wow...i'd trade that sucker too. i wholly believe in not having to put up with car bs...there's enough of that everyday

 

I got my car fixed and it seems to be running fine. For now anyway. I did go to BMW and checked out getting a new car, but decided to keep this one and just get it repaired. Trade-in on it is very low. In order to get a similar vehicle with all the options, I would have to get into high payments. Hopefully, it will last for another 2 years.

 

That is scary. Maybe I should take mine in to see. It is an '04 E500 wagon with a built date of 12/2003.

 

yea mine was built 12-2-02...pretty sure i got the time bomb under my hood.

 

Well, my dealer told me that mine does have a slight glycol contaminant and that it is not a major problem yet. However it will cost me $6000 to get it fixed !!!!

My wife is SO pissed and I think we are ready to get rid of it. She is so scare now that we are talking about renting a van to go visit her folks this Christmas. Look like she is not willing to trade in for another Benz.

2 years old (bought it used) with less than 48k miles on it.

 

dealer confirmed that i don't have the valeo radiator on my 04 e500 (2/04 build date, 40k miles). knowing what i know now, i will trade my car for something else as soon as i recognize any tranny hesitation... thegeneralso, why don't you take the car to trade it and see if the dealer gives you any problems...i'd take it to a non-mb dealer though

 

did your car have the valeo radiator?

 

did you pay $130 to do the test?

 

just have the radiator replaced and the tranny flushed- that should fix it-

 

Sadly, Mercedes has ignored this design problem for YEARS. I had the same identical problem in my 2001 E-430 which required replacing the transmission at 24,000 miles. I guess it's cheaper for them to replace an occasional transmission than to fix a design flaw in the transmission/cooling system.

 

Having problems with transmission of my '03 270.
would like a copy of DTB P-B-27.55/50g

 

PM your email address

 

PM me your email address and I'll email you the MB TSB in a pdf file.

 

By the time you have tranny hesitation the tranny and torque converter fails almost instantly. Once I felt my tranny stutter it went to non drivable within 200km (121miles). Had to have tranny, torque converter, tranny ecu, and radiator all changed. This of course was under MB warranty. If you want to be proactive about it you can let your dealer know that you are aware of this problem and show them the TSB and ask if they are willing to split the cost of upgrading the radiator with you under their goodwill fund. I think in this economy they want to make the customers happy as much as possible for repeat customers.

 

My dealer confirmed that I have the Valeo radiator in my 2004 E500 (w/ Sept 23, 2003 build date on its Datacard) this past summer or fall. They didn't confirm the crimping method, though. At that time I inquired about sharing the cost of radiator replacement with the newer Behr as reiger mentioned. They suggested waiting to see if failure occurs while the warranty is still in force. After that they said that the dealership is usually "fair" about such issues. At least it's in my car's history with them that I inquired about it!

Makes me glad it's a CPO and that I purchased 2 additional years of warranty with it (in June, 2008 and 35K miles on the clock). I'm also thankful for all of the information I've learned about this topic from this forum and its members. It would be nice if MB acknowledged this issue with something stronger than a DTB...

 

I bought a 2003 E500 sport package in 2006 with 43,00KM and when I took it for a test drive I heard a slight washboard rumble feeling which lasted for about one second and the salesman told me that this was due to the wide tires running over a slight rough road. I belived him. BIG MISTAKE!!!!! three years latger at 57,00Km the rumble became a lot more prevalent so I went in an indipendent tire shop to see if the tires were the problem. He rebalanced and rotated the tires and the problem was still there. I took the car back to the MB dealer to check this problem out only to be told that I had a transmission problem. They did a glycol contamination test and sure enogh it was contaminated.the transm ission is Kaput and to fix this problem of replacing radiator and transmission is ....Hold on to your seat belts>>>>$11,968 dollars CDN.
Why was this problem NOT addressed when I purchased the car and still had a year Warranty??? They knew this was an engeneering flaw in the design of the radiator!!!
Now Its time to take some action of exposing MB outright fradulent action knowing full well that there art thousand of these cases and NO recall has been done on Valeo Radiator leaking glycol in the transmission.

