Rudeney

Personally, with my luck, I'd pass and go look for one out of the range. There are so many good cars out there beyond the range, why roll the dice?

M-bENZ

So I'm assuming any C230 ( 6MT) from 06 is no go ...correct ? And 07 is 50/50?

Rudeney

Correct. They discovered and resolved the balance shaft issue in the middle of the MY2007 build, so regardless of car or transmission, anything with the M272 or M273 through mid-MY2007 will be in the range for potential failure.

Amolvrscr

Hello, how about another check for yet another newbie, please??

Interested to see if I fall under this issue.

VIN - 4JGBB86E17A198303


Thanks!

Rudeney

4JGBB86E17A198303 has M272 #472998 - it's beyond the range for balance shaft problems.

Amolvrscr

Thank you!!

Lcast112

Does this balance shaft issue apply to E55 AMG's? newbie here. Here is my VIN: WDBUF76J54A552200

Rudeney

No - the E55 uses the M113 engine. Only M272 (xx230, xx280, xx300, xx350) and M273 (xx450, xx550) engines are affected.

Jcthump

Hello, can you check my VIN, too, please? It's a 2007 Mercedes Benz C280 4matic, stamped 09/06 so I'm hoping I'm clear of a balance shaft issue, fingers crossed. Thank you so much for your work for all of this time! It's VIN WDBRF92H67F873593

Rudeney

WDBRF92H67F873593 has M272 engine #478088 - it's beyond the balance shaft problem range.

Jcthump

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

edm163

Balance shaft repair at competitive price and guaranteed work. Experienced professionals located in North Jersey. 2-3 day turnaround. PM for details.

Elias Marquez

Hi everyone I just bought a 06 clk350 I had a question.. I bought the car knowing of the problem my question is going in and replacing the part what else should I go and replace car has 165k on clock and it drives great just the other day took it to a mechanic and he said it needed camshaft positioning sensors took it to my mechanic he said it needed balance shaft I forgot to ask what codes it threw don't have a scanner right now my son decided to use it to scan his boat in the pool lol kids

Rudeney

Get the codes - generic OBDII codes P0016 and P0017 are balance shaft failure. Anything else is not. Oh, and a MY2006 CLK350 will definitely be in the range for potential failure.

Elias Marquez

Yes I checked my vin and my engine # is 30 084 858 is it possible for the car to make it to 165k with that problem I know I'm the second owner of the car I just don't know much about the maintenance.. and one more question what's the cheapest obd II that I can use on myclk BTW thanks for ur help I'm new to this form

Rudeney

The problem is, we have no real data on the balance shaft failures. MBZ has it, but they won't publish it for fear of fueling more class action suits.

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.

Elias Marquez

Thanks Alot for your knowledge I appreciate your info I'll be ordering a new scanner check and see if what codes come up most likely it's balance shaft if it happens to be any other parts I should replace since clock is 165k and the whole engine has to be taken out and torn apart I'm trying to prepare for the cost of the fix once fixed I think it will be a great and enjoyable car

Bobby Chobanov

I'm considering buying this cls350.
Can you please check its VIN?

WDD2193561A108053

Thank you!

Rudeney

WDD2193561A108053 has M272 engine #610648 - beyond the balance shaft problem range.

Bobby Chobanov

Thank you!

Elias Marquez

Finally got a scanner I got 10 codes p0025,p0015,p0012,p0301,p2004,p0071,p0128,p0025,p0 015,p2004 so I'm guessing it's not the balance shaft are these codes serious

Rudeney

None of those are balance shaft symptoms. Here's a list of MBZ DTCs with OBDII translations:

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.

Cur10us

I've been shopping around and found a 2006 E350 with only 57k miles on it. Through researching this balance shaft issue has been brought to my attention. The car is absolutly immaculate, but seems to good to be true at this point...

Is the following VIN within the range of major concern for the balance shaft failure??

WDBUF87J36X198066

Thanks in advance

Rudeney

It's a MY2006 - all of those will be in the range for potential balance shaft failure.

dstelkic

Hello,
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!