with turbos will have coolers and even cars with Superchargers need a lot of air as if you remember the ZO6 was having cooling problems on the track and the new ZR1 I think has something like 13 coolers. If they put a small mesh over them they would not be as effective. It is just a one of the things we live with. You have engine radiator and engine oil coolers and trans coolers and turbo inter cooler radiators and some have differential coolers and they have to be getting a lot of air so some damage in some circumstances is going to happen.

 

Had this exact thing happen to me earlier this year while on a trip out of state. I was on a back highway with a horribly patched part of asphalt on the other aide of the road. An 18 wheeler hit it and threw asphalt pieces all over the front of my car.

I first noticed something mechanically was wrong a few hours later when I got close to my destination. My transmission oil temp started running high. Normally it is steady at 183F, but it stayed steady at 190F instead and would climb when I slowed down from highway speed. Got up to low 220s when I finally got to the hotel.

I called up my mechanic right away, and he and I tried to remotely diagnose the car. For whatever reason I initially didn't think about the asphalt pieces maybe causing it, and when I looked at the reservoir on top the engine it didn't look empty because a bit of a bit of residual coolant caught in the front corner. My mechanic first thought it could be one of the two pumps going bad. He said they are cheap POS pumps and break all the time. By that point though, I noticed the front radiator was wet.

Found a piece of asphalt basically melted to the radiator, almost like it hit and the molded/formed to the radiator, mostly patching the hole that it had made. I pretty much had a slow leak the entire way to my destination that finally went dry right before I got there. We didn't find the leak location until everything cooled off and the asphalt piece popped off when I tried to refill the resevoir. It was pretty noticeble too; a stream of water was shooting out thw front grille directly onto my foot. To onlookers I'm sure it looked like Herbie from The Love Bug peeing on someone's foot.

According to my mechanic, the low-temp circuit that was hit is a pretty weird design because it ties the transmission cooler line and the air intercooler line into the same circuit. He said other than the high transmission temps I should have also felt a pretty noticeable drop in power because of the inability to cool the intake air. The ECU would have gone into a soft safe mode to prevent damage. He said that more than likely wouldn't have thrown a CEL but would have been recorded where he'd have been able to read it.

Had to leave my car for a week at an out-of-state dealer waiting on parts. They ended up covering it under warranty. Even my mechanic didn't expect them to do it. But they did. I told them pretty much the same story as above, so it's not like they didn't know what caused it. But for whatever reason they covered it.

That being said, they did do a crappy job otherwise. My front bumper was crooked (not bad, bit nociteable), and they cleaned up none of the coolant mess left by the leak. Not only that, they didn't bleed it properly either and had to deal with bubbles belching coolant out the relief hole all over the top of my engine for several weeks after I got the car back.

 

All this is scary. I think this is also caused by the design that the intakes are too close to road surface. It needs more than those big hole grills.

 

 

 

I have the same damage on my 2017 coupe. Dealership is quoting $1,800 to get radiator replaced. I'm trying to get MBUSA to cover this but we'll see how it goes. Anyone else have luck with getting it covered under warranty?