Its long overdue for this guy (Peter) to get called out. I bought his system and I know now that I paid dearly for what I actually received. It more or less works so I don't have a lot of regrets but he definitely took advantage of my lack of knowledge; absolutely over promised and under delivered. In the early going he helped me learn the basics of Xentry which is a far from intuitive piece of software. Where it started to come off the rails for me was when I ran into some serious issues after I replaced the solenoid on the front of the bank 2 fuel rail. I think they call it the quality control valve - its a knife solenoid that controls fuel into the entire rail and MB no longer sells it separate from the rail. I found the original Bosch part and replaced only the solenoid. There was a long sequence of events involving a MAF replacement and an episode of black death on bank 2 so the car was hors de combat for several months. When I got it all buttoned up again it started and ran fine in the shop but when I took it for a test drive it would randomly shut down as clean as if you had turned the key off. Again its a long story which I did eventually resolve on my own but during that episode I realized how fundamentally clueless BN was once you got beyond tweaking the gee-gaws inside the factory computerization. His knowledge of using Xentry as a troubleshooting tool is sorely lacking but we didn't completely part ways at that time.

I expect what finally caused our divorce was that I responded to one of his fake accounts who professed to be considering a BN purchase. Of course at the time I didn't realize that I was in fact responding to Peter. I gave that poster an honest assessment of BN service and suggested he keep looking. Obviously BN never admitted knowing about that interaction but immediately afterward he started ghosting me. I think we may have had one brief productive interaction since that time but effectively I'm "off the island". And I'm OK with that. I've discovered that several of the LLMs are actually very knowledgeable about the Xentry functions so that's been helpful. One of my goals when I first contacted BN was access to the hive mind that a group of enthusiasts create. His claim that his service was a club conjured up visions of interactions with other amateur wrench pullers which of course never happened. So at the end of the process I'm left with a crippled Xentry installation (because he doesn't implement a full toolset) and a moderately expensive education. If I ever reach the limits of my Xentry implementation I'm confident that ChatGPT or Gemini or Grok can walk me through the steps of installing a fully functional Xentry on my existing hardware which I know works. So far I haven't reached that wall so I haven't tried to cross it.

In the past I have resisted participating in threads like this out of fear of retaliation but with AI's assistance I know it doesn't matter anymore and the sunk cost of the BN subscription has faded in my memory.

 

Sorry to hear that. I've heard of the same story over and over again - where Ninja did not know how to actually troubleshoot any issues. I've heard he's okay with coding AMG menus, ILS headlights, turn off Auto Stop/Start, etc. But when it comes to troubleshooting it's better to go to a dealer or work it out your self.

I'm not completely bashing on Ninja. I would even be willing to work with him to use his coding in the future, but what gets me is the lying and shady fake profiles. I think he would be an actual great asset to MBWorld and it's people if he just wasn't such a.. well... sketch ball.

What was the actual issue to your fuel rail problem BTW? I am genuinely curious now lol

 

At the risk of promoting thread drift ........ I honestly don't know. There was a host of components replaced between the time I shut off a running vehicle and when the problem surfaced. Ultimately the "solution" was to reinstall the old solenoid. If memory serves MB called it a Y94 solenoid and that's what Xentry called out initially. I finally gave up on my own and trailered the car to my Indie who is a three hour drive away. He spent over a month on and off trying to diagnose the problem which included running injector bleed off calibrations and countless hours that he never charged me for. Finally in desperation I suggested we try putting the old solenoid back on and the car has been running perfectly ever since. So --- short answer --- I don't know what the problem was. Xentry never threw any codes prior to, during or after the shutdowns. I believe Neil uses Autel and he was getting nothing as well. He had some pro forums he used for brainstorming but ultimately it all came up dry. We must be 18 months past the end of that ordeal so I think its safe to say its behind us but I don't know why or how.

 

 

I'm contemplating getting a system through BenzNinja and landed on this thread. What a show!

Just wanted to say to the last poster. If your indie mechanic took months to firgure out the issue on your car, what makes you think that someone can do it in an hour over a screen? You lack the mechanical knowledge to understand what it takes to diagnose and fix such a problem. You are a parts-changer at best. How out of touch some people are is just beyond me. Don't know if benzninja brushed you off because you were unreasonable, don't know if he jacked up the prices for the other guy who was basically window shopping. I know I would have done both, and gladly. Try running a business. See what it's like having people like you coming in through the door. I'll make it easy though, because you're obviously not that type. Answer is - it's better for the business if you don't show up at all.

 

If I am not mistaken...this dead horse was creamated and its ashes spread across the floor of a glue factory.

 

Your money. Your funeral. You were warned.