MB of Sarasota broke off my mom's glowplug
Thread Starter
Senior Member
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 379
Likes: 0
From: Cleveland, OH
1999 Mercedes E300 TurboDiesel
MB of Sarasota broke off my mom's glowplug
Ok please avoid the 'your mom's xxx' jokes, not a happy guy right now 
Just got off the phone with my mom. She has a '99E300 , 105k miles. MB of Sarasota replaced her glowplugs in '03, when the car had 50k miles. To me it's very obvious they must not have done one or all of these three things:
1. Use a reamer to properly de-carbon the glowplug chambers
2. Apply anti-seize to the new glowplugs
3. Properly torque them to spec
...because today she called me, and mb has said the glowplug 'is broken in the head', and it's her expense. When I explained a bit more the process to her and she called back, they admitted it broke while they were removing it, although they were very careful. They told her it'd just been 5 yrs and carbon builds up and this just 'happens'. Needless to say they tried to get it out with some sort of mb branded ez out of sorts, to no avail. Now the head must be removed and 50/50 shot it may have to go to the machine shop if they can't get the gp out from the backside.
That all said, they had the mgr on the phone with her etc, and they are unwilling to take any responsibility, offering only to help cut down the labor rates (probably from book time to actual, whoopee). I think this is pretty unprofessional to say the least, considering they did the last change, and that she brought in a running vehicle with a gp light on, and now the vehicle is disabled.. Thoughts?
Just got off the phone with my mom. She has a '99E300 , 105k miles. MB of Sarasota replaced her glowplugs in '03, when the car had 50k miles. To me it's very obvious they must not have done one or all of these three things:
1. Use a reamer to properly de-carbon the glowplug chambers
2. Apply anti-seize to the new glowplugs
3. Properly torque them to spec
...because today she called me, and mb has said the glowplug 'is broken in the head', and it's her expense. When I explained a bit more the process to her and she called back, they admitted it broke while they were removing it, although they were very careful. They told her it'd just been 5 yrs and carbon builds up and this just 'happens'. Needless to say they tried to get it out with some sort of mb branded ez out of sorts, to no avail. Now the head must be removed and 50/50 shot it may have to go to the machine shop if they can't get the gp out from the backside.
That all said, they had the mgr on the phone with her etc, and they are unwilling to take any responsibility, offering only to help cut down the labor rates (probably from book time to actual, whoopee). I think this is pretty unprofessional to say the least, considering they did the last change, and that she brought in a running vehicle with a gp light on, and now the vehicle is disabled.. Thoughts?
Thread Starter
Senior Member
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 379
Likes: 0
From: Cleveland, OH
1999 Mercedes E300 TurboDiesel
Chris, could your sig be ANY more obnoxious? It takes up the whole thread LOL Car looks good tho.
I just got off the phone with her service advisor there, who actually was very professional in his communication and knowledge of diesels. He states the tech doing it was the same tech that installed them in 03, and is meticulous etc..and that this time he was standing there, they were very careful trying to wiggle it back and forth, and had it soaking in penetrating oil. Only the tech knows for sure if he got anxious when it moved a bit and turned too hard on the wrench or not, but it snapped - bad luck. I'm just hoping that once they remove the head that they can get the plug out from the backside. Their stance on the responsibility side is that they have no warranty on their repairs this long out - its been 5 yrs since they did the gp's. Who knows, this is a real bummer. The only positive is that since it's off we're having them clean the intake manifold.
Car looks good tho.I just got off the phone with her service advisor there, who actually was very professional in his communication and knowledge of diesels. He states the tech doing it was the same tech that installed them in 03, and is meticulous etc..and that this time he was standing there, they were very careful trying to wiggle it back and forth, and had it soaking in penetrating oil. Only the tech knows for sure if he got anxious when it moved a bit and turned too hard on the wrench or not, but it snapped - bad luck. I'm just hoping that once they remove the head that they can get the plug out from the backside. Their stance on the responsibility side is that they have no warranty on their repairs this long out - its been 5 yrs since they did the gp's. Who knows, this is a real bummer. The only positive is that since it's off we're having them clean the intake manifold.
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From: Columbia, SC
E300
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Member
Joined: Jun 2007
Posts: 202
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From: University Place, WA
2000 W210 E55// 2007 Toyota Tacoma X-Runner
I'm going
to take the stance....if the dealer was having such a hard time getting the GP out. He should have stopped before he broke it. If anything they should have given your mother a call explaining the situation, then given her a chance to make the decison to see if she wanted them to try to pull the plug or even leave that particular plug in the car to prevent this from happening. I hold them responsible! Your Mother took her car to professionals to get it tuned up...now she's out of THOUSANDS because they screwed up. Where does the thousands come from....LABER that they induced!! My .02
Last edited by Tacjam; Mar 11, 2008 at 09:44 AM.
MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 1,560
Likes: 1
From: Columbia, SC
E300
to take the stance....if the dealer was having such a hard time getting the GP out. He should have stopped before he broke it. If anything they should have given your mother a call explaining the situation, then given her a chance to make the decison to see if she wanted them to try to pull the plug or even leave that particular plug in the car to prevent this from happening.