alberico

 

Let me tell you that what you have on your 2003 E500 is a bad transmission with glycol contamination because that is exactly what I have onmy 2003 E500MB.
To fix it will cost about 10 to 12 thousand dollars unless you have an extended warranty. MB knew from the get go that on almost all the E500 and E420 built in fall of 2002 to 2006 had faulty Valeo rads and never did a recall. I assume that admitting to this failure would be bad business. I will be suing MB if my problem is not resolved at no cost to me. My repair cost is $11,968 dollars Canadian and so far they are willing to cover half the expense and that is n ot good enough for a benz which has only 57,000 KM. which is about 35,000miles[

quote=i8hotdogs;1196807]Hello All - My 03 E500 transmision started having problems yesterday morning. I thought it would go away after restarting the motor but it didn't. On a normal acceleration, the car starts jerking back and forth before shifting to second gear. Same thing occurs from 2nd to 3rd. After 3rd, the car picks up enough speed and seems to smooth out. I also accelerated hard around 55 mph and the car starts to jerk before taking off. Another thing I noticed is that once I am cruising around 60 mph, I here and feel vibration coming from the rear, it is like when you run over the groves cut into the sides of the road so it will wake you up if you are falling asleep. I also heard a quick low pitch hum once in a while. I am taking my car into the dealer today, I just wanted to know if anyone else seen this before.

Thanks[/quote]

 

Let me tell you that what you have on your 2003 E500 is a bad transmission with glycol contamination because that is exactly what I have onmy 2003 E500MB.
To fix it will cost about 10 to 12 thousand dollars unless you have an extended warranty. MB knew from the get go that on almost all the E500 and E420 built in fall of 2002 to 2006 had faulty Valeo rads and never did a recall. I assume that admitting to this failure would be bad business. I will be suing MB if my problem is not resolved at no cost to me. My repair cost is $11,968 dollars Canadian and so far they are willing to cover half the expense and that is n ot good enough for a benz which has only 57,000 KM. which is about 35,000miles[

Alberico

 

rans problem,

Hi, can you e-mail me the TSB for rad trans problem

 

i am having Trans issues, growling sound that is intermitent in reverse, just started.

 

Good luck on your legal action to get the transmission repair costs reimbursed. In Canada, who do you sue, MB USA? I'm still amazed that MB USA has not done a recall on these radiators. I know that some people that had the radiator failure without any warranty remaining has sued in USA Small Claims Courts. Some people have also filed complaints with the Federal Agency that handles motor vehicle safety issues but it's hard to make a case that the radiator failure followed by transmission and torque converter failure are safety issues. My radiator failed at 39k miles in April 2007 and luckily I noticed the shaking problem immediately and they only had to replace the torque converter and radiator, but not the transmission, all covered by my CPO Extended Warranty.

 

My 2003 e500 is in the shop right now.. They want to replace everything $7-8000. Can someone email me a copy of that MB TSB so i can read it before deciding how i want to proceed. I'm calling them tomorrow to confirm that I have a valeo radiator, but with all that is wrong with the car I am sure I do.

 

How many miles on your e500? I have a Valeo radiator but it wasn't a bad one (5/2002 build date). I had 100K miles on mine when it started the symptoms. two negative tests for contamination. All I needed was a tranny fluid flush, but i might need to do the torque converter later - i still hear a rumble once in a blue moon. The problem is the torque converter lock-up solenoid gets somehow contaminated and causes the symptoms. PM me your email address and i'll send the TSB over to you.

 

Took my 2004 E500 to the $tealer$hip today to get the tranny fluid tested for glycol. Test was negative.

Was told that the 2004 E500 had the dot9 (.9?) tranny not the dot6 tranny that the E350's have - and that they haven't had any glycol/valeho radiator problems with the dot9...???

True or BS? Anybody heard this?

I understood the problem to be with the embedded tranny radiator in the engine radiator - glycol leaks into the tranny radiator.

Why would a different tranny have any effect?

I read in this thread that the service bulletin goes through 9/03 build dates (mine is 9/03) and includes the E500.

Thanks in advance for any imput!

 

Anybody?