Please check my VIN for Balance shaft issue?
Interested to see if I fall under this issue.
VIN - 4JGBB86E17A198303
Thanks!
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Last edited by Elias Marquez; Jul 5, 2016 at 09:14 PM.
Last edited by Rudeney; Jul 5, 2016 at 10:28 PM.
One possibility is that only a small percentage of the parts used in the range of these engines will ever fail prematurely. In that case, the more miles the engine logs without failure, the less likely it will fail prematurely. Of course this part will eventually, over time, wear and fail as will all mechanical parts, so the definition of "premature failure" is somewhat subjective. I'd say for a MBZ engine, it should last at least 300K miles, if not more.
Another theory is that all of these parts used in the range of engines are defective, and it's just a matter of when they will fail. Some failed very early - 25K miles, 35K miles, 50K, miles, etc. Others are failing over time, 100K miles, 130K miles, etc. In this case, all of these engines are time bombs, and what makes it worse is that age brings more failures.
As for a scanner to use, about the cheapest I've found is the Centech from Harbor Freight. With a coupon, it's about $35. Generic OBDII scanners are not the best thing to use for serious diagnostics, since MBZ has its own codes, but at least it can read P0016/P0017 and tell you if it's a balance shaft problem or not.
http://benzbits.com/DTC/DTC%20209.372.pdf
Note that some OBDII codes are translated to multiple DTCs. This is because the MBZ ECU is more precise about some errors than the OBDII standard requires.
Is the following VIN within the range of major concern for the balance shaft failure??
WDBUF87J36X198066
Thanks in advance
I've recently purchased a 2008 E350 wagon and was not aware of M272 potential engine problems described in this thread. Further more it's disappointing to hear that M-B is refusing to acknowledge the problem exists and would rather spend money fighting the issue in courts than own up to it and fix it.
The vehicle I bought was manufactured for the Canadian market and it might be ok, but it would still be nice to know if it lies outside of the affected serial numbers... VIN #WDBUH87X88B324887
Thanks!




Thank you so much for checking! Not an easy resource to find but so important...