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I received an unsolicited solicitation from an attorney today regarding my 2011 GL350 - a scan of it is below.
Many many of us have discussed here how much of a disaster the OM642 diesel engine in our X164 GL's is - certainly it's horrible from a reliability perspective. I've had the oiler cooler seals replaced twice, the timing chain replaced once, the engine mounts once, various sensors, etc - all under extended warranty, at a retail cost of close to $20,000.
The advertisement from the attorney implies that there are multiple law firms gearing up for individual lawsuits and class actions around emissions and the OM642.
Does anyone have any insight as to whether there is likely to be a government settlement with Mercedes around this engine? It would not be horrible to get a refund from Mercedes - the check for the Audi Q7 Diesel settlement was in excess of $10k...
Interesting. The timeline for the VW process for me was:
May 2014 CARB researchers first raised concerns about VW's practices
Sept 2015 VW communicates information to CARB about a defeat device
January 2016 US Justice Dept files suit against VW
March 2016 US FTC files suit against VW
October 2016 Federal judge approves a settlement with federal and CARB regulators, and VW.
February 2017 I received an email from VW inviting me to register my vehicle for consideration of a settlement. Bosch sent me a separate email, to participate in a claim separate from the VW settlement.
September 2018 I chose the buyback option, and VAG purchased my 8 year old Touareg with 238k miles
I received an unsolicited solicitation from an attorney today regarding my 2011 GL350 - a scan of it is below.
Many many of us have discussed here how much of a disaster the OM642 diesel engine in our X164 GL's is - certainly it's horrible from a reliability perspective. I've had the oiler cooler seals replaced twice, the timing chain replaced once, the engine mounts once, various sensors, etc - all under extended warranty, at a retail cost of close to $20,000.
The advertisement from the attorney implies that there are multiple law firms gearing up for individual lawsuits and class actions around emissions and the OM642.
Does anyone have any insight as to whether there is likely to be a government settlement with Mercedes around this engine? It would not be horrible to get a refund from Mercedes - the check for the Audi Q7 Diesel settlement was in excess of $10k...
I don't have a dog in this fight, but - just at face value, it seems to me that most owners of just problematic Bluetec GLs will have a difficult case here. This lawsuit is being approached from a perspective of Mercedes having been criminally negligent; or both, in reporting actual emissions values to the buying public as well as the federal regulators. The sentiment that these engines are unreliable pieces of trash seems immaterial to that case, but the lawyers will probably try to work individual settlements in under that angle. Can't hurt to try if you're unhappy with your OM642 and are about to fail emissions testing where you live.
WRT to the feds ever suing Mercedes, I can not recall in recent history any examples of that.
Max, interesting comments. Regarding your comment about a lack of precedent of the Feds suing Mercedes, was there a precedent of the Feds suing VW, before the Feds sued VW?
This one may be a bit tougher on the law firm. VW/Audi were manipulating the ECU so it passed emissions when it was being tested but in actual driving the ECU threw everything out the window for performance and economy. To my knowledge MB was never charged with tampering with the ECU. Now, with that said, the emissions system does seem very problematic and MB should give OM642 diesel owners an extended warranty to cover, what seems like, a poorly designed system for reliability.
Wouldn't most of these repairs be covered under the US EPA emissions warranty? It covers the major components on the vehicle for 8 years or 80k miles? Are the problems occurring after 8 years 80k miles? If so, you are on your own for the repairs but if you are under these limits you should be taking the vehicle back to MB for repairs to be covered under the federal emissions warranty.
Max, interesting comments. Regarding your comment about a lack of precedent of the Feds suing Mercedes, was there a precedent of the Feds suing VW, before the Feds sued VW?
I don't know as I'm not familiar with the VAG back catalogue.
This one may be a bit tougher on the law firm. VW/Audi were manipulating the ECU so it passed emissions when it was being tested but in actual driving the ECU threw everything out the window for performance and economy. To my knowledge MB was never charged with tampering with the ECU. Now, with that said, the emissions system does seem very problematic and MB should give OM642 diesel owners an extended warranty to cover, what seems like, a poorly designed system for reliability.
Wouldn't most of these repairs be covered under the US EPA emissions warranty? It covers the major components on the vehicle for 8 years or 80k miles? Are the problems occurring after 8 years 80k miles? If so, you are on your own for the repairs but if you are under these limits you should be taking the vehicle back to MB for repairs to be covered under the federal emissions warranty.
Well, the mechanism here seems to be individual cases v MBUSA, not class action - although the latter has been authorized.
Whatever legal basis is used, the logical conclusion of the individual cases would be individual payouts to affected owners for diminished value; to make financially whole.
If I were affected I could use that payout to do an EGR/AdBlue delete; "bulletproof" the OM642; or dump the car and still come out net zero.
Post-2009 United States diesel emissions standards were known as Tier 2. Some German vehicles, such as the VW Touareg TDI, where certified to Bin 5 within Tier 2.
Tier 2, Bin 5
NMOG 0.075 g/mi
CO 3.4 g/mi
NOX 0.05 g/mi
Test cycle: FTP75
European diesel standards at the same time period were known as Euro 5a and 5b.
Euro 5a/5B
CO 0.50 g/km
HC+NOX 0.23 g/km
NOX 0.18 g/km
PM 0.005 g/km
Test cycle: ECE or NEDC, not clear to me
The NOX requirement, in particular, is much stricter in the United States, and the FTP75 appears upon examination to be a more difficult (longer mileage, higher speed, more stops and starts) procedure.
It's no wonder the diesel emissions systems of the time had so many problems, when the large difference in emissions standards between markets is understood.
My 2014 250GLK is in the shop with an Adblue Sensor repair. Service manager contacted me and indicated that the cost of replacement (part #2044710575) would be around $2,000! I contacted another MB Service in another State and they suggested I look into the Federal Emission Warranty Program, which should include this part. Every indication is pointing that this does fall under the warranty and the vehicle does fall below the 80,000 mile limit. HOWEVER...the dealer is now saying no. Does anyone have any experience exercising this warranty and what do I tell the Service Department? HELP...the car is still in their hands.
First, call MBUSA and let them know. If they agree and say it is not under warranty, tell them the USEPA agent said you needed to have it in writing that they were denying this emissions part.
Unfortunately the words dirty diesel is a fact, anyone that has had a diesel home heating system is aware that servicing is paramount to it running reasonably clean, as the boiler ages keeping it running clean becomes harder. My advice would be to get rid of your diesel and purchase a vehicle with a petrol engine.
I just hope the courts nail them in 2020 , and there would be a Buyback like by VW . That would be some justice especially for all the owners of the OM642 high maintenance engine that is in my opinion garbage.
11-20-2019 | 05:14 PM
