t.b.

Last week, of course 75 miles from home, my 99 E430 threw its serpentine belt. After a tow back, quite a few mechanics hovered around the car as it was being unloaded, interested in why a later model car is being towed in. Told them it was the belt, they stared at eah other, noded some heads and asked, "Did you look under the hood and notice a piece knocked off the engine?" "Yep, theres are belt drive that is just dangling in there. " They said it was the harmonic balancer coming off. I then asked if they see this alot, and (can you believe it) of course they said "no, no, first time." Yeah, right, sure, you all just read about it and all remember it.

Anybody else delt with this on the 4.3 liter?

MARK CUMMINS

Its A VERY Common Item! Seen Lots of them You Should See what can happen when your Driving it hard and it launches!
It the ring will take out the Front cover,water pump, oil pan and anything else in its way on Departure!
Mercedes Benz Knows about this ....

t.b.

49,270 miles. That was a close one. They did mention that it can cause damage to other things. Luckily, it happened when I started the car and I never got above 15 mph or so. Now that the car is above 50K, I hope that issue is done with. Thanks for the info.

twhitake

Last week the harmonic balancer on my 98 E320 (bought new) came apart. After doing much research this week I am finding that there may be a "Faulty" part in many makes and models.

Unfortunately, many do not know to register the incident with DOT motor veh safety (Department of Transportation . . . ?). I did this both on line and via phone.

Since my incident I have been struggling with the dealership over repairs. Initally they were going to charge $4000. They said when the balancer came apart it damaged the oil pan and front motor cover. After many calls and headaches we are now down to $1500 + tax.

I continue to fill this is a faulty part issue that dealerships are probably aware of. Hopefully, no one has or will be injured by this faulty part.

Sincerely,
Terri

DSMIT

CALL MERCEDES ,,THEY MAY HELP ,,ASK FOR GOODWILL ASSISTENCE

twhitake

Last week the harmonic balancer on my 98 E320 (bought new) came apart. After doing much research this week I am finding that there may be a "Faulty" part in many makes and models.

Unfortunately, many do not know to register the incident with DOT motor veh safety (Department of Transportation . . . ?). I did this both on line and via phone.

Since my incident I have been struggling with the dealership over repairs. Initally they were going to charge $4000. They said when the balancer came apart it damaged the oil pan and front motor cover. After many calls and headaches we are now down to $1500 + tax.

I continue to fill this is a faulty part issue that dealerships are probably aware of. Hopefully, no one has or will be injured by this faulty part.

Sincerely,
Terri

MARK CUMMINS

Contact The Law Firm That Just Worked Mercedes over the FSS oil change deal...They Won and Now the late Mercedes have a 150k warranty on oil consumption ...I would do a search on that thread and contact them ASAP! Mercedes knows about this and they are Just being Quiet re this...I Have Seen several that have launched and its not a pretty site..Oil pan,front cover,water pump..

Please let us know what happens re your claim!

DSMIT

yea thats it go right for the juglar ,,dont give nmercedes a chance to correct it first,,,sue,,sue,,sue

clog up the courts some more!!!!

mharmes

The prospect of this failure has my attention. Can anyone here describe the sequence of events? What fails causing the balancer, pully, belt, etc to travel in new and unusual paths? What should one be checking to eliminate or at least anticipate subject event?

MARK CUMMINS

I Would Inspect the Crank pulley At each oil change 3/4k!look for cracks in the rubber between the Pulley and the ring to the Harmonic Baancer..The first sign will be a crack then failure!
Catch it early and it wont take out the oil pan/front cover!



Dsmit, From the post Terri has tried to do the Right thing but the Dealer is Playing Hard ball...I Have been there and done that so I Would try first the dealer, Then Play Hard Ball

Mercedes is aware of this Problem..And Mercedes Should Pick up the tab to AVOID a recall ...Yes it would be cheaper for Mercedes to Goodwill them to avoid a Large Recall But the Dealers Wont go to bat for the Customer!They would rather have the customer fork out 4k than have a Warranty claim ...Its all about the bottom Line!

DSMIT

not this dealer ,,,espically so close to warrenty

zero4588

Hi t.b.,
Sorry to hear about your car. Did you report this incident to the Department of Transportation??
What if something like this happens when on the freeway. This kind of thing is a drving hazard. Hope MBUSA will help you fix this thing.

Technique

Let me get this straight. They wanted $1500 - $4000 to fix this. OK, I understand some other stuff may have been damaged, but isn't the harmonic balancer an $80 part?

nguyensteve

Mark

Do you or anyone have a picture of what we are tooking about and picture of the balancer ?

Thanks,
Steve

nguyensteve

Mark,

Is this the part we are talking about
MB part # 112 035 0600


thanks,
Steve

Technique

Yes, although if I am correct, there is a NEWER revision of this part, the newest revision is:

112 035 0800

So you would want to get this one, 112 035 0600 has been replaced by it. I wonder how difficult this is to change...

nguyensteve

according to the Mitchell Estimating guide

to replace the Harmonic Balancer (Vibration Damper) it going to take about 3.3 hours of labor time.

MARK CUMMINS

The 3.3 Hour Estimate Seems high...you can Do this Job...(Pulley)
In Less Than 30 Min..With the CORRECT Tools

nguyensteve

Here is the same problem on ML 430
with the same part 112 035 06 00

https://mbworld.org/forums/showthrea...monic+Balancer


Good Luck on getting the Dealer pickup the bill on this one.
Keep us posted.

Technique

Yes, just remember that 112 035 06 00 is the OLD part.

The one you want to buy is 112 035 08 00.

Technique

So the new part is the pulley itself, not the belt. Is there any need to replace the belt or related parts to the pulley?

Thanks!

Turbo][

Just a quick question. Is the Harmonic Balancer part of the crank pulley or it's seperated?

Also, if the harmonic balancer is part of the crank pulley, is it removeable from the pulley?

I'm asking because I'm about to send my crank pulley to ASP for them to prototype a underdrive one.