konigstiger

You have the patience of a Saint my friend – check private message.

glojo

I am pleased to read that you still have a good relationship with the Shop Manager. Have you tried asking this person what they would do, if it were there car and it had been in the garage for such an extended period???

Although I live in Great Britain and laws are different I still had a new Mercedes-Benz that had an 'unsolvable' problem. (I must point out that this was on an older W210) My relationship with the dealer was excellent and they advised me on what to put in my correspondance to Mercedes-Benz UK. The outcome was a replacement vehicle of a much better specification than my own (every conceivable E-class option) plus an assortment of gifts. I was also given the option of a complete refund in lieu of the replacement.


Good luck
John

TPAbnz

And the reason you're not requesting that they replace this [new] car . . . ?

They gotta love you.

nyca

the more people who legitimately use the lemon law, as this case clearly calls for, the more it would force the quality issue for the manufacturer - in this case, a manufacturer that surveys show needs improvement in this area.

in my opinion, the dealer will never be able to fix that car 100%. either they won't replace enough items, or they will repair it improperly, it will just go on and on.

Spartan

If you filter came apart then they have to totaly disassemble your entire feul injection system and clean it up. A sudden but small loss of power would indicate a clogged injector. Even the smallest particles will clog up the injectors.

On the other hand, they may decide not to clean it and replace the entire system. This is going to cost them a bundle....as if you care.

If they do that then I would not be too worried about the car. A they say, "***** happens". By the way, unless they abused the engine or improperly replaced the parts, you should have no long term worries about the engine.

Viesel

Just an update.... The cdi is still in the shop and now they think its a egr sensor. They are going to order one and try that.

Nevada Jack

Really Viesel I would not fool with this any longer. Get with the MBUSA and tell them you want a replacement vehicle now. I would have no confidence in this car even if they do get it fixed and running. Just my gut feeling.

Kar don

dude lemon it, what are you waiting for?

DavidNJ

I can't say if the car is a lemon, however MBUSA should have done something by now.

Have you met with the regional MBUSA service representative? If not, you should.

In any event, you MUST file a letter under the lemon law. You may or may not ever get this solved, however you need to protect yourself in case you don't. A filing under the lemon law isn't an immediate action, however it is a necessary first step.

Did the dealer mention any of your mods? Are any ot them causing part of the delay or reluctance to file?

Green E-300 DT

Did they give you back the new E-320 CDI to drive all this time since you got yours back when it was supposedly fixed what, more than a week ago last Friday?

I know that you believe that they are really trying to fix yours, but there does come a time to get out of this problem! Surely, your car has been out-of-order (B O) far longer than the required time in any state to qualify for replacement or buy back under any Lemon Law! Life is to short to mess around here, and it seems to me like they are simply throwing parts at the problem and not really solving anything. What happened to that tech that they possibly imported from the fatherland that was supposed to be able to solve this problem?

Reminds me of the time back in '71 when there was no lemon law here in SoCal, when I had a new 220 D that was delivered with no oil pressure when the engine was fully warmed up, and the motor was at idle. Took the supposed "experts" ten weeks and many many trips back to the dealership for them to finally fix the problem. And no one did at that agency (Downtown L A Motors!) I later learned that these "experts" were all trainees from somewhere south of the border. Only when a new short bloke was being installed at Hollywood MBZ (the factory run store here then, but no more) was the original problem 'discovered.' Any knowledgeable tech would have seen the problem immediately upon removing the cam cover! It seems that the 'imported' cheap labor that MBZ was using on the factory assembly line at that time had forgotten or neglected to install the plug in the threaded hole at the end of the main oil galley that runs accross the top of the engine! Here sat this open hole that was in plain sight for even a blind man to see just as soon as the valve or cam cover was removed. These older diesels have an oil pressure gauge or I wouldn't have know there was a problem at all. There was just enough oil pressure to have not had a sensor activate an idiot light, and sometime many miles down the road, I'd have been idling at a long light, and there would have been bearing damage or ? ? ?

By this time, I had a 'new' car with 3000 miles on it that had had the hood removed several times and when it was replaced, the idiots had scratched the fenders on both sides, the oil pan had been off multiple times, and under the hood, there were all kinds of rounded nuts and bolts, and my beautiful new 220 D was no longer a new car!

I sold it privately loosing only $50 plus the tax and license fees. The guy that bought it was still driving it some fifteen years later even though the body was rusting from the car being outside all the time. As far as I know, he never had any engine related problems. But I had to sell it because I no longer had faith in that car. Almost lost my mind over that one.

So in my humble opinion (and many others here also) It's Time for your states Lemon Law! Somewhere, someone has done something that was not right, and it may never be found. Do you want that let down feeling to happen to you over and over again as it did that Friday when you couldn't even get home before you found that the problem still existed? Even if that were not to happen right away as it did that day, you'll always be wondering IF it Might happen again!

