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My 2019 needed it and the dealer did it on prepaid maintenance without a fuss. The only way to know for sure with MY2019 was the presence or absence of the extra windshield sticker. Mine had it, so they did it. Both versions of the diff were electronic limited slip. They changed the clutch material at some point to one that didn't shed during break-in. But the specs of the diff were identical, meaning the sticker is really the only way to know.
I think by MY2020 all limited-slip diffs used the new material. If it were mine, I'd sleep well at night without a fluid change as long as my windshield didn't have the sticker.
I purchased my C63s Coupe
in April 2019. The sticker was on the driver side windshield. Also the tech. advisor informed me about the diff.oil change at 1,875 miles.
The sticker also shows information about the Break In period, 1000 miles. Max. Speed limit 85 mph.(see photo).
Our cars don’t need it because I believe we have an electronic rear differential? I’m not sure if thats the right term but I know 2019+ don’t need it.
But, I got the prepaid maintenance so I made sure they did it.
Did it at Beverly Hills. The SA even looked in the system to see if I needed it and either he was just confused and went along with what I asked him or the system still says to do it.
Edit: I got my car May of 2019 and ended up getting this done shortly after of course, so maybe there was still some confusion about the FL at the time. Although, I would expect Beverly Hills to know.
Thank you for your suggestion, I ended up having the fluid changed at Star Motor Werks and I am glad I did it.
Originally Posted by AMG82
If you purchased pre-paid maintenance plan, you can force dealer to do rear differential oil change for free as it was listed as included service on official MB website.
Otherwise, I highly recommend Star Motor Werks at Costa Mesa, CA.
I actually took my 2020 C63s Coupe yesterday to there to get downpipe installed and they did exceptional job.
Their price is also very good. I am sure rear differential service will be cheaper than one from dealer.
Thank you for the suggestion, I ended up getting it done at Star Motor Werks and Chris was super nice. Pricing very competitive like you said and I was out very quickly.
Originally Posted by FearlessFarris
So here are two photos of the differential fluid that my service advisor saved for me in a plastic coke bottle. He said that this was some of the first fluid to come out.
I tried to get some decent pictures. This is as good as I was able to capture with my cell phone. If anyone cares, I still have the sample and can maybe pour it out on a plate to show a better representation of what is in it.
The fluid still had a thin consistency, and did not have any pieces of metal that were large enough to visibly identify. My service advisor did mention that the fluid was kind of "stinky," so of course I smelled it. Not sure how best to describe it, though, since I'm not sure what fresh diff fluid is supposed to smell like.
I'm not a mechanic, so I'll let you all render your opinions on whether changing out this fluid was a good decision or worth my $250.
This is after I "swirled" the bottle a bit to see what may stick to the side. The fluid is a bit darker than how it appears here. Maybe some air in it. Again, trying to show what sticks to the side after "rolling" the fluid around the bottle.
I just did mine and the oil that came out looked just like the pictures posted, and it smelled pretty bad. For reference my car is a MY2020 C63s coupe with a manufacturing date of Aug 2019.
Just checked mine in at MB of Seattle. I prepaid the maintenance plan and they checked it in with no questions. Unsure if the maintenance plan is gonna cover or, as others have suggested, they'll just charge it back to MB under warranty. Doesn't seem like I'll get charged since I also asked if I could get the suspension looked at to check if it's still within factory specs and SA mentioned if they do need to do a re-alignment it'll be ~250. First time she mentioned that there might be a charge so here's to hoping I won't get dinged for the diff change!
Just checked mine in at MB of Seattle. I prepaid the maintenance plan and they checked it in with no questions. Unsure if the maintenance plan is gonna cover or, as others have suggested, they'll just charge it back to MB under warranty. Doesn't seem like I'll get charged since I also asked if I could get the suspension looked at to check if it's still within factory specs and SA mentioned if they do need to do a re-alignment it'll be ~250. First time she mentioned that there might be a charge so here's to hoping I won't get dinged for the diff change!
Just don’t authorize anything outside of the scope of prepaid maintenance and warranty work.
As for the diff change, atleast at the time I purchased the prepaid maintenance, MB was still advertising that it was part of the cars break-in/service schedule. So I knew either way I could say I paid for it.
Just checked mine in at MB of Seattle. I prepaid the maintenance plan and they checked it in with no questions. Unsure if the maintenance plan is gonna cover or, as others have suggested, they'll just charge it back to MB under warranty. Doesn't seem like I'll get charged since I also asked if I could get the suspension looked at to check if it's still within factory specs and SA mentioned if they do need to do a re-alignment it'll be ~250. First time she mentioned that there might be a charge so here's to hoping I won't get dinged for the diff change!
