nc211

Interesting - have my car at an indi today. They have a near-legendary reputation in my area for MB’s (there are a TON of MB’s in my neck of the woods) - and they’re the folks who busted the dealership two years ago for basically lying to me about fixing my bent rims. Totally trust them, 100%.

As I’m done with my prepaid service vouchers and out of warranty, my car is now in their hands going forward. Took it today for an oil change and to flush out the transmission fluid. Got a call - one of the bolts on my transmission pan has been completely sheered off at some point in the past, and another is completely missing. It’s not leaking, but....

so...yet ANOTHER reason why MB dealership service centers are BY FAR the worst I have ever seen in my life (46 years old). They sold me the car as a CPO! I have never had a good experience with now 3 MB dealerships - two here in DC and one in Indianapolis that put on a defective tire (all they had to do was replace the tire).

I am 1000% convinced the only way to own one of these cars correctly is to (1) have a trusted indi check it out regardless of CPO status, and (2) make sure the first time you drive it off of the lot is the last time it ever returns, if you can avoid it.. I am completely convinced MB is not interested in maintaining your vehicle, but instead would rather you be just happy enough to buy another when yours starts to nag you. I wonder how many MB’s are out there that would’ve been fine for many more miles and years had it not been serviced exclusively by a Mercedes Benz dealership. Now I understand why they try and push the prepaid services on you. Last thing they want is for someone who knows how to maintain these cars, actually maintaining them...

sorry for the rant. Just stunned yet again at the blatant poor quality of service from the MB dealer network.

KEY08

Is this the first transmission service your car has ever had? Including prior to your purchase

nc211

As far as I and the mechanic can tell from the MB records. I have the print out from the dealership of the service history prior to my ownership, and he has access of history too. No transmission service history. First for me too, gut feeling it needs it at 45k miles. So either the dealership did something and didn’t record it, or the previous owner did something and the dealership did not correct it as part of their “CPO” process.

KEY08

Ok, that is weird then that those bolts are damaged in that way. I know you aren’t a fan of dealer service, but I can’t see any tech leaving the trans pan damaged like that. Something tells me that some hack may have been the culprit and yes they should have seen this during the CPO certification.

nc211

Yeah they’ve not been very good to me, at all. I saw it myself today when I picked it up, we have to fix it after thanksgiving due to needing a part from MB. For anyone who has done this DIY - it’s the corner bolt where there is a spacer and the bolt next to it on the very corner edge to hold the pan up against the car (completely missing). The bolt with the spacer is sheered off, spacer missing, and all that is left is the threads of the screw where the bolt sheered off. There is some rust on it too, signaling that it happened a while ago.

Knowing all of this now, I’m glad I’m doing this early as god only knows what’s in the pan now. Maybe too low or too high of fluid. Car shift ok, but have recently noticed and felt a little rumble when it shifts into 5th. I suspect mount related thought, which is next on the list. Also servicing rear differential too, not messing with the front. my guy says he’s never seen a front go bad, and it’s a major pain to replace the fluid. My guy is able to get nearly all the old fluid out of the torque converter too with some compressed air. I trust him completely, have met others with older MB’s at 4x’s the miles as mine, still running perfectly. Boss has a 2004 E at nearly 220 miles. I want the same for mine, want this car around for a long time!

I asked about the motor mounts and when they start to go bad. He said on this car, they go pretty quick, usually around 60k +/- miles. Said a design flaw as they sit right under the exhaust and get hot from it. Makes sense, and could explain why some see them go earlier (I think mine are going soon) as I sit in DC traffic a lot. So 45k miles for me, might be the same engine run time as someone in a less congested city at 60k miles.

kajtek1

60k miles motor mounts are not design flow but a design for comfort, not long lasting.
You want it to last- bolt it directly to the frame and take all the vibration.
Anyway, when I am definitely not a friend of stealers, you are saying the car might never have transmission service? So it can't be done by dealer, but certainly CPO inspection should catch it.
We do have different logic of buying used cars. Over the years I bought more than a dozen of used MB, but I buy them with higher mileage and I buy them cheap. I always expect few things that needs to be fixed and I was always pleasantly surprised that the cars needed very little.
You buy CPO and expect perfection. IT IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN.
We are only humans.

nc211

I’ve had several Toyota and Lexus products - silky smooth and quiet as church until around 110k miles when the trans mount is usually ready and the motor mounts have compressed down to a point of a little slack. While maybe not a design flaw so to speak - for a flagship Benz with multigenerational history - you’d think maybe someone in Germany might’ve said “hey, um, rubber and heat, maybe an issue here?” But it’s all good, I’m not complaining about it - I’ll happily replace them.

