Lawrence Lane

HAHA Yes! That's so funny. Except I had to do it twice. Bleh.

damnDSM

NaviTimer1

: o That's a laundry list of items, hopefully you get thru them and start enjoying the truck. What brand of air ducts are you using? How are they different from OEM? Also, curious on the +65mph vibration, my dealer is also telling me that story and I need a new set of tires, I still have over 70% of tire wear...

Lawrence Lane

Just to comment from my own experience:

Vibration - Tires need to be ROAD FORCE BALANCED. During one of the dealer visits for vibration, they did end up replacing the Transmission Mount. Not sure if that helped. A visit after that, I went in for a blown out tire replaced by Tire warranty. Vibration came back. I went back in and asked for them to road force balance again per repair history, and that fixed the issue. The new single tire did not affect the dynamics of the car, though the other tires were not really that far off in terms of wear.

tmurphy25

I have a 2011 GL550... knowing now what I know... tough decision....
I bought it with 24k miles in 2014 for $48k
Air shock/struts @82k had to replace all 4 ($1000/each)... they have a lifespan of 6-8yrs of usage at 10-15k miles
Brakes @35k (front/back with rotors) $2200
@78k $2200 good for 30-40k miles
thermostat @50k $800 (no reason why this went...)
sensor network @ 60k $1800 (known issue with the harness, but out of warrantee window)
transmission pan seal @85k $485 (they covered this as they stated it should have been caught by service)
60k tune up is $1500 not covered.
parking lights ($200) they replace both when one goes.

Tips.
Buy as many services as the dealer will offer you (usually you can get them up to 85k) I bought 6 for $3000.

I bring mine to the dealer as they are trustworthy, but expensive is the downside. (they forecasted the struts failure, I didn't take the advice)
Extended warrantee thoughts.... you pay $4k to cover $4k. Likely hard to get coverage on wear/tear

On the positive is a tank though in bad weather, and it hums on the highway.. great tow capacity as well. Interior is done really well
Good luck on your decision

DC-BENZ

Wait a minute, all 4 of your air shocks went out at the same time? In my previous ML164 I had one go out (which I replaced). Sold the truck at 120k miles.

ItsRainingLead

While searching for problems, I found this thread. Figured I would contribute. We bought our 2013 CPO GL550 about two years ago now with 21k miles, has about 35k miles now. Got the extended warranty from Jeff at Tafel Motors, which was recommended on this forum. Have had a few issues. Stock tires lasted maybe 15k miles, abnormal wear pattern despite rotating. Went with Continentals as replacements and the stock wheels needed to be heated and formed back into round - apparently small dents in the rears from potholes which made balancing the wheels a problem. Got that resolved and also had the vehicle aligned.

Vehicle started idling rough, and on cold starts the vehicle would emit an audible rattle/ticking sound for a few seconds on start up. It's finishing up at the dealer now, but apparently there is a TSB and they had to replace the chain tensioners, some valves and quite a bit of extra things as well. Also, they found oil intrusion on the wiring harness and ECU, which all had to be torn out and replaced. Has ended up being quite a bit of work, and all done under warranty. I am interested to see what the line item invoice is for the repairs. I cannot imagine this would have been a cheap fix, even at an independent dealer.

Good news it that the Continental tires lessened how squirrel the vehicle feels, especially in the rain. Hopefully we get better mileage out of them this time. I guess the short story is - get a CPO, extended warranty - anything.

SaniDel

Thanks for the heads-up on what to expect with our GL550!

We'll be at four years in March, expect to keep it and will use Jeff's quote at Tafel Motors to get a matching price from our local dealer. We got only 13 thousand miles from the first set of Continentals and after about 10 thousand on the replacements we can tell they're not long for this world as we're hearing warbling and rumbling again. Fortunately, the handling remains good and there's no noticeable vibration, but new tires will be in order for March as the OEM Continentals have such a good ride and traction ... at least in the rain. We don't dare take them out in snow.

Thanks for the warning to check the wheels for out-of-round, which is to be expected with 21" rims. They look good on such a large vehicle, they ride great with new tires, but what price vanity!

ItsRainingLead

Ours came with Pirellis, which were garbage. We put on Continental Extreme Contact DWS 06 for replacements. Much better in the rain and in general. Will check back when we have more miles on them about tread life. These have a 50k tread warranty, so we will see how that goes.

maximase86

I think if you get a used X166, getting an extended warranty is worth doing. I bought my 2013 GL450 with 59k miles back in 2017. It's at 80k miles now. It's been for the most part, really reliable. I have had things fail, but it hasn't left me stranded. First item, repaired under warranty was driver Axle had to be rebuilt because of crack boots. Rear tail gate switch failed, covered under warranty. The biggest problem is I started getting CEL for low boost pressure on passenger bank. Turned out the turbo on that side had an issue. While they wouldn't really tell me what failed, I'm pretty certain the wastegate was closing completely (and it sounded like it's a common M278 issue). Combined with the Service b that was scheduled, that ended up being a $8k job.

