Diabolis

You are absolutely correct that diesels do not like cold weather and/or short trips - or to be more specific, they don't like being parked in and staring in cold weather (once they're running and up to temperature, there is no difference). The "legendary" diesel Mercs of old were no different... they just wouldn't start when it was -20C outside, and no one expected them to.

When I was a kid and my father worked as a company rep for a (West) German company that made heavy mining equipment and large excavators, I remember going to a surface dig mine with him where they had sold a couple of large excavators. These were usually in service for ~22 hours a day, but due to very poor weather conditions they had to shut the mine down for two days. In order to start them back up, the miners set large wood fires underneath the sumps on the excavators and dump trucks and let them burn for about 45 minutes before they could fire them up.

If you need a vehicle primarily for short trips to the store (even in the summer, never mind in a real winter), diesels are simply the wrong tool for the job. It has nothing to do with quality or reliability.

John CC

I'm going to sort of disagree with that. Fact is, if you need a vehicle primarily for short trips a gas powered one is not much better. I've had many Diesel daily drivers over the years and still prefer them over gas. Today's Diesels can start with no preheat down to some pretty frigid temps. (-15F is my record for the GLK.) The problem with short trips is the oil doesn't get hot enough to boil off the condensation from the combustion process, and that's irrespective of the fuel.

For short local trips an electric vehicle is probably today's best choice. No warm up and instant heat.

But, we're sort of getting off topic...

Diabolis

We are indeed in agreement that short driving cycles are bad for both - my take and comment is that diesels are by their very nature just a little worse off if you will. All other things being equal (moisture in the crank case and all), a diesel engine needs to be hot to operate optimally by design... a gasoline one doesn't.

NewCents05

Yeah I agree this isnt great for around town commuting. An electric car seems like a better tool equipped to handle that function. We used this for our road trips and its been a blast for the past 100k miles but now as its aging, starting to realize we're rounding that bend where auxiliary systems start to fail. and they are abundant on this car. Luckily it seems like a good amount are covered under the extended warranty so essentially if I am able to get the dealer to replace a bunch of things under warranty, should be rather trouble free for another 100k minus the upcoming high price maintenance items (brakes, air suspension, etc)

kajtek1

Our friend used to drive Lexus SUV for her short commute and was recording 5 mpg.
Her husband, long time Sprinter diesel owner, bought her GLK Bluetec and now she records 20 mpg.
Short trips alone are not determinizing factors for ruling diesels out. Even her commute is about 3 miles, we don't have cold weathers in Las Vegas and she drives car home for a lunch, so the engine stays pretty warm most of the day, while on weekend they do routine 20 miles trips.
Even they don't monitor DPF regeneration, they drive the car for a year with no trouble.

NewCents05

So what you're saying is I need to move to somewhere warm. Dont disagree with that... kinda done with snow and cold.

Etienne Lau

Diesels take nearly twice as long as a gasoline engine to get up to operating temperature. It's more noticeable during the winter time. Gasoline powered vehicles take approx., 5 miles where I live here in DFW, TX to get up to operating temperature during the winter time. Diesels take nearly 10 miles to reach operating temperature. If I lived in Toronto, ON for example, I would question driving a diesel 3 miles/5 km from home to office in the winter. Even that distance I consider bad for gasoline powered vehicles, but it's worse for a diesels. Note that ML 250 uses a 4 cylinder diesel vs the ML 350's V6 diesel engine. The 4 cylinder will get to operating temperature faster than the V6 engine, just less metal to get heated.

xsramo

$450 is the quote I got for doing oil cooler seals and an oil change. I went ahead with it since I am planning on keeping the vehicle for another 4-5 years. Should have it back on Wednesday.

lancemurdock

So here is my update....
Went to the dealer on Monday Jan 24th. Confirmed Oil cooler was leaking and estimated 450 to fix.
I was also having the Air bag recall done in addition to the AEM

Text from the service manager on the 27th "Ran into some minor issues, have to redo some of the work. Should be done tomorrow, I'll let you know"
Friday the 28th another text "Having to order some more parts"
Tuesday Feb 1st. Notified the car is done. My bill is $522 for the oil cooler repair, oil and filter plus coolant flush.

