I noticed fluid on the garage floor near the left rear tire. My first thought was leaking CV joint as I've rear of several with this issue. After I got it up on a lift I noticed the fluid was from the shock. No problem the warrantee will cover it.
I ordered the shock from my dealer and when they said it was in I took the car in for installation.
My service advisor called me (nice guy) and said the shop forman noticed after market springs and was going to decline the shock replacement under warrantee.

Obviously this is bs, but trying to be objective and reason with the service department, I thought the board might give me some ammuniton if they have had similar experiences.

Anyone have a shock failure with stock springs? Is there any remote arguement that a spring (H&R) change would cause a leak.

Thanks for your help.

 

Same problem here, I have a slight leak on rear diver side shock and lowered on H&R springs.
My buddy works for Mercedes and said its better I don't bring the car in, the shop foreman will decline the warranty upon seeing the springs.

I would put the OEM springs back and take it to another dealer, that way they cant bring up any excuses with after market springs.

 

I have not heard of any shock releated issues. I would think that a stiffer spring would actually put less stress on the shock because in theory the shock would be actuating less and traveling than with a softer spring, right? What I can tell you is that I know for a fact that suspension modified off-road truck and Jeep shock failure is more frequent due to those vehicles running very soft springs which increase shock actuation and shock piston travel.

Time to find a new dealership to service your car if they are busting your chops on something like this, this sound like my local Cadillace dealership that voided and blacklisted my CTS-V for having a cold air intake on it, somehow that cuased my rear-end to fail 4 or 5 times. Good Luck Jimmy

 

JIm my shocks started leaking last month . I was out of warranty , AMG took care of it anyway . The guy I spoke to wasnt too surprised so maybe its an established thing ?
Sorry I cant help re change of springs .

 

After market springs are statically lower then oem, hence lowering the shock at rest, creating more constant pressure, and chances of shocks clowing /leaking, this is a hard, can argue this one. thats why with after market springs , shocks wear out quicker because of the latter,.

on a side note the front shock was changed on mine @ 500 miles, it was leaking, is there a tsb ?? may be you can fight that.

 

There is. It's not a huge chance, but it could have been the factor and by going aftermarket it does open up a legitimate argument for them. I'd just pay up and get on with other things.

 

forgot to say if you need my details as an example just send me pm , be glad to help

 

Update:
Service advisor called today. Said that factory rep was going to check with Germany and they'd know tomorrow whether it would be covered.

I think the dealer wants to back peddle and let me fight the factory. I'll keep you advised.

As far as springs being shorter that's not the case as the shocks have a threaded body and you can adjust the ride height.

Springs are only 10% stiffer and given the number who have had leaking shocks seems like it doesn't matter what spring is being used.

 

Update:
As expected the news was not good. Dealer said that factory declined warranty claim on shock so I'm not sure on what bases it was declined. I requested to advise me in writing. I don't want to disclose too much as MBUSA reads this forum.

 

Don't even bother for in writing. You never know if they will add that to your VIN#. Just switch out the springs and file the claim at a different stealership...300 bucks to save 1000?

 

since these are KW's, couldn't you inquire to send these off to be repaired?

 

Already checking with factory in germany. Issue is that mb/amg are proprietery parts.

 

Fwiw Bilstein recommends Sport Shocks, which are shorter than HD or stock shocks, with lowering springs like HRs. Either Sports or HD can be used with standard length springs.

I personally believe AMGs are built as a system and I do not wish to second guess their engineers.

 

Geez...the next thing is that some of you will have your shock claim denied because you have custom wheels and that changed the rebound rate on the shocks.

 

The system was built by KW working with AMG. AMG had KW engineers at their german track events to assist in set up so it was more KW telling AMG what they needed. There's more...but as I said the factory looks at this board.

 

If the KWs are AMG authorized I don't think you should have a problem with your claim nor do I think it is inappropriate. As I wrote, AMGs are a system and if the KWs are AMG authorized and installed by an authorized shop it falls within my stated parameters. There are aftermarket suppliers , like R..., that are installed by MB dealers.

No criticism here.

