spigrimace

2012 W212 E550 4-matic M278 - I'm not going to rat out this repair shop that specializes in German cars until the final outcome, as they are pretty well known and had a good rep and I used them before with my W208 with good results, but I am feeling I am getting the run around and am in a bad spot I shouldn't be in with this shop. So I am an advocate of preventative maintenance and lately there is a small vibration I can feel in the steering wheel in my grip but you can't visibly see it shake. Also car when you hit the gas in park and let go of the accelerator, it vrooms with full power but then I get a shimmy in the cabin for 2 seconds. Car has 73k so I'm thinking motor mounts. Car has been running fine, no codes, no stalls, no weird sounds, makes long trips with ease and really purrs nice when at full temp. I check the codes with a iCarsoft MB II scanner I have and there were no codes Monday night. I bring it Tuesday early pre-open and requested they look it over and if they agree, I'd give them the work for the motor mounts, transmission mount, transmission fluid change and brake fluid change. I drop it off pre-open and uber to work. They call me in the morning, and they almost snickered as most people wouldn't do this just for a really weak vibration, they agreed they could replicate what I felt and acted like it really wasn't anything and almost made me feel like a hypochondriac, and quoted me $2450. Sounds good, I gave them the go ahead. They even said they'd have it done same day as I dropped off before the open which I thought would be awesome. At this point feeling great. First issue. I get a call around 1pm that they gaffed on the quote and that the motor mounts are a 15.5 hour job and now they want $4400 for all the services. But then they said, well we can wait on that for now, they already did the transmission mount and were doing the fluid changes and they got me at $1450ish. I said I'm up for inspection in 4 months or so and we can get to the motor mounts then. I call at 3:30 and ask when I can come get the car and he says we'll be done in about 45 minutes to an hour. I uber over and get there at 4:15, see the car with the hood up in the shop with the exhaust tips still hooked up to the exhaust fan and some techs looking a little miffed. So hair on the back of my neck was up. I go in and talk to the shop manager who was the one calling me. He said, well um, you can decide if you want to pay for it or not but we we're putting it through the intake cleaning service to clean out the carbon to see if that helps. It will be another half-hour. I was a little miffed as to why they would do a service without asking me. So I go hit a local bar a block away for 2 beers and a sandwich and walk on back to the shop. Hood is still up, I'm thinking this isn't good as they are going to close soon. So as I wait, I hear the administrative assistant call Enterprise rent-a-car and say to put it in my name. I perk up. She said the shop manager will come and explain. He said, I got the cost of the rental. We can't get your car to crank. Sounds like an engine issue. Maybe chain tensioner. I dont know. We'll look at it in the morning and go from there. I'm dumbfounded now. I'm like if I never came in, I'd be driving around right now in my car. Now I'm worried about shelling out for engine repairs. Any suggestions taking in all of the above in the meantime? I'll send an update with what I hear later.

Arrie

What does it mean cannot get it to crank? It does not crank at all or it does not start when cranking?

If it is dead not cranking it could be battery issue, i.e. if they worked on car all day long with doors open and perhaps playing radio or something else running it could drain the battery beyond point to be able to crank, which would be very pleasant problem to have. If they jumped it and it still won't move then it can be more serious issue.

I also know from my own experience that you can have engine cranking fine but it won't start because the starter is bad and pulls too much load and puts the battery on its knees and the charge wont be enough to wake the car up and start the engine.

rediesel

Damn that sucks.

KEY08

I would let this play out before making assumptions about the cause or fault of the mechanics. At this point it is an interesting story and unfortunately it happens to be your car at the center of it. The quote for the motor mount replacement is the only ridiculous thing I see here.

ot1

Its takes less than an hour to change the transmission mount once you get the car up and they are 65 USD from FCP with a lifetime warranty,
An ARCAN 3 ton jack (ALJ3T this is a very nice jack with a solid feel handle) is $250 Amazon plus some jack stands, Lowes always has Craftsman wrench sets on sale. Stop getting ripped off.

spigrimace

Alright, shop made good. They said it appears the carbon cleaning solution in the intake prevented it from firing. After an overnight soaking, it fired right up today with no problem. They didn't charge me for the car rental, nor the carbon cleaning and even didn't make me return the rental car (meaning they will drop it off to the rental agency). That was some solid goodwill on their part. Car still has the vibration feel in the steering wheel while gripping it though. So I'm out the door paid $1452. They scoped the engine and they mentioned the rear cylinders #4 and #8 are pretty black from carbon. He said it looks like the M278's might end up having a similar issue to the early 2000's Corvettes as he's wondering if these cars will have the carbon build up so much in the rear 2 cylinders which may eventually lead to those cylinders failing. He said for now, I should be fine for quite a while but might become an issue down the road. We'll see. Engine fired right up today and ran like it always has - smooth with no issues. Transmission noticeably smoother due to the fluid change. Both the shop manager and I both let out a sigh of relief.

rediesel

Probably the only time you'll be happy to spend $1452 and not get your problem solved.

cetialpha5

Yeah, I'm not really sure what you paid for. The transmission mount is easy, I had my indy change it out in 20 minutes and it's a cheap part from FCPEuro, $64 as mentioned earlier. Even the dealers only charge around $500 for a transmission fluid change and the brake flush should only be a few hundred. You basically paid double or triple what it should be at a real indy shop. At least at the dealer you would have gotten a real Mercedes for a rental. The mounts are more complicated but at the price they're quoting you, you should check with the dealer. Technically with under 80k, you could have gotten a 3 service pack from MB and that would have covered the transmission fluid change, that's typically around $1100 for a 3 service pack and you would have gotten the fluid changed at 70k as part of that service and then get the brake flush as part of the Service B at 80k.

hyperion667

Glad it worked out well, nice to hear a good outcome.

shak

I changed my transmission mount, in my garage with just a jack and stands in 15 mins. Literally, you unscrew 5 bolts with transmission lifted with a jack, and put the new one in. Motor mounts take 15 hours I also replaced them, total time was literally 4 hours for my e350, e550 cannot be that much more difficult. With yours being 4matic, the passenger side may need the alternator removal, driver side just dropping the exhaust. Some Indi shops can be just as bad as the big dealer, expect you do not gen a loaner car, and if they mess things up you cannot call corporate and demand for **** to be fixed.