I live about an hour from my dealer...went down the next day Wednesday the 2nd. Picked it up and everything seemed good to go. CEL was off, car ran fine.
About 45 minutes into my drive home, I am coming up a hill and the engine shuts down....I get it pulled over. The engine bay is smoking some and it appeared saturated with oil.
I get my service account person on the phone asap, he sounds worried and sends a tow truck to pick it up.
Shop Foreman calls me the next day first thing to ask me what happened and gather some more info....

That was Thursday the 3rd...as of 1m EST today the 8th I have yet to hear back from them. My gut says they are redoing the whole thing...AEM plus Oil cooler due to something they did or did not do during the repair.

Ill keep everyone updated

xsramo

Thank you for your update and sorry about your misfortune. I will hopefully be picking mine up this week, EMC5 + oil cooler seal. Hope mine doesn't experience the same fate, dealership mine is at didn't really inspire confidence that they knew what they were doing with EMC 5. I think mine is the first one they are doing.

Steven Gu

I just came back from dealer. They did nothing on the car, catalytic converter did not come, and no estimated timeline yet.
So it seems this AEM thing is a mess.

gkgeiger

The last post I read that someone had received payment was 1/3/22, anyone else?

majorfatal

Got my check yesterday.

John CC

Either that or they're trying to figure out what to do with the seized engine from the massive oil leak "due to something they did or did not do during the repair."

lancemurdock

Funny, I initially thought maybe the engine seized as well, but before they towed it away I checked the level and while it was low, it was still registering on the dip stick and the "check engine level at next refuel" never came on...which i am all too familiar with lol .

Still no update from the dealer...today will be a week since it was towed back

91stealthes

When my engine blew I never had "check engine level at next refuel" illuminate. Hoping for a pleasing outcome for you. Luckily I've never had that illuminate during my ownership.

GuestFromTampa

still waiting

Medic8ed

Got my check today: $3,550

My process was really simple.
1. Got a receipt from the dealer after they did a bunch of stuff to the DPF system - no cost to me.
2. Filled out settlement request online attaching documentation from 1.
3. Open mail 7 months later

Good luck everyone.

Etienne Lau

Lucky you guys that go your check. Here I am now 1 year after having the AEM work done and still without any check. I just the admin and they said, yah, we go your you application. Just not process it yet and all applications are processed as they are received......Yah right.

xsramo

Picked up mine this morning. First drive it felt pretty good, like the engine could breathe again. Have only about 8 miles on it so far. Mech said the oil cooler seals were not leaking but I am happy to replace them anyway. He said he actually did them on this vehicle, before my ownership, about 7 years ago. I asked for some pictures from the job and they are sending them, I was curious how gunked up the intake was. So far so good though on EMC 5.

lancemurdock

Finally heard back from the dealer this morning.
Low compression on some cylinders. They are pulling the engine to investigate.
So far they have not asked me to pay for anything...which to me would seem to indicate they know they caused the problem and/or its going to be covered under warranty somehow.

Diabolis

Seeing as the failure occurred AFTER they performed the AEM, you'll likely end up getting a new engine.

Steven Gu

It seems like the oil cooler seal replacement is a scam dealer is doing country wide.
But since there are a 2 year warranty on this, actually not a bad deal for us: the seal can last at least 5 years, that is how long most of us planning to keep the car!

lancemurdock

Crossing my fingers...

Diabolis

If you are so convinced that Mercedes is scamming you, vote with your money and buy a different car... but please stop whining. It is tiresome.

It is not a scam to proactively replace two pieces of rubber that are known to fail on most engines with upgraded 2nd gen Viton seals for 1/5th of the price it would normally cost to replace them because they are already removing almost everything in the way to do the AEM. You are getting a 4 year warranty on the engine and a number other components, and for a few hundred dollars you get to replace the only other part in there that is known to fail with an upgraded part for a tiny fraction of what it would cost to have the same replaced when it does fail. Most people with basic math skills would look at that as a bonus.