I have a 2012 e-350 BlueTec with 78,000 miles on it. Most of my driving is highway, but I do have some rush hour city (Philadelphia). On the open road I'll cruise along at 80-85. I'm not stomping on it and I still have my original brakes.

Here's the rub: My torque converter went bad at 48,000 miles. Covered under warranty. My Bluetec had some problem working (causing engine light) so that was fixed under warranty. Now, warranty has expired. I developed an oil leak recently. The leak was at the top of the engine from the air intake pipe seals at the turbo. Gasket and seal replaced. A couple of days later, more oil on the floor. Now it's a leak on the engine oil cooler. $500 on parts, but the labor was super high due to location on the engine and all the work with related stuff.

This is my first Mercedes. My other cars were driven between 150,000 to 250,000 miles before I got bored and got rid of them. I've never had to deal with these kinds of issues. Replace a clutch and timing belts, new tires and breaks, and change the oil. That's it.

Is this normal for a Mercedes, or is it just my specific car? Thanks for any help

I can only speak for what I've read since I've been here and experience from others I know personally. I'd say more than not your going to have problems with any car especially these but I'd say more so on the electrical side then the stuff you've had worked on recently. Just my 2 cents but there are tons of expert in this forum.

Probably not what you want to hear but I would not own one of these without a warranty. I have owned 3 MBs and have held them all into extended warranty period. Once that expired, I sold the car and either bought new or something that I could get CPO and then MB extended warranty. These cars are simply too expensive to fix otherwise. With the exception of my CLK, for the most part mine have been trouble free but I have half the miles you have.

No. Yes. Maybe. Find an independent mechanic you can trust if you like the car. My experience is dealers take advantage of their customers when they can. I know that's a cynical statement but I stick by it. An indy will probably tighten a loose connection to see if that would fix a leak but my experience is an MB dealer never will. If you don't care about cost the dealer is as good choice.

I agree with never owning a MB, or any luxury brand for that matter, without warranty coverage. That is doubly important for people like me who only have one dealer "locally", and no independent Mercedes mechanics within 100 miles. Fortunately, my 2012 ML has been a great, trouble free vehicle for me but I only put 8,000 miles a year on my cars. When the warranty runs out next May it will probably have less than 35,000 miles on it but that is when I will trade for a new car. Of course going out of warranty is a nice excuse but truth be told, I get the itch for a new car every three or four years anyway.

With the possible exception of Lexus, it is my belief that the exquisite engineering (as they call it) of luxury brands almost guarantees that a major problem will happen soon after the warranty expires. And when it does you better be ready for a big, and I mean REALLY BIG, repair bill. Everyone knows this going in and is simply part of owning such a car so be prepared to trade early before getting too many miles on it - or get an extended warranty.

The oil cooler leak is pretty common on your Diesel engine. Try googling "om642 oil cooler leak" and you'll get plenty of hits. Om642 is the Mercedes designation of the engine in your car.

There are a couple of additional common-ish repairs on this engine. One is the electric motor sitting under the turbo which operates some throttle flaps in the intake manifold. Another is a fault in the circuit board of the motor which controls the variable nozzle on the turbo. About $1500 for the first and more for the 2nd. Diesels drive great and have fantastic fuel economy, but are much more complex than gasoline engines. There is simply more to go wrong. If the prospect of a $1k plus repair in the next 100k miles really bothers you, then this may not be your car.

I've never heard of the transmission repair. I think you are having a worse than normal experience, these are pretty solid cars.

Thanks to all for your comments and insights. I will look for an independent MB mechanic if I decide to keep this. The electrical stuff and the problems with turbos is probably imminent. I think I'm going to have a conversation with the service manager at the dealer about my concerns and get his opinion on whether this is normal. If this is, I'll exit. "Das Beste Oder Nichts"

I've owned 3 Mercedes of which 2 were out of warranty. My advice is to own them with warranty otherwise be prepared to spend $2000 - $5000 per year on maintenance. It's pretty normal.
If you don't want to spend that much, get a Lexus.
Of the 3 Lexus vehicles I've had, most I ever spend was about $1000 one year for timing belt and water pump replacement but that is normal for this model and done once every 90K miles. Otherwise I only spent about $200-$400 for routine maintenance per year on the Lexus.