Everyone here is wishing you the best, and good luck!

Please keep us all posted.

saffrontiger

Viesel, during all this time in the shop, are you still making payments on your beloved CDI? What concessions has MBUSA made if any? Let me know. Also is there something about the CDI that we don't know about yet? Could our European counterparts tell us anything of CDI relaibility and mechanical issues. TIA

adam3

My CDI is 2 yrs old from UK.

I been on UK forums and more than one member has reported loss of power. Not sure what causes these probs but it may be something to do with the fuel injectors/common rail parts. Not a tech myself but when i put cheapo diesel in the engine sent vibrations thru the cabin. So i decided to use fuel injector cleaners and use shell or BP more often. The dealer said it was an air filter and replaced that. Now i have pulling to the left problems...caused by misaligned steering ...dealer will check it out when he changes alloys..ideally i think he should put new tyres on as well to get rid of bad tyres which may be causing it. Oh the SRS messages and elec consumer unit message errors like to come and go randomly.....


The turbolag on these cars is unacceptable, when pulling out of a junction....i find my Honda( although smaller) seems to find a place in the traffic flow much easily than this car. The time it takes for the car to move to when u put the foot down is too many milliseconds.

If i had a choice again i would go for the a petrol car with a smaller engine....at least you can tune it up for better performance....but diesels are just too noisy for me.....and if i ever go for another diesel it wont be Mbz.

glojo

[QUOTE=adam3]My CDI is 2 yrs old from UK.

Not a tech myself but when i put cheapo diesel in the engine sent vibrations thru the cabin. QUOTE]

It is nice to read differing opinions on the CDI because these are all we have to form our opinions.

The only person I am aware of that had an acceleration type problem is 'Fastbuck' and that was absolutely nothing to do with the diesel engine. Putting 'cheapo' fuel into such a high tech engine is not an option I personally would choose.

The author of this thread is a person of great patience and I am just relieved that I am not in their position. It is so easy to talk about 'Lemon Laws' and 'what I would do', but the relationship between the customer and dealer is most important, once lawyers get involved there will only be one winner!!!!

In my opinion the European 320CDI is an excellent vehicle and more than compareable to its petrol counterpart.

At tickover it is certainly very slightly noisier than its petrol counterpart, but once above tickover it has been proved to be QUIETER.

Sorry to disagree with Adam

Regards,
John
Windy Torquay

saffrontiger

John, your diplomatic responses are appreciated. I am hoping for along and rewarding experience with my 05CDI.
Jay

MB-JIM

The EGR simply dumps exhaust gas into the intake in order to minimize nitrous oxides. It is very easy to see if this is a problem by simply shutting off the EGR valve so no exhaust gases are inserted. The engine does not need EGR to run smoothly, in fact it will most likely run better with the EGR off.

adam3

John, you don't need to apologise to disagree with me.

I've had the car for a good 9-10 months. If i thought it was that bad i would have got rid of it.

I disagree with you on the quietness of the engine. Maybe your 320cdi is more smoother but at idle the noise is noticeably loud for me and I'm still a young lad in my thirties so yes i can tell diff btw this car and a petrol equivalent. The only diesel car which would fool people is the iCDTI engine in the accord.

The use of premium fuel is not an option when your paying 88p/L for BP Ultimate.
I used to use supermarket fuel at 79p but now use Shell diesel at around 80p. It may be a highly tech engine..but so is the BMW 3.0d ...With the price of oil rising the situation can only get more expensive......Just becoz we have a Benz doesn;t mean we should thro money away....we all have families, overheads etc...


I'm not slating the car...its has its good points.....but we don't form opinions...we report what we observe....its for others to make their own mind up.....I don't work for BMW and will never buy the ugly 5er but Mbz needs to sort its act out.

Why should my car pull to the left, have issues with SRS etc..thats a quality issue....my other car which is a fraction of the price behaves well and gives me no issues. As has been said many times on this board for the price we pay....and its a common complaint....we really shouldn't be experiencing these problems, although German cars will never be as reliable and trouble free as the Japs.

The car is otherwise enjoyable to drive, demands respect on the roads, is very nice looking( no-one has every said it was ugly....) and it has many std features with other cars u have to pay extra for.

But i would never say it is the BEST car I've owned. A car needs to do the BASIC job well first and anything above and beyond is worth having.

glojo

Hi Adam,
I agree entirely with all your points. We get our diesel from the local supermarket and it performs brilliantly. There is nothing wrong with fuel purchased at Tesco's, Sainsbury's, Asda etc, I had visions of your 'cheapo' fuel as being exactly that. 'cheapo' fuel. agricultral\Marine diesel with the dye removed, or biodiesel. That is what I would class as 'cheapo' fuel and thankfully that is NOT what you were implying.

