apg231

So when I had my B service I told the SA about my warped rotors. He says they are not covered under warranty as they are a wear item. Cost to replace is $1,000. So a member here provides me with a Service Bulletin regarding issues with warped rotors and I send that to the Service Manager at New Country Mercedes. Get an email back saying again it's not covered under the CPO warranty but he will offer a 10% discount as a show of good faith. So I go to MB USA directly and give the person on the other end of the line my VIN and he tells me no open recalls for rotors. I explain to him that I find it hard to believe an $80,000 car has warped rotors after less than 30,000 miles. He has no response and says that it is what it is. When I bough the car from Rallye Motors in New York, it had 21,000 miles on it and the service records show the front pads were changed. So much for "The best or noting...."

Where do I go from here? (By the way the car is not un-driveable, just annoying to come off a highway and have that annoying shutter in the wheel.

Arrie

So the car is still under the original factory warranty and they say not covered?!?


You can go back to the SA and explain and show him that the brake rotors are not worn, which is not covered, but deformed (warped) which should be covered. Warped rotors totally mess up the ABS system on slippery roads and you can basically have no brakes under some conditions as warped rotors make wheels lock-up easily on slippery road and ABS then takes brake pressure down to allow wheels to turn. Is your SA / dealer ready to take liability for this in case of an accident? Ask them.


Brakes are under warranty other than against excessive wear, of course. If your rotors have plenty thickness but are warped they should certainly be covered.


To be safe I would get after market rotors and pads put on for half or less cost and be happy and safe. Do not get dealer parts and job other than if they cover it. The same problem likely comes back in another 25 000 miles or so using MB parts.


There are lost of posts in this forum about warped rotors. Search for it.

KEY08

Arrie is absolutely correct. If you are on the original warranty they need to fix the warped rotors, which is not a wear item. It is a clear product defect.

apg231

Ok, then my visit to the deal will be pretty interesting next week. I won't go down without a fight

ItalianJoe1

Rotor warranty is 24/24, twice what pads are, but it's still out of warranty.

The issue isn't so much warpage but pad deposits building up from the soft compounds they use and driver habits. You get high spots due to excessive pad material transfer and they then grab harder and it just gets worse in that spot until the rotors are resurfaced/replaced. Most MB rotors wear down so aggressively, if you machine them they will be way below spec at the next pad replacement, so we tend to just replace the set.

Unfortunately, brakes are a consumable, like tires, and having them wear unevenly isn't a warranty defect, if they offer you a discount, that's a courtesy and they are not required to do so at all. MBUSA is generally quite accommodating to good customers, if you've been a service customer there and have purchased multiple vehicles before, they will often extend a very large discount, maybe half.

If this is your first car with MB and you've never actually spent any money there and you are just asking for free brakes, they have little interest in giving you free wear parts. Not what people like to hear, but that's the way it works.

konigstiger

Check your PM.

apg231

Got it Working on a response now

BenzUser12

It may not a quick drive, but Rallye is one of the biggest and most well regarded dealerships in the North East. Explain the issue to them as they "certified" it. I'm sure they will make the repair with little hassle.

apg231

This may be my only recourse as I am getting no where with MB USA.

apg231

So on Friday I sent all the information to the guy I bought the car from at Rallye Motors. He is going to have his service adviser look it over and let me know what they can do. It may be a two hour trip and a good part of my day gone, but probably well worth it in the long run.

fosterelli

You'll get it covered. If they replaced my melted speakers under warranty (non-CPO, purchased used from a different MB dealer, way over mileage for warranty), they should certainly cover your CPO warped rotors. What's the point of a CPO if you receive a vehicle with warped rotors? Some certification!

I totally understand them not wanting to warranty warped rotors, because they don't know how the car was driven (by you or the previous owner). Drivers can definitely warp their rotors if they are super aggressive with braking or drive like madmen, race, abuse, etc. However, this is a CPO and there is a known warped rotor issue with these vehicles. That alone should encourage them to stand behind you and get it fixed.

Anyway, I'm confident you'll keep up the fight and get them fixed under warranty. The 10% discount would've insulted me.

apg231

I just don't understand why MB USA is giving me such a hard time about it. Yes I understand I am past the "12 month/12,000 mile" brake warranty, but the Service Bulletin that konigstiger supplied me with says:

Complaint: Juddering/shuddering of the brakes at the front axle can be felt when braking.

Cause: Thickness fault on brake disk.

Remedy: Note: Applies only in the event of complaint. Replacement of brake linings and brake disks.

THICKNESS FAULT ON BRAKE DISC seems to me there was a problem at production and this is a known issue. I will see what Rallye says and go from there.