These can be pretty sound vehicles, but I really must stress on staying on top of maintenance, and having a warranty as it doesn't take much to make repair costs astronomical.

S

many birds

I purchased a CPO 2013 GL350 with 74k miles 13 mos ago. It has been a very comfortable car, but also very unreliable. Most recent and most expensive repair has been catastrophic engine failure 2 weeks after CPO ended. And unfortunately, I did not purchase an extended warranty. Dealer quoted me $27k to replace engine. And yes, this vehicle was well maintained, properly and on time. Please see my other posts regarding all the other problems this vehicle has had while still under CPO warranty. Maybe I just had a bad unit.
Oil cooler leak seems to be pretty common and it is a $3k repair.

many birds

tedrock23

Just to chime in, we love our 2013 GL550, currently at 55k, but have experienced many of the problems already listed.

Turbo coolant line leak (both), Air intakes replaced (felt unraveling), all engine and transmission mounts replaced, complete transmission replacement (with rebuilt one).

What will need to be fixed are: a front engine oil leak (probably o-rings on the cam covers). Rear hatch only sometimes auto opens. Front passenger bolsters currently stuck in tightest position. Steering column will probably lock in height (did the banging on the wheel to release it the first time).

Car is covered under a Carmax warranty. It's paid out around $13k so far.

captivabenz

My 2014 GL 350, purchased new in 10/2013, has been an excellent and reliable car. I purchased the MB extended warranty until 10/2020 or 75,000 miles.
The Urea/DEF system went bad (~50,000 mi), as usual with these cars and was replaced under warranty (probably was the same cost as my extended warranty)

No other issues or problems to date (67,000 mi)

I'm still pondering what to do with vehicle as the ELW comes to a close.

BlownV8

Sell with the warranty still in place. Otherwise, it won't be worth much. The 350 is not a good GL to own long term.

jonUF02

You guys are driving me away from buying a GL550. I have an E550 just crossed 100K miles and hasn't given me any issues at all. I bought it used at 65K with good dealer service history on schedule. One thing I avoided was the air suspension, as I know it will fail, but no avoiding that with a GL. It sounds like DIY parts are pretty cheap and not too hard to do on these GLs though, so I'd definitely go that route. It's just something I figure I'll have to keep in mind for spending when the time comes. I also have a few different great MB indy shops very close to me, including a Eurocharged shop about 1 mile away.

Over on the W212 there are a few threads about oil in the wiring harness, but I haven't seen a drop of moisture near my cam sensors. It's really easy to check, right on the top front of each engine bank on the M278. I keep an eye on that area.

Wife likes the Yukon or Escalade XL, but I drive it a lot too, and I hate those super wide buses. I'm sure a GM product will certainly have many more failures that what's coming up here. The self-closing bells and whistles type stuff I could really leave it. I'd prefer simplicity that doesn't break, but it comes standard on the higher end MB. I want the 550 for the body kit and seems most 450s are quite low in options when you really compare, the 550s come pretty well loaded, and have REAL LEATHER, which is a deal breaker for me, none of that fake stuff.

Good to know things to look out for when shopping. As far as warranties, I feel like the house (seller) always wins. They wanted $4k for 2 or 3 yrs of ext warranty on my current E550, but I haven't had any repairs that would have fallen under that. If it's really that cheap and easy to DIY the air suspension parts, then I'll probably pass on warranty, the rest seems like flukes and the numbers posted for repairs look like inflated dealer prices, where I would never go. My local shops have consistently offered 1/2 of the dealer quotes on maintenance like regular transmission service, spark plugs, and such.

dryrunner

Dealer trustworthy, now there is an oxymoron

DaveW68

I bought my 2013 GL550 with 40k miles in Dec, 2017. I'm now just under 57k miles and have only done front brakes and 2 oil changes. Absolutely nothing has broken on this thing (knocking on wood) and it has been the most reliable vehicle I've ever owned in 36 years. I bought a 4 year warranty on it at purchase for $5k and it hasn't had to pay out 1 cent.

jonUF02

Good to hear, it's still a baby in mileage.

DaveW68

That's true. But this thing is nearly 7 years old and age is what seems to cause most failures as seals, bushings, gaskets, hoses, etc start to break down.

Lawrence Lane

Smart to buy the warranty. You WILL use it, guaranteed. According to mechanics it’s one of the least reliable cars out there bc there are an obscene number of systems operating at the same time. More systems, more failures. I still loved it (sold last year), especially the active curve feature (which failed twice).

jonUF02

True age has some effect, maybe after 10+ years. I think it really depends on climate for those things. I also think that more miles/use can actually be better for those things over time. They seem to deteriorate faster if they aren't flexed as regularly, just sitting.

DC-BENZ

At 75k-90k you "will" be dealing with the oil cooler and DEF. Clockwork...

DaveW68

I have the 550 gas burner, not the 350 oil burner.

DC-BENZ

At 75k-90k "one" "will" be dealing with the oil cooler and DEF. Clockwork...