Funkster

My dealer has told me I have a bad transfer case and it has to be bought from Mercedes with the transmission. To replace the whole unit is $8,000. The car only has 26,000 miles on it. Is this right? Is there no way to just replace the transfer case for a fraction of a transmission/ transfer case?

thenew3

what are the symptoms?

mleskovar

Find an indy willing to fix the specific problem rather than whole unit swap. Dealers (and many indy shops) don't want to go into transmissions/transfer cases because of the long term liability they'll take on. They aren't easy to repair sub assemblies and the chance of failures is great. 26K miles to failure is outrageous and despite being out of warranty I bet MB would help out some.

konigstiger

If vehicle was purchased new/used from MB dealer and service regularly performed by MB dealer MB will/should approve goodwill assistance - reference bulletin.

Not uncommon: https://mbworld.org/forums/e-class-w...nsmission.html

Funkster

There is a high pitched whine above about 40 mph. It sounds like it is on the passenger side of the engine. The dealer says it is actually coming from behind the transmission.

Funkster

Thanks for the attachments. The dealer is offering some goodwill money. The problem is that Mercedes only sells the transmission/ transfer case as a unit, adding $4,000 to the cost (total $8,000). The car only has 26,000 miles on it but the four year warranty limit was last October. The dealer can only say too bad, so sad. Clearly this is not a very reliable transmission.

Johnny Rad

Rotten luck! Well, it needs to be fixed. If you sell the car "broken," you'll take a bath. I suspect an Indy will save you money over the dealer even with their goodwill.

How long have you had the car? When did It start acting up?

rediesel

I might try to trade it in and hope the receiving dealer doesn't notice. Obviously avoid going to Benz dealerships since they will look at you service records. I'd be at a BMW or Audi dealer looking at CPO vehicles.

A shop that specializes in transmission repair could probably crack the whole thing open and fix the transfer case part of the tranny saving you some money.

Funkster

We bought the car CPO from the same Denver area dealer who sold it originally. The dealer would not say why there was only 3500 miles on it at two years old. So we have had the car for almost two years and now have 26,000 miles on it. Almost immediately the transmission line to the cooler was leaking. I don't see how they could have overlooked that in the CPO inspection. Since that was not a "driveline" component we had to pay for that repair. I would never again pay extra for a Certified Pre Owned warranty.

Now the transfer case is grinding itself up and at the same time the engine thermostat has gone out (CEL on, so can't renew plates in Colorado without a fix). Total repairs at 26,000 miles are going to be $8k-$10k, depending on the "discount" the dealer says he "might" give me. Mercedes USA Customer Service were very unsympathetic.

The E350 is a beautiful car and we have the sport package that makes it fun to drive on our nearby mountain roads. I just think that the 7-speed (722.9) transmission is not that reliable. Hopefully there will be redesigned transmission soon.

thefisch

This is unreal. I am surprised that the first repair for the leak was not done under the factory warranty given the age and mileage of the car, or even done under the CPO. I know the CPO is an inclusive warranty but I would think any component of the tranny would be covered. And with the current issue, are you out of the CPO coverage?

Funkster

Yes, I was quite surprised when the dealer said that anything outside the engine and transmission (like an oil line) are not covered under the CPO warranty. That also includes belts and other engine accessories. The failure of the transfer case (gear or bearing, not sure which) would be covered under the CPO but there is a maximum four year limit on that which ran out last October. So if it failed three months earlier I would have been covered.

rediesel

^^ This doesn't make sense. A CPO car has 4 years of original warranty from the date it was originally sold + 1 or 2 years CPO warranty. If you are under a CPO warranty this should cover the transmission/transfer case issues you have as well as the thermostat issue.

ddeliber

CPO is 5 years (4 for the std new car warranty and 1 for CPO) and I am certain that it covers a lot more than the engine and transmission. I have had seat heaters, multi-contour seat bladders, blind spot sensors and the whole wiring harness for them covered on mine. I am pretty certain that it also covers engine/tranny leaks along with a few other items. Check the in service date for your car. I am concerned your dealer is lying his *** off I wouldn't be surprised if he is double dipping as well (charging you and then charging MB again for the same service) which is a big NO-NO.

Do you have any documentation for your first leak (that should have been covered by the 4yr 50k mile new car warranty) where they say it wasn't covered?

Funkster

"I am concerned your dealer is lying his *** off..."

Yes, that is my concern too. The in-service date was October 2011, so the CPO ended October 2015. I did call Mercedes USA customer service and they also said the warranty was done last October. As for the leak not being covered, I can't answer. I did read the CPO and it definitely says driveline is covered but leaks were not mentioned, as I recall. I did raise a stink and they cut the bill from about $900 to $600, but it made me think that the CPO warranty was not very good. Glad you had better luck.

The G Man

If the transmission line to the cooler is rubber, it might be consider wear and tear, but the transfer case and thermostat should be covered under the CPO warranty.

teksurv

I don't understand. If the minimum CPO warranty (in terms of time) is one year on top of the original in service date, would that not be October 2016?