E250_92101

The disc thickness variation is usually caused by material transfer from the pads to the disc and is often caused by driving habits or incompatibility of the pad type/material with driving style. Here is quote from stoptech.com (they have a good section on brake myths: http://www.stoptech.com/technical-su...nd-other-myths:

"When ... pads reach their effective temperature limit, they will transfer pad material onto the disc face in a random and uneven pattern. It is this "pick up" on the disc face that both causes the thickness variation measured by the technicians and the roughness or vibration under the brakes reported by the drivers."

Good luck... Keep us posted!

apg231

Well here is the response from Rallye Motors where I bought the car:

"Sent both your emails to a service adviser here and he said brakes are only warrantied for 2 year/24k for the first owner, so the brakes on your car now wouldn't have any warranty on them. He did say to try calling MBUSA Customer Assistance Center and see if they'd throw some money towards it to make up for the service bulletin in the past."

So I have tried every avenue.....really disappointed in the whole situation given Mercedes motto "The best or nothing...." I guess I got the nothing part of the deal.

Gonna try one more email to Mercedes Benz USA and explain to them how disappointed I am in their warranty and want a full explanation of what this service bulletin was written for.

Arrie

Buy after market rotors and be happy with them. MB rotors suck and now I see they do not stand behind their defective product any more.

tresean1

I agree with you---I experienced the exact same thing with my BMW brakes. Luckily I was under the maintenance package and it was time to replace brakes anyway, so I wasn't really out of pocket for the exact gripe.

And I am totally with you...BMW and MB don't give a $h!t about their customers after purchase; the luxury brands feel their "name" alone can carry the customer loyalty. Their mottos should be: "Buy From Us, and You Are Screwed on the Back End"

konigstiger

Not every avenue, you still have local news consumer advocates:

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2010/09/18/call-for-action/
http://abc7ny.com/business/need-7-on...a-here/126197/
http://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/l...379208061.html

apg231

Yeah maybe get the media involved, the problem is I have a car that I have only had for 4 months and it has an extended CPO warranty until 2022 so I don't want to be "that guy" that pokes the hornets nest and have them argue with me over something more serious should it arise. Like I said I will try one more email to MBUSA and state that I understand the brake/rotor warranty may have lapsed (whatever it is, I have heard 12 months/12,000 miles and 2 yrs/24,000 miles) but the fact of the matter is this should be a CPO car with zero faults. Yes, maybe I should have complained initially, but stupid me I waited for the 30,000 B Service appointment to bring it up. If the car had 130,000 miles on it I understand their point, but I only have 31,000 miles on it.

PLINYELDER

Include in your email the fact you have over 1 milllion folllowers on your social media accounts who are following the situation, and that you would like nothing more then to provide a positive outcome to the situation.

konigstiger

CPO is a non-issue, your brake shudder concern is covered under initial factory warranty because front/rear discs installed at production are defective regardless of not being initial owner, customary brake warranty expiration, wear, time elapsed, and/or current mileage. Only way this claim qualifies for denial is if MB Vehicle Master Inquiry (VMI) documents brake "discs" were already replaced to required replacement part #s documented in bulletins and EPC captures I provided.

davidjohnbamber

I had the same thing on the 2014 CPO E350 I HAD. Reading the fine print in the warranty brought me to the conclusion that I was SOL! When I traded it for my present E550 the service department manager and I chatted about my previous purchase from them. Not surprisingly the front pads were replaced as part of the CPO process before I picked it up. A good hard drive home (165 miles) really made me appreciate how much better the brakes were than my E350, and no pulsing/vibration on hard braking. I would try to obtain a VMI for your car, and see if any brake work was done, and then have a face to face with the regional M-B Service Rep. IMO Joe Aloisio is telling you the facts from M-B point of view, and Konigstiger has your best course of action! Good Luck.

apg231

Well guys, persistence pays off. I wrote another email to MB USA (kinda like Andy Dufrane in The Shawshank Redemption) and it sounds like they understood my point and are going to replace my entire brake system under warranty.

Woo Hoo .....I want to personally thank konigstiger for all his help. If you are ever in Western Massachusetts....I owe you a beer or two

KEY08

Good deal.

apg231

Ugh here we go again. 8,000 miles since the brakes and rotors were replaced and guess what, the brakes are pulsating again. My car is at a new dealership (MB of Springfield) for it's A service and I explained everything to the service tech. I told them the brakes were warped when I took ownership of the car at 21,000 miles, MB replace them under warranty at 32,000 miles, now at 40,000 miles they feel warped again. I explained to them this has to be a manufacturer defect in the rotors themselves. If anyone has any documentation other than what was already given to me by konigstiger regarding defective 2014 E550 brakes/rotors I would greatly appreciate it.

KEY08

Wow, you are racking up the miles quickly. We have the same car and I have 46,000 miles. I don't have any of these brake issues and specifically looked at my brakes very closely when I swapped wheels/tires for winter a couple weeks ago. All is good. Are you tracking this thing? LOL