Mercedes Mech

As a Mercedes mechanic for over 27 years I can tell you that these piston failures are few and far between. Out of the thousands of cars I see every year and work on I've only maybe seen two to three each year that had this piston failure. If you think that every m274 engine has the defective wrist pins you are wrong they don't. I just worked on a 2017 E300 still going strong no engine problems at 183,000 Mi and there are many cases with this year model with high models and no piston or engine problems. I agree with this Massimo guy I read everything he said he's pretty much right on target and if you think that every W 213 E300 2017 and up engine will have this piston failure you my friend are wrong once again this is few and far between there are plenty of them out there with high miles I see them every day going strong and do not have the defective wrist pins. I work on more e classes and c classes than any other vehicle and I would know. With all respect you are wrong sir not Massimo.

Billyismyname

With all due respect please re-read what I said. I did not say every M274 engine has issues. You and Massimo both are misinterpreting this entire discussion. He seems to be believe that I was saying every single M274 engine is going to experience these problems and that is dead wrong.

I too have a W213 E300 and it currently has 145,000 miles and not a single issue. So I would be an idiot to say that every engine has defective parts.

I am trying to explain to this guy that it wasn't "just a few M274's" with defective parts and that failed. There are potentially thousands of them out there and we just haven't heard of all of them and not all have failed just yet. But you you are one technician out of how many thousands that only "replaced a few". How many engines were replaced under warranty throughout for engine failures? I personally know an MB tech in Greenwich CT and in Rockville NY that had replaced M274's left and right. So while you might have replaced only a few, other techs around North America and throughout Europe replaced the rest.

To my other point, our friend Massimo here believes that it was just certain engines on C Classes and GLC from 2015 to 2016 with certain engine numbers which also is not the case. There have been reported issues with M274 engines up to 2019 with wrist pin//piston failures across the entire M274 platform. So E Class, C, GLC, GLE, Sprinter, etc. So that is the entire take of this thread. While i have provided threads from other users with those unfortunate issues (including my self who has a cracked piston due to these loose parts), he still disagrees and doesn't seem to believe it. Almost like he thinks his car will blow up so he has to keep reassuring himself that it won't happen (which is more than likely won't). Unsure what isn't clicking here.

Mercedes Mech

Well you sure are making it sound like it's all the m274 engines, putting fear into people's hearts again this is very few and far between I know Mercedes mechanics across the US and all agree with me and Massimo is right on the models the engine number makes Etc he's on target with that as well, we're just not seeing that many and neither are my friends across the US and Europe is not having these problems you're wrong again Massimo answered that question several times for you seems that you are hard-headed and are the one who's not getting it.

Massimo Here

LMAO- thank you!!

Just ignore him I do now- he's a true moron and just because one of hes Mercedes had this issue he is apparently really hurt by it and thinks this affects the majority of people with this engine, and it does not!!

You know we all had this one ex-girlfriend that was abused by her boyfriend and thinks every guy will be the same, (damaged goods), that's what he is LMAO!!!!

NO matter what you say- he will remain a moron Just ignore him!!!

juanmor40

With respect here, I think you are setting the bar too low here. At this date and age, there should not have been ANY failure of these engines. One is one too many, period.

How do should MB have done to be on the right side of the customer<-> manufacturer relationship? Here is the answer -> https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a6...cement-recall/

I am not suggesting replacing ALL the engines, but those that really failed. If it is random failures, so be the repairs

Nobody addresses why the V6 and V8 do not show the same issue. From the technical side, I would love to understand why the V6 and V8 of the same generation are more robust to "gasoline", "oil rating", etc.

Billyismyname

Again - They replaced my engine for free and I sold my car and didn't lose any money. I went and bought a SECOND E300 M274 the day after. So not mad at all. Actually very happy that Mercedes replaced my engine and didn't give me the finger. Not sure who pissed in your Cheerios but go try and get people pissed off and troll else where, bum.

Billyismyname

I, in no comment mentioned all M274's will fail. I said to Mr. "your engine will blow up if you use 89 octane" that it's more likely you would have a wrist pin issue before his turbo fails. Which is not a lie. Again, 2018 to 2019 M274s have failed for this exact issue. And it should be in the back of all of M274 owners minds that it COULD happen to any one of us, god forbid. Taking how terrible Mercedes is this day and age (they aren't what they used to be), especially with customer relations and resolve problems that is 100% on their end and their fault, I would assume that every engine could fail. But I didn't say they will fail. Big difference.

But if you want to side with Mr. "your engine will blow up if you put 89 octane in your car once" (massimo) then go right ahead.

JettaRed

iTrader: (1)

Maybe Nissan subcontracted some of the M274s to Hyundai/Kia. (Just trying to stir the pot a little .)

Massimo Here

Maybe lol!

Also Volkswagen had similar issues. I never really liked V4 too be honest, but that's the way there all going now! :-)

CaliBenzDriver

Small turbos are good/bad for multiple reasons.
​​​​​We are stuck in our own reality.
Open minds are few.

Billyismyname

Hey, at least Kia has a 100,000 miles/10 year warranty The entire motor can blow if that was the case haha

The G Man

Before I bought my 2019 E300 used, I did plenty of research on the piston issues. My theory is that the 6 and 8 cylinders are not push as hard as the 4. In my opinion, the 4 cylinder is fine for everyday driving but when one drives the car like he stole it, it will have issues. Everything engine has a weak design point, when push to the limit continuously or when the engine is chipped to increase torque, that is where this weak area will fail. Pretty safe to say, most of the 2019+ E class is free from piston failures.

