EndsWithBenz

Took my 2014 e350 sport in for a 70k mile service. Shop is telling me I need new engine and transmission mounts ($1400) and to reseal my upper timing cover ($1200). I like my car and would love to keep it for awhile longer, but don’t want to throw good money after bad. Given the vintage and value of the car at present, would you do these repairs or just buy a new car?

kajtek1

It is about $300 for MM when you DIY.
Not sure about timing cover, but I would expect another $100 to fix it.
MB is not a brand that you want to take to dealer for repairs.

CaliBenzDriver

Let's say rubber mounts on V6 engine can wait another year, the two timing covers are an easily accessible place to do a lot of good... beyond the dirty $2 RTV gasket

• replace 4x CPS leaky sensors
• replace 2x chain tensioners
• (check missing check-valves?)

The regulars :

• (spark plugs & boots)
• (tranny ATF service)
• (engine oil service)
• (air filter)

S-Prihadi

BenzV12

It's not a cheap fix but those items will serve you greatly for many years and mileages to come once replaced . Well, I don't want to direct you into wrong sections of the road but I think I would keep it . As said, you could fix those cheaper than dealer prices as well

ygmn

repairs way less then price of new car.

Find a indy mechanic and have them check car - see if they find motor mounts etc need replacing and if seal is leaking.

DO you see oil in driveway or garage where you park?

Little leak you can live with a while.
Mounts should be replaced to prevent potential drive shaft end issues and overall keep sounds and clunking noise to minimum.

DFWdude

I agree... find an indy repair shop to get a second opinion. You might find that your dealer is either pulling your leg or trolling for dollars. If you actually need these repairs, you should find it far less expensive at the indy shop. I'm getting too old (or lazy) to do these repairs myself. So finding a good independent repair shop that knows MB cars is almost essential.

EndsWithBenz

Thanks to everyone for the advice here. Just to add one detail here, this quote is from the most reputable indy shop I could find in the area. Stopped going to the dealer a couple of years back. I’m going to call another shop today just to check their prices, however if I’m going to invest this, I definitely want it done right. Sadly, aside from refilling wiper fluid, I’ve never done much of myself and am a bit wary of starting here.

ygmn

just thought of something.

Tis the end of the month and maybe service manager needs more sales to get that bonus...
so he pressures mechanics to find anything on every car they look at.

IT HAPPENS!

Indys do not have this option since the guy working on your car is the owner.

Raj1471

Price check other reputable indys...use the quotes against your most preferred indy and see if they will meet or beat the price. New car prices and subsequent interest rates are bonkers...imo 70k miles is nothing...you can get another 100k out of that Benz if you do on time preventative maintenance. I try to wrench as much as possible to my ability on all my vehicles, MB, Audi and Honda, to keep my operating costs to a minimum.

JALLEN4

After 40 years as a dealership owner, I can tell you some things I have learned. Contrary to every car oriented forum I have ever read, not all dealers or independents are always selling repairs that are not needed. Factually, they just as often have returning customers screaming because they didn't tell the owner about needed repairs on the last visit that are now obvious.

If even 10% of car owners actually had the understanding, tools, and equipment to properly repair their own car, my life would have been far easier. That would mean I would not have been constantly searching for potential technicians that I could spend thousands of dollars training them on my product and supplying them with tens of thousand of dollars in tools and equipment. I could have just hired one standing around on the street corner with all the knowledge. Very few folks are really qualified to do their own repairs properly and are to be admired but hard to emulate if they can!

When someone tells you it needs a repair, ask them to put it on a lift and show you the exact problem. If they are are not convincing, stumbling on their words, or can't show you actual visible proof...go home. Otherwise, get it fixed.

Having sold tens of thousands of new and used cars, I can tell you one fact. Ninety-nine percent of the time the car you have is the cheapest one you can have for the future. People fail to properly maintain and then sell out the first time they have a problem...long before needed. A modern day MB, properly taken care of, will last 20 years or at least 200,000 miles. Total cost will be far less then buying three or four new ones during that time.

kajtek1

When you stop working at the dealers JALLEN?
In last 10 years, dealers started to make "courtesy inspections" what in professional rings is called "revenue chaser".
I had it done on several of my cars and none of the "recommendations" come with less than $5000 proposal.
90% of those reported issues were bogus.
I had my W212 for AEM about 2 years ago and courtesy inspection quoted me for pads/rotor replacement, quoting 4mm on pads. The light was not on, so I did not even bother to double check it.
This year I had the car for other recall and the inspection reported the pads at 6mm. That is 10,000 miles later. on the same pads.
I texted that to SA who gave me the last quote and he left it without comment.

juanmor40

@kajtek1 , I think you feed your pads too many vitamins and they grow over time.

Back in 2018, the W212 was @30K miles and took it for service A to a known Nation-wide MB dealer. The SA came back suggesting the throttle body needed cleaning because it was dirty already and quoted @$150 + parts. I was waiting at the dealership, I could not figure out how they saw it w/o taking apart anything. Told him thank you, and let it be as is. Checked the car when I was back, took the air filter box, and the elbow to see the throttle body was as clean as new (as expected). Today @95K, the throttle body is still clean w/o any "suggested service". That dealer is at the top of my list of highly un-recommended shops when anyone asks.

dmatre

I tend to look at the costs of repairing a car compared to the alternative: A comparable 'new' car will cost around $500/moth minimum.

If you do both services at the dealer, you come out to $2600 - round up to $3k just in case something else needs doing.

Will this $3k get you another 6 months down the road in a safe, comfortable and reliable car? If yes, to me that seems to be a sensible tradeoff.