 

You have to finesse this one. They can rightfully decline a warranty claim if a part that is not approved by MB can be pointed to as the reason for the failure.

This is covered under new-car warranties in a federal statute called the Magnuson-Moss act.

In reality, a lot of dealers will just deny it, and point to the aftermarket part as the reason. But the statute says that's not enough...they have to be able to prove the aftermarket part is the reason for the failure and the subsequent denial.

So if you escalate politely, and ask them to prove the part is the basis for the failure, they won't be able to without spending more in invetigation than the claim costs. You still might have to mention casually how a friend of yours had a similar problem and the Magnuson act caused the factory to approve the claim.

Bruce

 

Bruce,
Thanks for the information I was looking for something more specific under California law, but I think the Magnuson-Moss Act would be sufficient. The factory declined the warranty claim to take the heat off the dealer.
I'll prolly have to take them to small claims court. BTW, KW said the springs shouldn't cause a leak.

 

The M-M Act is a federal law. Federal law and case law, like SC decisions trumps state law.

Dealers and manufacturers don't like decisions against them "goes down on their permanent record" so they will see things your way. The Sponsor was right.

 

If that's the case about half the guys on ths board might be screwed. Although my car is not registered to a Mr JRCART (something close though) I assume Jim or James Brady would be a little easier for them to figure out. Jimmy, you might want to come up with a new screename if manufacturers frequent these forums.

 

Jim,
I've been vague on some facts as MB has been retailtory to thier own dealers and their own employees. Some of these people are my friends and they depend on corporate living for their livelhoods. So I'm not going to hurt them.

I do want MB or whoever the uninformed weasels are, to know who's coming after them and I'm not hiding behind any chicken sh*t sreen name.

 

I just don't understand how you can be upset at MB for this one. I also don't understand how you can be talking about suing them and looking for protection under MF when this was not what MF was designed to protect against.

Even tracking the car, if you had stock shocks on the car and they denied your claim I could see being angry.

You have changed the springs. Those shocks were designed to work with a specific set of springs from the factory. It's not like you added a bigger brake kit and they said this was causing your sping to leak. These parts work as an assembly.

You have added an aftermarket part that directly impacts the part that is failing.

These are the risks when you modify your car. You should suck it up on this one.

Just go buy a new shock and be done with this.

All this talk about people reading these boards is a joke as well. If you have something to hide, you shouldn't be posting.

 

I have to agree with some of your post, suing for a $800 part seems to be more trouble than it's worth especially since there are aftermarket suspension components on the car. In Jim's defense I have a hard time believing a spring with a slightly different rate contributed to this failure. Do you honestly think that a slightly shorter and stiffer spring could do this, I mean be honest? I run the same spring as Jim and it's not that much more aggressive than the stock spring, furthermore there are at least 20 guys on this board runnning the exact same set-up as Jim's, why have the rest of us not seen simialr failures? In addition to that it appears a couple people had leaking shocks with stock spring, how do you expaling that one? Bottom line, Jim's car has got to be going on 4 years old (mine turned 4 this month), he tracks the car a few times a year, if I were Jim I would just right it off and buy some new ones or see if he can get them repaired, revalved and new seals.

 

I hear you, no idea why others have not had the problems as you all are running a similar set up with changed springs but I have been around tracks long enought to know that sometimes all it takes is one curb to damage your suspension.

As for the others with stock springs, have there claims been denied?

If not then again, I have no issue at all with Jim's claim being denied. Too many variables at play here.

Agree with you, buy a new one or just get yours repaired. This is the cost of modding.

 

Furthermore suspension is a "wear" item, unless my car was less than a year old with low mileage I would never even try to get warranty coverage on a shock/strut. Granted most of us own low mileage Blacks (mine has 7k miles on it) and shocks should not be wearing out in anything under 30k at the least IMO. I thnk tracking the car is more of an issue than the H & R springs, but that's just my opinion. I think Jim's favorite track is Big Willow and if I recall turn 4 (think big berm) puts a HUGE load on the rear left suspension, could be a simple as that. This is Jims issue, sounds like there might be more to the story or some information that he has knowledge of that's not yet public so hopefully the rest of the story will come out here soon.