DaimlerChrysler AG
70546 Stuttgart
Germany

Phone: +49 711 17 0
Fax: +49 711 17 22244

found at (under contact):
www.daimlerchrysler.com

Maybe you address it directly to:
Dr. Dieter Zetsche, member of the board responsible for the Mercedes Car Group, and CEO for DC from 1st of January onwards.

He should take note how clients of E500 vehicles are being treated....

 

Bode, thank you for the contact information, you answered my next question before I had a chance to ask it.

I will definitely send a letter outlining the chain of events and the way I've been treated.

Thank you again..

 

Unfortunately it is nothing woeth with DC. Regarding our case see post SBC MALFUNCTION=Accident we are with discussion with several levels of managment in DC but what they do all the time is : "please contact your local dealership thy know what to do" and dealership is sendind bull**** and bull**** that every thing is allright. My boss would like to drive an MB but without SBC but DC does not want to give us hand (check all the thread for better understanding our situation)
Main thing is that you maged to stop the car. After my simualtion when SBC is going into failure mode from 100- 0 KM you stop the car in about 150 meters...

 

How did you simulate the failure?

 

Kbond555, I have not reread (your?) SBC MALFUNCTION=Accident thread on this, but seem to remember you were trying to call arms with other owners who are perfectly happy with SBC (like me....). Sounds to me that you need to write a letter to the mother company if you genuinely have a case.

Working myself in a big company (will not disclose who.....) I know that many, many so called management is middle management, in fact everbody from one level up the work force to the board is in my mind middle management. What unfortunatley happens to many times is that they tend to be incapable of action and will refer you to what they know is standard (e.g. here in the US go and talk to MBUSA, and they send you to a dealer), and tend to be mixed up as to the real bottom line objectives of the company but maybe are working towards some personel score card parameters (such as achieving financial results). However, going to Stuttgart high enough maybe your only resort. The people there should have some vision (we know that in this case SBC, MB reputation or in short, quality is on their radar screen) and understand their organisation is not handling you right.

I do know this from Volvo many years back, and I do not expect it to have changed much....

 

Hi Raymond, I am in Wellington and have the same car/model as you.

I haven't had any issues but was just talking to local dealer about getting my ground wire and bracket replaced under the recall scheme.

Mine is ex Japan so makes things even more complicated. The dealer was however more interested in making the car safe than worrying about wether it was covered or not.

I gotta say that the brake system on these cars is scary after reading these forums.

I'll keep you posted as to how things go.

 

Daniel, IMHO the SBC is actually an amazing piece of technology. When it works it is second to none. I think the problems are more related to simple little things, like electrical connectors, electrical supplies, ground wires and small software glitches. The biggest issue I have is ignorance or arrogant attitude of those tasked in diagnosing and fixing the issues that arise. Perhaps the attitude comes from "if you can afford one of these cars then you can afford to bend over and take it if you want it fixed"

If you are in New Zealand then learn from my experience in that you absolutely must buy a warranty cover from a third party that covers allmost everything on a Mercedes.

I have an associate that bought a BMW 7 series diesel this year in the UK, his intention is to bring it back to NZ in a year. I rang BMW in Auckland to ask about warranty etc, they have the absolute opposite attitude to MB...not only will they honour the warranty but also any service plans that he has in the UK, they will even update the Navigation software for NZ...all covered.

Whereas MB...if your car was not NZ new, they will try and take whatever margin they would have made selling the car new in service charges!

 

I was just reading on the other SBC thread, that a master mechanic had never seen an SBC failure. From what I have seen and read about the SBCs I would probably tend to agree. It's all the bits around it that symptomise a failure. This leads me to a question..

Does anyone know where I could get the SBC that was removed from my car tested? The NZ service people say its not possible, but I think they're just trying to avoid me finding out they replaced it for no good reason other than to claim some margin from a customer.

I've heard mention of a QEC Qaulity Evalutaion Centre in the US. I'm happy to pay freight and even a fee to have it evaluated. Becuase if I can have evidence that there was nothing wrong with it then I'm on my way to sueing the stealer.