I hope they waive it the differential oil for you, best of luck!
wait... wait... I just got my invoice and while they didn't charge me for my differential oil change, they also performed my service A maintenance... I didn't ask to do this. I'm only 3 months into car ownership, and less than 2,000 miles into it. Did I just consume one of my prepaid maintenances early? I thought I wasn't going to do my service A until ~ June or ~10,000 miles?
wait... wait... I just got my invoice and while they didn't charge me for my differential oil change, they also performed my service A maintenance... I didn't ask to do this. I'm only 3 months into car ownership, and less than 2,000 miles into it. Did I just consume one of my prepaid maintenances early? I thought I wasn't going to do my service A until ~ June or ~10,000 miles?
If they actually performed Service A, then yes, I would say they just burned one of your prepaid services. You can check the Mercedes Me connect app to see when it says the next service is due. If it's a year from today, then they reset the service reminder and the next service due is Service B. If you check in the car itself, I believe it actually says what service is due next, so it'll say Service B.
Last edited by superswiss; Oct 15, 2020 at 07:40 PM.
Hmm... well I haven't picked up my car yet, but on my mercedes me app it still shows it as june of next year... this is concerning
You definitely wanna follow up on this and find out exactly what they did. I don't know when AMG fixed the service reminder reset bug, but my 2019 needed a software update to correctly reflect the next service. Until they did the software update it showed wrong in the car and the Mercedes Me connect app after they performed Service A at 10k miles.
You definitely wanna follow up on this and find out exactly what they did. I don't know when AMG fixed the service reminder reset bug, but my 2019 needed a software update to correctly reflect the next service. Until they did the software update it showed wrong in the car and the Mercedes Me connect app after they performed Service A at 10k miles.
Just picked up the car and got a better understanding. Because I had brought up in conversation my pre paid maintenance plan so eagerly when trying to cover the rear diff, they noticed that my car was actually "due" for service being how it was manufactured in 6/30/19 even though I purchased it in July of this year. They said that typically this particular dealership would have performed an oil change when it was sold since it was outside the 1 year from manufacture date. But guess they didn't do it at the dealership from where I bought it. So it was due for it's oil change.
In the end, I feel like perhaps the dealership where I bought it from should have done the oil change, as I didn't realize when I purchased it, it was 1 year past the manufacturing date. But I'm also feeling that this is partly on me for not knowing/researching this and coming to terms that I have to eat a quarter of my prepaid maintenance plan, essentially.
Back to the original thread though, my rear diff change was covered! yay!
Just picked up the car and got a better understanding. Because I had brought up in conversation my pre paid maintenance plan so eagerly when trying to cover the rear diff, they noticed that my car was actually "due" for service being how it was manufactured in 6/30/19 even though I purchased it in July of this year. They said that typically this particular dealership would have performed an oil change when it was sold since it was outside the 1 year from manufacture date. But guess they didn't do it at the dealership from where I bought it. So it was due for it's oil change.
In the end, I feel like perhaps the dealership where I bought it from should have done the oil change, as I didn't realize when I purchased it, it was 1 year past the manufacturing date. But I'm also feeling that this is partly on me for not knowing/researching this and coming to terms that I have to eat a quarter of my prepaid maintenance plan, essentially.
Back to the original thread though, my rear diff change was covered! yay!
I'd raise this question to MB to see if there is anything that can be done, cars don't always sell right away after they arrive at the dealership. The dealership that sold the car to you should've either done the oil change for you or told you about it at the time of the purchase. Congrats on the rear diff being covered tho.
Just picked up the car and got a better understanding. Because I had brought up in conversation my pre paid maintenance plan so eagerly when trying to cover the rear diff, they noticed that my car was actually "due" for service being how it was manufactured in 6/30/19 even though I purchased it in July of this year. They said that typically this particular dealership would have performed an oil change when it was sold since it was outside the 1 year from manufacture date. But guess they didn't do it at the dealership from where I bought it. So it was due for it's oil change.
In the end, I feel like perhaps the dealership where I bought it from should have done the oil change, as I didn't realize when I purchased it, it was 1 year past the manufacturing date. But I'm also feeling that this is partly on me for not knowing/researching this and coming to terms that I have to eat a quarter of my prepaid maintenance plan, essentially.
Back to the original thread though, my rear diff change was covered! yay!
Honestly, something doesn't sound right here. You said your Mercedes Me app says next service is due in June of next year, so that means they performed a service in June of this year. You would have gotten a service reminder in the instrument cluster otherwise the moment you drove it off the lot. If they just did the service now, it would say your next service is due in October of next year. Other than that, yes the scheduled maintenance clock starts from the date the car was manufactured, so essentially yours was due for the first service just before you bought it and from the looks of the service reminder, it was actually performed then.
Last edited by superswiss; Oct 16, 2020 at 01:45 PM.