Take a run at MBUSA for a goodwill repair, it is a very common issue with the OM642 as others have stated.

My oil cooler leaked at 58,00 miles. MBUSA picked it up as a "good will" repair since I had maintained the car as per their service schedule.The cost of the repair is roughly $3K.

I wouldn't say that nothing goes wrong with a Lexus -- it just waits longer to happen. I had a 2001 LS430 that I kept nearly 15 years )137K miles). The final year of ownership its repair costs were about equal to half the car's actual cash value. It needed engine mounts ($1,250), radio speakers ($600), and a knock sensor ($1,200). This wasn't much different than my W201 maintenance costs were at around the same mileage.

Also, I wouldn't expect any of today's "upper bracket" cars to be cheap to own once the warranty expires. They have become just too complicated. The ongoing costs are just part of the package.

I had an 08 E320 BlueTec (basically the same engine). I loved it til the warranty expired. The following went bad in ONE YEAR

Swirl flap motor (twice) (1,250)
Oil cooler (twice) $1600
two fuel injectors ($1850)
timing chain ($2000)
Turbocharger ($4,000!)
intake manifold ($3,000!)

At that point I sold it and got a 2012 E350 with a gasoline engine and an extended warranty.

The modern Mercedes diesels are not like the old ones that lasted forever. The emission control stuff is just not worth the hassle. If you can work on them yourself and have a parts source that’s not too outrageous then you can get by without being nailed TOO bad but if not it’s a very expensive proposition.

I have a friend that had a E350 BlueTec and he had to have the adblue tank replaced because it had cracked. $3,500!!!!!! He got rid of his too.

Get rid of it and get a gas Mercedes

I've been trolling this w212 section of the forum for a few years of ownership, it seems the diesel model has the most problems arise. I'm at 93k with my E550 and nothing other than standard maintenance. I would definitely avoid any MB or other car with air suspension, pretty much guaranteed failure sooner or later. Why buy diesel in USA anyway? If you don't keep to the maintenance schedule things are going to happen with any machine. Go look at forums for BMW or Audi and you'll see a lot more mechanical failure posts. Here is mostly bicker about who has the biggest warranty or what sort of wheels look best.

Ah, yes....the myth of German reliability...

Unexpected big ticket repairs drain wallets and morale.

I think one of the keys to affordability for any brand is the ability to diy maintenance and repairs.
If you can't or won't then you're at premium shop rates unfortunately, and most will replace rather than repair major components.
I don't consider the ROI on my drivers, it's pretty much figured they will worth less than what I think they are worth. So I do look at the delta between repair cost and getting into a newer car. Unless it's a true lemon I usually go the repair route.

For house and cars - I am the warranty lol. But I acknowledge one day I'll reach the age that diy repairs may not be feasible, we may then go from two older to one newer vehicle. Just have to see what life brings and adjust.

Yeah, same here. I'd never get a diesel just based on what happens in these forums. Very few were sold so often people have problems but no one has answers. And then because they're so rare, no one else but the dealer knows how to fix them or it's very hard to find an indy that knows how to fix them. So any money you may save on mileage gets spent on repairs.

When those engines do have predictable cost of up-keeping, where oil cooler seals are weak point and intake flaps will need cleaning or replacing at high mileage, I see in above costs that swirl flaps issue was paid 3 times to fix in the same year. Meaning it is not MB fault where you get milked on the same issue several times.
This is old topic and when it was started, the experience wisdom did not exist. Now you can go to diesel section and have all the cost of ownership lined up.
Just like cost of owning SBC or airmatic.
New direct-injection gasoline motors do have predictable intake job as well, so no matter where you turn - if you want luxury and performance -it is going to cost you.
My friend drives 17 yo Honda with 260k miles. The only expense he had was new clutch. Still on factory rear shoes, so I think Honda might be good choice for few members here.