Arrie

The CPO warranty is one year extension to the factory warranty so it extends the coverage to 5 years total from the in-service date. CPO warranty (that fifth year) is almost as good as the 4 year factory warranty. There are some minor differences but ABSOLUTELY it covers the transmission and all related parts.


Now your dealer is full of it telling it does not cover and that it ran out at 4 years from the in-service date.


Now, the big question is, did you really buy the CPO warranty? You say you bought the car as a CPO but did you get a certificate for it? Is it mentioned in the final sales documents?


I'm asking this because you talked to MB USA and they say your warranty has expired. This means the CPO for your car was never entered in the MB system. If it was then the MB representative you spoke with would have told you that you are still covered.
Perhaps the sales people forgot to enter it in the system and hopefully you have the certificate. If not then hopefully the CPO is mentioned in the sales documents. If not you are in trouble.


And it might be impossible to find advertising for your car that said it is a CPO vehicle.

Funkster

My mistake on the in-service date. It was October 2010. Makes sense since the 2011 E was not being manufactured in October 2011. So my CPO warranty was five years, expiring October 2015.

But the transmission cooler line was not covered. The CPO language is: "Coverage includes most major transmission components..... See the MBCPO Limited Warranty Booklet for complete listing." The oil line is not a major component.

C280 Sport

Trade it in. Not at the same dealer as you purchased it from. Take the hit on the trade but I can assure you the dealer you trade it too will never notice it. Unethical? Yes but honestly a $10,000 repair bill on a V6 Mercedes is crazy awful!

Funkster

You have a good point that I have thought of also. The whine from the transfer case when driven above 35 mph is unmistakeable. That together with a CEL on makes it hard to sell or trade-in without losing more than the cost of repairs. It has to be fixed before we could consider selling it. Unfortunately my wife loves the car (when running properly), so that factors in too.

threeMBs

Fix the cause of CEL, then trade-it in. Keep in mind that the car would never be "right" even after they "fix" it (that transmmission will have only 1 year warranty) . With your low milage (30K, right?) and if car is in comparable to milage cosmetic shape, they will never drive it to notice the issues. Even if it costs a few Dollars on top vs. repairing it, IMO you still would be ahead.

Arrie

There is another way took at it too. If the OP trades it in for a new one or similar used do you think he can get it with $10000 between the cars? If not then it makes more sense to keep and repair the car. If they put a new transmission in the car it should come with the updated transfer case bearings, which I think the whole issue is with. They used too weak or wrong kind of a bearing that fails. The whining noise probably is not bearing noise, it is noise from gear mesh that is not aligned correctly with the worn out bearing that has allowed the gear shaft to move.


As the car is outside warranty I would take it to a transmission repair shop as the fix can be very simple assuming the the car is not driven too long with the defective bearing to a point it destroys the gears. If the repair bill from this service is estimated too high then have the MB put the new complete transmission on the car. For that part the car would be factory new and as the car has less than 30000 miles it would practically be a whole new car.


The OP should be able to get some goodwill referring to the service bulleting that Konigstiger posted (below).


https://mbworld.org/forums/e-class-w...nsmission.html


It is easy to get mad about the issue like this and for sure I would do just that myself but weighing the options trading it in may not be the best one. I would negotiate, beg, pray that MB would come half way with the repair. After all, the parts cost for them is no near half way price as they get the "core" back and can use it for another repair.


The problem with this is that MB does not seem to repair anything but some parts on the engine. Everything else is just replacing the whole unit, like transmission.


A good example of this is the cluster glass. Mine cracked straight across for some reason unknown and this glass is not a separate part. To repair it the whole cluster must be replaced. Parts cost $900.

For the thermostat, it is one of the simplest parts of a car engine to replace. Any shop can do this probably for less than $200.

But all for himself. If I was the OP I would either have the tranny fixed / repaired or walk away from MB all together.

jahquan3

^This

Honestly, I don't think the word "ethical" exist when it comes to dealers. So the unethical part can be thrown out of the window.

Funkster

Thanks for all the advice and support. We kept working with the dealer and placed a letter with an MB executive Konigstiger recommended. Much thanks to him/her.

Picked up the car today with the new transmission/ transfer case and thermostat. The dealer brought the price down to under $600, so I am pretty happy about that. Seems you have to make noise to get dealers to do the right thing.

It sounds like Arrie's post above was a spot on diagnosis. The whine was a gear whine but the initial failure was bearings. I have heard of the line boring for the bearings being the cause of this. Basically the bearing seats are not bored in alignment causing premature failure. If that was the case I am glad I did not try to get an indy shop to rebuild it. I talked to one indy shop I trust and they did not want to do that. The indy shop had worked at the MB dealer and encouraged me to keep working with them to get it done right.

rediesel

^^^Glad it worked out for you