I bought the car with 22k miles, a lease return to the original dealership. I mean I get what you’re saying, but it’s pretty clear mine was “CPO’d” via a parking lot walk around. Wasn’t exactly looked over. Otherwise they’d of also probably spotted the rear spoiler coming off the corner of the trunk too, bent rims, blown speaker, out of alignment, bad seat bottom. All fixed and I got a decent deal. But just proves to me - that whole meticulous inspection process to earn the MB Certified designation (and price), isn’t quite up to “best or nothing” standards. This missing bolt and broken bolt isn’t a manufacturing error. It’s a service that was done that was not recorded. Car fax shows 100% originating dealer service records, along with the dealership service history from day 1. There is nothing about the transmission in any of the log entries of service. Something screwy here - but it’ll get fixed properly now. I would strongly doubt the previous owner did it with that low of miles and the fact he lived in an apartment building with surface parking (found his insurance card in the manual and looked him up - 28 year old financial planner with Morgan Stanley, a very big dude too which explained the seat situation.

Your approach gives many of us newbies to the brand inspiration and confidence!

there are sooo many MB’s in DC, I think the dealership service bays are simply overwhelmed and can’t handle much beyond the basic oil change anymore. But the defective tire from the Indianapolis shop is a head scratcher. Continental even confirmed that specific lot of tires had a defect and replaced it for free as well.

it all just goes to remind us of the tried and true theory - if you want it done right the first time, do it yourself. Thankfully I believe I have found a MB owner and mechanic who believes in this philosophy as well. I just don’t have the time anymore to work in my cars as much as I used to or would like..

fc3

I'm not sure about that CPO inspection. My Sadie was owned by a fellow who passed away this past summer at 96 years of age. Needly to say, he didn't drive much and my car, after the dealership repurchased it from the man's estate, had fewer than 13,000 miles on her. On the test drive, while going up hill on the Interstate, I let the speed drift down then hit the gas. Hard. Once the engine got to around 4,000 RPM, she cut out, then back in, then back out, etc. I repeated the test several times and it very consistently exhibited the problem. I said it feels like a fuel problem, maybe filters despite the low mileage?

Other than that, the car was great and I asked them to check the problem. A week later I went back and bought the car. And the problem was still there but was getting worse. We were on the Interstate with the speed control set and the engine completely lost power. Coasted off the highway and was able to achieve a restart.

The day after I dropped her at the dealership the service writer called to say they found low pressure on the fuel supply and were ordering a pump. The next day he called again and said that when the tech pulled the pump the inlet was full of "gunk." They didn't know what it was, just that it was gunk and the fuel tank was full of it. They needed to check to see if the tank could be cleaned or if it had to be replaced. Took nearly a week and a half in total, but the fix was a new tank and internals, plus flushing the fuel lines, etc. I asked for a sample of the gunk to have analyzed, I have connections at one of the top STEM colleges, but they didn't have a sampling container.

Umm... How did they certify that car as being ready for sale without actually doing a decent test drive?

Oh, I assume that the problem was caused by E10, which has an affinity for water and will breed bacteria. There's one strain that, as it consumes ethanol, produced acetic acid, so bacterial infestations aren't a good thing at all. I assume that my car sat a lot last summer without being used much so the fuel degraded somewhat, absorbed some water, and grew a very large bacterial colony, which multiplied, died, multiplied again, died again, etc. It was the dead bacteria that clogged the fuel inlet, I think.

Seems okay and I have a lot of warranty left, so not too concerned. But they really need to do a better job on their CPO inspections.