2019 2020 G Class Differential Locking Recall




I scheduled an appointment at a first dealership. When I arrived, they had no record of my appointment, no idea what the recall was about, and naturally no replacement parts available. When I later contacted the GM to complain, he told me they wouldn't have had the parts anyway because they're required to inspect the vehicle first. They never offered to inspect my vehicle while I was there.
I downloaded a copy of the TSB from the NHTSA website. The TSB describes the location of the actuators, the part labels and the part numbers being recalled. I rolled under my G with a camera, flashlight and mirror and took pictures of the actuator labels.
I contacted an equally clueless service department at a second dealership and provided them the photos I had taken. They called me back a few days later telling me that I had to bring my vehicle in for an inspection because MBUSA is not releasing replacement parts due to their cost without an inspection. My photos were not acceptable. In other words, a service technician is supposed to compare a part number he personally observes on an actuator with a photo in the TSB, but comparing his observation of my photo with the TSB is not valid. Apparently MBUSA thinks I would spend my time trying to scam them out of a part I don't need.
I've concluded that MBUSA is trying to avoid this recall on as many vehicles as possible by imposing as much inconvenience and cost as possible on G owners. And given this complete ignorance of the TSB at the dealerships, I am doubtful that the replacement parts would be correctly installed (assuming they could find the actuators to begin with).
By comparison, my Lexus was recalled about a year ago. When I contacted Lexus customer service, the agent offered to dispatch a flatbed trailer to pickup my LX, transport it to a dealership for the repair, and flatbed it back to me. Mercedes won't order the parts.
There was a second recall too, something about some child lock stickers on the rear doors, maybe EU only (I'm UK based)