JettaRed

iTrader: (1)

Not sure 4-cylinder engines are pushed harder, but maybe. As I've mentioned before, I have a 2004 Audi TT 225 with a 1.8T engine with over 250,000 miles. It's been Revo chipped over 90% of that time. Same K04 turbo. Does she run like brand new? No. But she still runs well enough.

I don't think comparing the M274 with the M276 and M278 (and others) is a valid comparison since those engines (M276 and M278) are of the same "family" and generation, and the M274 is not. I just don't know enough about the M274 to make a statement that it is of the same design and parts as the 6 and 8 cylinders.

juanmor40

@JettaRed I asked to point out the obvious: "same engineering department", it does not matter if MB has 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8 or 12-cylinder engines. All of them will use the same gasoline = random sources in different countries by owners with random habits.

JettaRed

iTrader: (1)

Well, that was random!

Billyismyname

My E300 that had piston failure was maintained and driven fairly harsh. The engine failed at 87,000 miles. My second E300 that i currently have now has 145,000 miles and has been driven the same way if not worse (especially in the snow/winter time doing donuts and trying to race my local PD buddies everywhere we go). The M274 is a smaller engine, yes, but i don't find that to be true about them not being able to take a beating.

The issue with the engine failures is that the wrist pins were made not-to-spec, which in turn had play/lose tolerances with the pistons. Once the already out of spec wrist pins wore out/over heated, they snapped, cracked, made the piston slap the cylinder walls, etc. Looks like most of the newer M274's don't have any problems like my current E300. However, there are reports of MB 2018-2019 YM having engine failures for the same thing.

The "new" issue people seem to have with the M274's is the chain/rattle problem and the camshaft backing plate rotating from the actual camshaft. I've been seeing a lot of those issues lately the more people put miles on their cars.

The G Man

If reliability is one's top priority, then Japanese cars are the way to go. I purchase my Mercedes knowing it is less reliable, that is a tradeoff I am willing to take. My hope was not to get a lemon like the wrist pin issue or the crack piston issue but I have had lemons from other European manufacturers as well. Out of the German big 3, Mercedes in my opinion is the most reliable.

ua549

The worst cars I've ever owned were Japanese, especially '71 Toyota Crown, '71 Corona Mark II, '78 Mitsubishi Mirage and '79 Mazda RX (Wankel). Each car was a maintenance nightmare and disposed of after less than a year. My father threatened to disown me if I bought another Japanese car. (He was trapped US Embassy in Beijing when Japan invaded.) I've been buying German cars exclusively since then. I've owned Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Opel and Porsche. The Porsche was the least reliable of the German cars, but the most fun to drive.

Massimo Here

I agree Mercedes is the most reliable out of all the German makers I've had good luck with owning the E-Class since the early 90s.

In my opinion the E-class is the most reliable Mercedes made there's a reason why Germany uses them as taxi cabs

Billyismyname

Audi is the worst then BMW in my opinion. I've owned several Audi's and all had major oil leaks. My buddy is a master tech at Audi and loves his job because he gets paid hourly to work on newer Audi's that have major issue after issue. BMW's are more solid, but still prefer Mercedes.

As for your Japanese car statement, you're 100% correct. German cars are over engineered and that's not always a good thing. More engineering = more things to fail. Although Japanese cars are starting to go that route as well.

I've owned several Lexus's and never had a single issue. In fact, Lexus just scored most dependable car brand second year in a row. Don't know how BMW made that list at 3rd place, but I can vouch for Lexus's all day long.

JettaRed

iTrader: (1)

I concur that Audi has its problems. I think cars of the early 2000s were good, especially the transverse mounted 1.8T, but they started going downhill with the 2.0T engines having all sorts of mechanical issues. The 1.8T was plagued with oil sludge problems with people running long oil change intervals and/or using unapproved engine oil. But if you changed the oil every 5000 miles or less with an approved oil, you were good to go.

Billyismyname

@JettaRed Are you trying to start another argument with the oil change intervals? LOL (I agree)

I just think the whole VW group has it's issues other than the Porsches. I had a lemon 2017 GTI that had to get it's timing chain replaced 3 times. Car had less than 20,000 miles.

JettaRed

iTrader: (1)

Nope, but I'm not going to back down from the tried and true. Sometimes there are lemons that no amount of maintenance is going to fix (I had a 2005 Audi A4 1.8T that was an absolute piece of crap), but if you have an otherwise good car, it's prudent to do what you can to keep it that way. There are enough expert mechanics that will tell you that a 10k miles change interval on any engine, modern or otherwise, is a bad idea.

This is an interesting video from Hoovie about Toyota quality changing. Not the first time I've heard that about Lexus' 10 years ago and now.

Billyismyname

I agree. I've been changing at the 5,000 mile mark for ever now and the insides of my E, S, and GT63 look immaculate.

All quality is going down. No matter the manufacturer. Mercedes is in a decline for the better half of the past 10 years in my opinion.

The G Man

I had a lemon buyback from Audi and all 4 of my Audi leak oil. The 6 turbo in my S5 was leaking a quart every 5000 miles and factory said was normal. The early Audi DI engines also had issues with carbon build up, 3 of my Audi need intake cleaning at under 20k miles.
The Japanese are master at copying technology, they build their brand on reliability. They would let the Germans try out a new technology for a few years and once most of the bugs have been worked out, they then modify on the design with reliable in mind. The turbo charged engine is a good example.