Yeup! Thanks to @Toothles5 I decided to give mb USA a call and they cleared up things. So first, my mercedes me app still says next service is due June 30, 2021. My SA when I went to pick up told me that it might take a little bit for the app to sync with the car. I'm waiting for that sync to happen. My SA also showed me the complete maintenance history of my car and showed there was nothing documented about an oil change being done, at all.
Fortunately, when I went to call MB USA, they helped clarify that I purchased a 4 year, 40,000 prepaid maintenance plan, not based upon the number of services completed. So even though I may have had a service done early, my prepaid maintenance plan doesn't count how many times my car is serviced, just as long as I get services done while under 40,000 or 4 years from purchase. There are some maintenance plans that apparently do count the number of services, but not the one I purchased... whew.
So all is well in the world, I feel like I can drink from the unlimited refill/service cup, as long as I stay within bounds. Thanks all for the help! Pleasantly surprised at how well this worked out! Ya know, being treated like a valued customer! haha :P
Yeup! Thanks to @Toothles5 I decided to give mb USA a call and they cleared up things. So first, my mercedes me app still says next service is due June 30, 2021. My SA when I went to pick up told me that it might take a little bit for the app to sync with the car. I'm waiting for that sync to happen. My SA also showed me the complete maintenance history of my car and showed there was nothing documented about an oil change being done, at all.
Fortunately, when I went to call MB USA, they helped clarify that I purchased a 4 year, 40,000 prepaid maintenance plan, not based upon the number of services completed. So even though I may have had a service done early, my prepaid maintenance plan doesn't count how many times my car is serviced, just as long as I get services done while under 40,000 or 4 years from purchase. There are some maintenance plans that apparently do count the number of services, but not the one I purchased... whew.
So all is well in the world, I feel like I can drink from the unlimited refill/service cup, as long as I stay within bounds. Thanks all for the help! Pleasantly surprised at how well this worked out! Ya know, being treated like a valued customer! haha :P
It shouldn't take much time. My app reflected the new service due date while my car was still in the shop. It's pretty much immediately, however, as I said previously, the first time they reset the service reminder it didn't take and my app said service was still due. I had to bring the car back and they performend a software update and then reset it again, at which point it took and my app updated the service due date within the hour. It actually has a slightly later date than when the service was actually performed, because the second reset was done about 2 weeks after the actual service. If you go into the car's Service menu, what does it say there?
Something still doesn't sound right to me, though. How come it even said June 2021 in the first place? That means before they sold you the car, they reset the service reminder w/o actually doing a service. That's at least somewhat shady as far as I'm concerned. You would have potentially gone w/o service for 2 years from the manufacturing date. Oil degrades whether the car is driven or not once exposed to oxygen, which is why the scheduled service intervals are 1 year or 10k miles, whichever comes first. If your car was manufactured in June 2019, the service reminder would have said June 2020 and as said above you would have had a service reminder in the instrument cluster when you bought the car in July. As far as the prepaid maintenance goes, you should be fine and get your 4 years or 40k miles, but I would be kinda miffed about them not servicing the car before they sold it to you. Given that it was serviced now, it'll all work out, but at least it would leave a bad taste for me.
It shouldn't take much time. My app reflected the new service due date while my car was still in the shop. It's pretty much immediately, however, as I said previously, the first time they reset the service reminder it didn't take and my app said service was still due. I had to bring the car back and they performend a software update and then reset it again, at which point it took and my app updated the service due date within the hour. It actually has a slightly later date than when the service was actually performed, because the second reset was done about 2 weeks after the actual service. If you go into the car's Service menu, what does it say there?
Something still doesn't sound right to me, though. How come it even said June 2021 in the first place? That means before they sold you the car, they reset the service reminder w/o actually doing a service. That's at least somewhat shady as far as I'm concerned. You would have potentially gone w/o service for 2 years from the manufacturing date. Oil degrades whether the car is driven or not once exposed to oxygen, which is why the scheduled service intervals are 1 year or 10k miles, whichever comes first. If your car was manufactured in June 2019, the service reminder would have said June 2020 and as said above you would have had a service reminder in the instrument cluster when you bought the car in July. As far as the prepaid maintenance goes, you should be fine and get your 4 years or 40k miles, but I would be kinda miffed about them not servicing the car before they sold it to you. Given that it was serviced now, it'll all work out, but at least it would leave a bad taste for me.
Well... I just checked my car's service menu and it shows Service A still due in 257 days... oi... why is this all bungled up? I'm half tempted to just take it in when the 257 day alert comes on and get another service...
And you're right, I can't believe that I was driving around on 1 year + old oil... I'm glad I didn't ruin anything, but now that I think about it, I broke my engine in with that oil... I don't know what I can do once again at this point other than just sit and pray it was lubricating enough during my engine break-in period?
The supplemental AMG manual within my owners manual booklet says diff service at 2K miles but not mentioned on the break-in sticker on the left upper corner of the windshield. 2021 U.S. C63S sedan. I will get it changed for a peace of mind.
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