 

You should be extremely skeptical about SBC "failures". They replaced my unit and told me that it was what failed but I was extremely skeptical about it. Why? Because when I restarted the car, it was like nothing happened. How can a piece of electronics "fail" completely and yet be in perfect operating order ten seconds later? To compound the skepticism, when I went there, the footwell was torn apart and it appeared to me that they were hunting down the problem. When you have a myriad of switches, wires and controls, anything in line can cause the unit to register a fault. Unfortunatly, this gives the more shady dealerships a chance to make a bundle on their prey. If they don't know the cause, why not replace the most expensive part and hose the customer. After all, they can claim that they did it for your own safety.

Did your unit work after you restarted the car? Do you still have possession of the old unit? Mind you, if they are shady enough to replace what was not broken then they would be shady enough to short the board and show you the fault. By the way, I don't think that you can ever visually see a board failure. 5 or 3 volts are not enough to create a "burn mark".


Having said that, I was also told by '"deep throats" that they have replaced SBC units. Where they all different causes? Where they the "most likely" failures? Where they the suspects of convinience? I don't know and I suspect that dealers don't know what causes a lot of failures. Even if they wanted to be honest, they are dealing with a lot of circuitry and sub assemblies. Unless they have built in failure codes for EVERY switch and EVERY wire, then they could only go on what is their best guess. I suspect that only Mercedes knows if SBC really fail because it would not really be a problem for them to check the circuitry of the failed units.

So yes, be skeptical, be skeptical for several reasons. If you suspect your dealesrhip is less then 100% honest, don't even bother to go there. I had no problem with my dealership but I was skeptical enough about the cause that I just had them replace the car.

 

I think I have been a little luckier in Wellington so far. I went to the dealer here and we spent half an hour mucking around on the diagnostic computer to see if we could change settings from Japan to Euro etc. (without success!!) Anyways they never charged me a cent.

On the recalls the service manager looked up my serial number over the phone and said it showed no recalls. However we both agreed that the latest recall has probably not been done. They are going to look at it after Christmas to see if the bracket is installed and sort out recall warranty if its not.

Generally a fantastic attitude. safety first, warranty later etc.

I have a three year Protecta warranty which covers everything including all electrics. This is only $1600 bucks so well worth it.

I am currently sueing Giltraps in Auckland for over $40000 for shoddy work done on my RUF so I understand your frustrations only to well.

I guess some dealers are good and other arn't.

 

If you Sue you will spend more on the lawyers than your claim and you only ever get 1/2 legal expenses back if you win.

LMVD arbitration is the way to go if your bill is under $15000 or small claims if its under $10000.

 

Daniel,

Its pretty easy to tell if the bracket recall has been done or not..

The affected Vin numbers are: Contact of SBC hydraulic unit (add the bracket):
E-Class (S/W211): WDB211*** *A 000001-791984; E-Class (S/W211):WDB211****X 000001-185352;

SBC pressure pump: (replace the pump)
E-Class (S/W211): WDB211*** *A 457422-511142; E-Class (S/W211): WDB211****X 119109-123273

Interesting your comment about Giltraps....the dealer I went to Coutts is the flagship MB dealer for the Giltrap group. They obviously have the same service philosophy.

I've also just found what could have been the problem all along with my unit..
"DC has determined that on the subject vehicles, the system will switch to the hydraulic mode when the pressure sensor of the SBC hydraulic unit detects an insufficient pressure gradient at the high pressure line relating to electric signal reading within the unit. Accordingly, DC has decided to initiate this preventive safety campaign in order to re-program the SBC hydraulic unit on all potentially affected subject vehicles. The re-programming of the SBC hydraulic unit on the subject vehicles will prevent unintentional switching to the hydraulic mode. The owner notification process is being developed based on parts and service availability."

I wouldn't be surprised if this was all that was wrong with my unit....

 

Thats for a package of two, ha ha ha ha!

Reading that bill, I bet the dealer charges for bathroom tissue by the centimeter.