W124 Service/Performance Problems Still
09-01-2003, 05:45 PM
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1995 E320
W124 Service/Performance Problems Still
I had put in an earlier post that asked for help in understanding the problems that I experienced after my local dealer, Ed Hicks MB, did the 60K service on my 95 E320. I'll break it down into parts and hopefully someone can guess at how the performance of the car went down after the service. I had ALWAYS had good luck with MB service and I love the car when it's running properly. Forgive the long post, even so I am leaving out alot of details as the problem is 3.5 weeks old.
o Left the car at dealer, picked it up 3 days later, OEM radio knob was missing. Not catastrophic but anoying.
o After a week and several calls to dealership with no action, contacted the service manager and recieved assurance that I would be given replacement knob
o When I returned the car to have the new knob installed I told the dealer that the A/C no longer worked properly and that the car did not have the same power that it did before service.
o Not sure why but dealer says that MB does not make OEM knobs for their radio's. The replacement fits the shaft but is obviously not MB OEM. It's smaller in diameter so you can see where the original knob was.
o Dealer checked A/C (my service book says that this is done at 60K but obviously wasn't or the problem would have been identified), told me that the evaporator coil was bad.
o They found a bad relay and replaced it and told me that this should fix the performance problem.
o I took the car, drove it around the block and took it back. I suggested that they check the kickdown switch to see if it functioned. It did not and they replaced it. My temp, not the Benz was going up by now since they had assured me that it had been test driven several times and the technician noted no problems.
o Got the car back. Still has performance problems. When it is running properly it seems to "squat" in the rear end and come out of the hole nicely. I decided to look under the hood just to see if the linkages were moving freely and found that the dealer had left the high pressure cap off the freon system. After digging around under the hood I found it and put it back on myself.
o Took the car out for a test drive last night, by accident I found that the transmission does not always go into gear when the shift knob is placed in the "D" position. It did before the service. Could this be related to the knock down switch they replaced. Isn't there an adjustment after installation?
o Took the car out to try out the new kickdown switch. The car downshifts with the accellerator fully depressed but upshifts at about 4K on the tach (most of the time). Approximately 1 in 5 times it will go to about 5500 rpm then shift properly.
o With the car in neutural I revved up the engine. It will not rev above 4000 rpm. The engine acts as if a governor is taking control. The car tach moves smothly until 3900 and then falls rapidly to 3600 then back to 3900 etc. It will not go above 3900 regardless of the pedal position.
Whatever the problem or problems are they are beyond me. At this point I don't know what to do with it because I am genuinely afraid to let the dealer have it again. The car didn't really have anything wrong with it when I took it in, just wanted to get the service done and documented but alas they didn't even sign the book either so I will have to take it back to get the book signed. If my problems are adjustments I think the best thing to do is to learn to do them myself and forget the dealer. Any help or ideas are appreciated, hope the description is clear enough to follow.
o Left the car at dealer, picked it up 3 days later, OEM radio knob was missing. Not catastrophic but anoying.
o After a week and several calls to dealership with no action, contacted the service manager and recieved assurance that I would be given replacement knob
o When I returned the car to have the new knob installed I told the dealer that the A/C no longer worked properly and that the car did not have the same power that it did before service.
o Not sure why but dealer says that MB does not make OEM knobs for their radio's. The replacement fits the shaft but is obviously not MB OEM. It's smaller in diameter so you can see where the original knob was.
o Dealer checked A/C (my service book says that this is done at 60K but obviously wasn't or the problem would have been identified), told me that the evaporator coil was bad.
o They found a bad relay and replaced it and told me that this should fix the performance problem.
o I took the car, drove it around the block and took it back. I suggested that they check the kickdown switch to see if it functioned. It did not and they replaced it. My temp, not the Benz was going up by now since they had assured me that it had been test driven several times and the technician noted no problems.
o Got the car back. Still has performance problems. When it is running properly it seems to "squat" in the rear end and come out of the hole nicely. I decided to look under the hood just to see if the linkages were moving freely and found that the dealer had left the high pressure cap off the freon system. After digging around under the hood I found it and put it back on myself.
o Took the car out for a test drive last night, by accident I found that the transmission does not always go into gear when the shift knob is placed in the "D" position. It did before the service. Could this be related to the knock down switch they replaced. Isn't there an adjustment after installation?
o Took the car out to try out the new kickdown switch. The car downshifts with the accellerator fully depressed but upshifts at about 4K on the tach (most of the time). Approximately 1 in 5 times it will go to about 5500 rpm then shift properly.
o With the car in neutural I revved up the engine. It will not rev above 4000 rpm. The engine acts as if a governor is taking control. The car tach moves smothly until 3900 and then falls rapidly to 3600 then back to 3900 etc. It will not go above 3900 regardless of the pedal position.
Whatever the problem or problems are they are beyond me. At this point I don't know what to do with it because I am genuinely afraid to let the dealer have it again. The car didn't really have anything wrong with it when I took it in, just wanted to get the service done and documented but alas they didn't even sign the book either so I will have to take it back to get the book signed. If my problems are adjustments I think the best thing to do is to learn to do them myself and forget the dealer. Any help or ideas are appreciated, hope the description is clear enough to follow.