People will look at cars as an asset and ask "why would you put $XXX into a car worth only $YYYY? But this isn't really a valid question, as a car is depreciated with every day that passes and mile that is driven. If an asset the question would be "Why would you own this car as opposed to shares of Meta, IBM or Google?".
A car is actually more like a service. It gets you where you need to go when you need to get there. So a better comparison is between a car and Uber: Can you get more use from a car, or would the same money spent on Uber get you further?
Since you've already got the car, the only decision is repair or exchange.

So, long story short, if the rest of the car is solid, I'd DIY what I could, have the rest done, and enjoy driving a Benz for the next years.

JALLEN4

Of course dealers inspect cars and report to the owners what they recommend they need. They are in the business to work on cars to make a profit. That didn't start ten years ago and was going on back to the sixties that I know about personally. That also doesn't mean anything they tell you it needs is a lie. Just like Doctors, Lawyers, and Indian Chiefs...some are honest to a fault and some are total crooks.

I am in and out of dealerships very often with my collection of cars. They tell me what it needs and I ask them to show me. If they can show me the problem, they fix it and I pay.

rapidoxidation

Last (only) time my ML was at the dealer was for an AEM repair: the heater/pump assembly in the DEF tank had quit and eventually the car started counting down the number of starts available. The dealer took care of the issue gratis, and gave me a heads up on one of the rear airmatic shocks leaking and a slight leak from the transfer case input shaft ($1800 and $1200 respectively, IIRC). I said to go ahead with the transfer case leak, but they never did get to it. The tech (Ben) showed me the shock leak and the transfer case leak. I took care of the shocks myself (Bilstein bags and shocks, $1800 total for both rear sides). Still haven't addressed the shaft seal, but the fluid level in the case still is high enough to leak out the fill hole.
Ken Garff Mercedes in SLC seems to shoot straight.

CaliBenzDriver

Thank you for sharing your long experience -
You've got the proven way to get work done because even you do not trust fluffy SA lies.

"Show me" can only go so far to prevent abuse.

I am always amazed at the ridiculous $100 discount coupon game for work orders around $2500 - I am sure that gets people in! 🫤

The real ripoff is paying multiple times for the same work:

• pay for driver side timing cover seal
• pay to replace alternator + passenger cover
• one year later pay for passenger tensioner
• finaly get the oil harness $10k then CPS

Where an honest trustworthy mechanic is going to go ahead and service the car professionally in one order.

The 3 MB dealers near me are the perfect place to get the shaft with busy work. They act as if running a monopoly to meet target numbers.

High maintenance cars do not have to be money pits. Drama traps can be disabled on time.

MBNUT1

These are not the kind of repairs that you ask this question about. This is just normal maintenance. As others have suggested you probably can get it done cheaper at an indy. The real question you need to ask yourself is if you are comfortable owning a car that has this kind of repair costs. If you had real problems you could find yourself upside in the car pretty fast but these cars are in general pretty reliable.

S-Prihadi

Its all about what is a car to you ...the owner.
If it is purely a transport machine....$$ talks and calculator must be in use .

If it is pleasure machine ( like mine ), a hobby machine........ calculator does not work much, its what brings you smile which decides

CaliBenzDriver

No worries, somebody will be delighted to buy a clean low-mileage CPO MB:

• 2600 Eng/tranny mounts
• 2500 brakes service job
• 1300 tires/tpms
• 2500 Passenger VVT Rattle
• 1800 CPS sensors
• 800 tranny ATF
• 700 Sched. Sce (Air filter / MB oil / Wipers)
• 300 cabin filter
• 700 main battery
• 400 serpentine belt
• 1500 control arms / 2 Whl. alignment
• 1200 Indexed spark plugs
• 3000 ISM shifter stuck
• 600 AUX Batt (troubleshooting Inc.)
• 1400 thermostat faulty temps
• 1200 keyfob inop. (troubleshooting inc.)

I left out misfires... it can be from 1k to $10k (scored cylinder misfires, "Oil-in-ECU-harness"): in that case sell vehicle out of town/state.

juststeve

I’ve been to the MB dealer in my area for a spare key. Arguably a difficult item to source on the secondary market. This dealer also sells Honda and 10-15 of them were clogging their service bays. I could only see one lowly 212 though the large glass windows. MB owners are a savvy group; using an affordable, local independent repair shop is a prudent choice.

Rickman30

Dealer just said I needed motor mounts. I had bought one new one a while back, never installed because measuring the gap between the rubber and mount body was only a difference of 2mm, the mounts are the same today. In investigation, the rubber touching the mount body is when you change them, now my trans mount is very close to the limit, takes about 15min to change.

Resealing upper cam covers. it can be covers, it can be Cam Magnets, it can be residue. I use Liquid-Moly Molygen oil with UV dye. They had told m e the same about mine. After cleaning, and periodically checking with UV light, I have zero leaks after a year of checking. It still may be seeping, or it was done and the tech failed to clean it up during or after the repair, I witnessed a lot of that the places I worked, either way, I have no leaks.

The dealer just did my camshaft adjuster, and upon disassembly, oil from valve cover or vacuum pump had drained down onto the rear splash shield, at least 2 or 3 oz. of it in the shield. I cleaned it up and informed the SA. So, the dealer is expensive, but far from perfect.

mercedesbuff

If I were in your shoes, I would proceed with these repairs and keep your 2014 E350. These particular repairs are not abnormal. Therefore, I would not worry about this being necessarily indicative of future expensive repairs.

The W212, especially 2014-2016, is a vehicle I would put my trust in for the long term. And since yours is the E350 and not the E400 or E550, you won't have to worry about turbos...

EndsWithBenz

Thanks to everyone who gave their advice here. I did decide to proceed with the repairs. I genuinely love this car, and hope to drive it for a long time to come.

W205C43PFL

Enjoy in good health : )