My comments about noise were taken from a motoring magazine that used a noise meter and although I cannot recall the exact figures the only time the diesel was noiser, was at tickover, and then it was just 2 or 3 decibels.

I would not accept having any vehicle that was not perfect, and one that had a problem that made it pull to either left or right is a major no, no. Thankfully all the problems I had were just minor niggling ones which just took two or three months to resolve.

Several American members have commented about there cars pulling in one direction or another but this is not a CDI problem (nor is it an acceptable one).

I certainly will not defend the quality control of Mercedes-Benz, it is something they need to restore and the sooner the better, but sadly most car manufacturers including BMW, Audi, Jaguar, Bentley etc. etc. all have problems.

Good luck with your car,
John

Viesel

Well as for the egr sensor, I agree, that would not have anything to do with the performance. Just emmissions. As for a loner far, they were gong to give me a Camry again and I told them NO just take me home. I will drive my VW TDI Passat, It might me old (96) but a he11 of a lot more fun to drive than a Camry, Sorry, no offence if you have one, just not my type of car. As for payments, yeah well whats 800 bucks, a lot!, but do you think they would actually make that payment for me, I didnt even go there with it.

Lets talk LEMON....... IIRC 15 days in the shop you can start the process, 30 days you got a case. As of Friday the 20th it will be in for 29 days. All I need is one more day. After filling the lemon claim, they (the dealer) must have one last attempt to repair the car, theres the catch. What if the last time it ends up being fixed? no lemon. There seems to be too many loop holes to benefit the dealer. I am going to start the process, but truely dont expect anything out of it. I am sure that I will be set in a loop for eternaty hoping that I run out of steam and just give up. I bet the entire time it could have been just one little simple part that was faulty, but they dont know which one. But now I have many new parts! The last report stated that there was algee in the fuel that caused the fuel filter to become clogged and then the filter came apart and clogged the fuel pump and injections system. They stated that this was not a warranty item but "MB will cover the repairs as a goodwill gesture". Sounds like they are covering their a$$ for something. Now one question, A fuel filter should not destroy itself and let loose of all the filter particals and injest themselfs into the rest ofdown stream the fuel system, Right? Then to me thats a really f*&^ed up design if a filter cant filter. Right? They know that I have the springs and wheels but Im not sure if they know about the chip, but I know that the chip has nothing to do with it because it was doing the surge and power loss only 5 days of ownership way before the chip, just getting worst over time. They did mention the ecu maybe faulty but they tested it and said it was fine.
Anyways I need to go start reading the lemon law booklet that came with the car.
Has anyone done the European delivery? That would be really interesting for a vacation. I would just order another one exacly the same as the one I have now.

DavidNJ

They delivered a new car with that fuel filter then it is under warranty. It also affects emissions. While there may be a clause in the warranty for replaceible items, it won't exempt catastrophic failure of the car from a factory installed piece.

And file. They might get it right next time. However the odds are against them. Note that my BMW dealer always provided BMW loaners, and the MB dealers around here only have MBs. In an unscheduled emergency, they use Enterprise Rent-a-Car. Can you say Kia

TPAbnz

Yes, and with a discount beyond the 7% European Delivery price reduction.

The folks at your dealership were incompetent/rude in trying to put my deal together. Nice folks from across the bay from you met the price and wrapped everything up for me in one day.

We're looking forward to our Platinum Blue/Stone CDI from the factory in 12 weeks.

Green E-300 DT

Not meaning to pry, but . .

What percentage did you wind up receiving?

TPAbnz

2

jyg e500 maybe

if fact I suggested to an owner of a very bad C class car that she discuss lemon law with the service manager. THe car was bought back,. BMW &MB do not want thier cars branded lemon, I suggest you disscuss this with you service manager, NOT service advisor, I bet they will replace our car, :p :p :p :p :p

Green E-300 DT

TBAbez,

7 plus 2, or 9 percent. Pretty fair discount to be sure.

Thanks for that information. If a Florida dealer with do that, perhaps some others out West (in Oregon) will do the same.
I can't order one here in California, but will try up North.

Viesel

I am now really PI$$ED! Pick up the car this morning and drove it half way home and still not fixed. Drove it straight back and demanded for them to keep it until its completely fixed and that I want a mercedes as a loaner and not a Camry. I was so pissed that I yelled at my service advisor and she didnt deserve it, I apoligised to her though. Took the mechanic out for a test drive and showed him and he agreed, still not fixed. My service advisor is setting me up an appointment with a mercedes rep this week. I am driving a ML now, Better than a Camry but still not a CDI. I am so fustrated that Im not even sure that I want to take a chance on a replacement CDI. They said that this car is an EDAC car, to my understanding that means that they are closely watching the reliability and repairs to these cars because of emissions, basically they are test vehicles they told me. I am in the process of filling out and documenting the lemon papers and will have them ready to be sent out on Monday. I am over this ****.