Well, more like coolant explosion. I posted a few months back about a repair I made to the radiator on our GL550. The dealer wanted to replace all the plastic parts associated with the coolant system along with the radiator because, "they'll eventually fail". I'm starting to think he was on to something with all this organic plastic stuff. What are auto manufacturers thinking?? Oh well, I digress.

Fast forward. The wife was down the street and called me before turning into the driveway reporting an antifreeze smell. She pulled into the driveway and I saw coolant dripping from the car. I popped the hood and checked my repair which was fine. It took a minute of investigating but found the nipple on top of the plastic tee, that is connected to hose leaving the reservoir, to be separated. See the pics for the location. This separation allowed for a 1/2" hole in the coolant system which puked out a ton of antifreeze. The plastic part in the pic is all that's left of the nipple. Sorry, did not take a pic of the tee before I destroyed it taking the assembly apart. The hose connected to the nipple goes to the engine and I'm not sure where the other larger hose goes. The tee is connected to all the hoses by one time use clamps so basically you must replace the whole assembly. I never found the part number but assumed it was expensive and looked to be a pain in the **** to replace.

I took some metric ID measurements of the hoses with a micrometer and figured if I could find the right size tee, I could get away with rebuilding the assembly. I found the perfect one on eBay located in Great Britain (took a month to get to GA, lol). If you find yourself on this road, the measurements are 22mm X 22mm X 12mm. I've put it back together with worm gear clamps but need now need some coolant. I pray she did not damage the engine before shutting off the car. I'll report back when its running.

Is Zerex G48 ok for a 2013 GL550??

I hope all of this helps someone else. Here are the pics...

 

It is a common practice that if you have one coolant hose exploded, we replace all rubber/plastic hoses together to prevent future failure. The rationale behind this is that all those rubber/plastic parts do fade and they fade in a similar pace. If you see one explode then others are likely on their last legs as well. You can definitely choose to just replace the one that broke and keep the others in your vehicle to save some money for now, but eventually you will find that replacing all of them at a time is the most cost effective way to go. Every time a hose/pipe breaks you will need to replace the coolant that was lost, plus you might also have to deal with the inconvenience of the breakdown and the engine can possibly be damaged by overheating.

Zerex G48 is equivalent to the MB blue coolant but not the pink one. You need to check what you have in your vehicle. But why not buy the genuine one from dealer? The price is almost the same.

 

geniushanbiao,

I agree on all your points. The dealer quoted $4500 for the radiator and all the hoses except this one funny enough. I just didn't want to shell out that kind of dough when the car is worth like what $22 - $24K? I'll just buy another one. I was able to fix the radiator easy enough and this was an easy fix. I now believe the time will come where all of the stuff will have to be replaced, I just wanted to kick the can down the road a bit. I posted this on your forum to maybe help others that had the same problem.

As far as the coolant, I would rather have OEM but with Covid-19 it is easier for me to get Zerex and keep with social distancing. I did find MB spec MB 325.0 online after posting this thread so I will just order that.

 

That's ridiculous. You are being ripped off. The cost of all those parts is less than $1000 (if you buy from an online dealer) at most and the time it takes to replace them is a few hours at most. There are really not too many hoses to deal with.
The OEM coolant can also be ordered online:
https://www.fcpeuro.com/products/mer...-blue-q1030002
I'm not affiliated to FCPEuro but I highly recommend this vendor as they provide lifetime replacement on all parts (including the coolant you buy from them).

 

Awesome. That is really good news, thank you. I was going to seek out an independent repair shop if my radiator repair failed. I looked at doing everything myself and even downloaded a repair/service manual. I got nervous on the amount of work to replace the turbo coolant lines and was peace out when I read the a/c condenser and radiator come out as a package lol. I suppose I could've taken it to a shop to recharge the Freon though. Thank you for the link and I will update this thread on what I find out.

The car is fun to drive and I really like it. Wife is nervous about a breakdown though. I'm thinking I'll make it my daily driver and get her something else while I figure this out.

 

Yeah replacing the radiator can be a PITA to do but it's doable by DIY mostly. For A/C you need to do is to find a shop that can work with you that they evacuate the refrigerant first, then you can drive it home and do the work and then drive back and ask them to recharge it. Also you might need to replenish some transmission fluid after replacing the radiator. The turbo coolant line does not need to be replaced if they are metal lines. If you happen to remove the turbo all you need to replace are the O-rings on the line.

The radiator is not crazily expensive. FCPEuro sells the one for my vehicle for only $345. I'd just replace it rather than repair if it leaks.

 

Since the question was about the GL550 - on m278 the turbo coolant lines are half-metal half-plastic and they do deteriorate and are somewhat of a pain to replace. I believe there are 3 lines all together.

 

Oh I forgot it was a 550 I though it was a diesel lol

 

Thanks guys, yeah it's a 550

 

The car is back together and topped off with MB antifreeze concentrate & distilled water. Looks like a winner for now. I will shop replacing the all of the coolant lines when Covid-19 simmers down.

Thanks guys.

 

I think this is similar to the situation I'm on now, and just posted about. I still have a warranty, would this be covered?
I like the thinking that all hoses need to be replaced, I would be concerned otherwise.

 

My car is finished, they replaced: recoolant line, drive belt and tensioner. My '14 GL550 still has a bit left on the 125k mile warranty. I asked about changing all the hoses but they said only the failed part requires changing.
Does that sound right? Is the problem that the warranty won't cover the complete hose replacement, otherwise, they would recommend replacing all the hoses? I plan to gift to my daughter if/when my 580 ever gets built and I want it to be reliable as it has been for us.

 

Strictly speaking that's not covered as those hoses have not failed. Like they said the warranty only covers failed parts. We replace the whole set only to get peace of mind, but this is not called for in neither the maintenance book or warranty repair book. If you have good relationship with the dealership you might be able to convince them to do it (ask your sales rep to step in as you are building the 580 with them), but it's not mandated at all.

 

Thank you. We were oot so the dealership that fixed it was not ours. But it might be worth willing to negotiate with my dealer with whom I have the 580 order going no where. I know they are trying. I also inquired about an extended warranty but they said it’s cost prohibitive.
Thanks again!

 

Does anyone know of a “hose kit” that includes all of the required hoses or does it have to be pieced together. Thanks in advance. I’m going to get ahead of this.

 

Not aware of such a kit. Buy them one by one from a dealer. If you walk into a dealer parts department with a list of part numbers and prices from mbparts.mbusa.com they will likely match prices and be happy you did the work for them. Or just order from mbparts.mbusa.com

 

Much appreciated!

 

I've replaced 9 coolant lines total so far on my Wife's '13 GL450. Added Peak European Blue 50/50 and the car is running strong. If this is something I have to do every 75k or every 8 yrs to keep the car on the road, I'm ok with that. Its a beautiful car, it's roomy, comfortable, low road noise, fast (for a 5k lb SUV) and we love having a Mercedes in the garage!
Sucks pole that MB put garbage plastic on the motor, shame on them for cutting corners on the Mercedes name.

Chad