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This coolant T just randomly popped on my wife's morning drive today. Luckily dealer had the hose assembly in stock and I replaced it in a parking lot, but burned half a day of work time. 76k miles. Already replaced the radiator and another hose underneath that was leaking from the permanent clamps.
It sounds like I am the lucky one. We bought a 2014 GL450 in 2016 as a CPO with about 34,000 miles on it. It now has 163,000 and still going strong. We have not had any problems out of the ordinary wear and tear. I replaced the two rear air bags a couple of years ago at about 135,000 miles. I have not had to replace the front ones. The A/C was serviced last year, it was low in Freon, nothing major. It does have the soft close doors, a couple of those are not working properly but I can’t figure out why they were on it anyway. It does like to eat tires, about 35,000 is max I have gotten. Of course the brakes, battery, plugs, transmission fluid, brake fluid and regular maintenance items have been changed according to the MB service recommendations…..
That's awesome man! So far ours ('13 GL450) hasn't stranded us but I have put some money in it to keep it on the road. I'm not talking about wear items either like tires, shocks, brakes and/or fluids. But things like Turbo Coolant lines, a fuel injector and an oil leak on the oil filter housing/cooler shouldn't be failing when the car is under 100k.
But my wife loves the car so I wrench on it as needed and treat it with oil additives, fuel additives and 5k oil changes on a regular basis. So far so good, keeping our fingers crossed!!
That's awesome man! So far ours ('13 GL450) hasn't stranded us but I have put some money in it to keep it on the road. I'm not talking about wear items either like tires, shocks, brakes and/or fluids. But things like Turbo Coolant lines, a fuel injector and an oil leak on the oil filter housing/cooler shouldn't be failing when the car is under 100k.
But my wife loves the car so I wrench on it as needed and treat it with oil additives, fuel additives and 5k oil changes on a regular basis. So far so good, keeping our fingers crossed!!
Chad
I have a 2013 GL450 4Matic that we bought in Nov 21 with 85k miles. At the time we owned and still own a BMX X5 X50i. For the GL, I have 142k miles now. I have replaced 2 sets of tires. Front sway bar links, Coils and plugs, plastic turbo inlet lines. Rear soft close doors are reversed so the motor is doing something when the door OPENS. Just ordered my second Ebay transfer case. The first one lasted about 3 months but I believe i ordered the wrong one the first time. Apparently interchangeable part number only means it fits, not that it functions the same.
Contrast that with my BMW (bought in 2019 with 29k miles and currently has 104k), 1 set of tires, 1 set of wheels (thanks to my wife), plugs and coils. It was burning about a quart of oil every 2 weeks. I happened to notice that my oil cap had a hole in it, so I wondered if that was causing either blow by or lack of vacuum (I'm not sure but I knew it was something). I replaced the oil cap a month ago and haven't added an extra quart since then.
I feel like they are equally reliable, but it's easier to work on and get parts for BMW. My wife is leaning towards the BMW as her daily. She wants me to sell the GL and I am finding it hard to argue with her.
2015 GL 550. 104K. The vehicle was always serviced by MB up until about $90K. Now I do what I can, or take it to an indy shop and keep the services done like spark plugs at about 90K. Not a single significant issue. The soft close driver door no longer works. The air intake hose (one side) had a tear (common issue due to the material). 5 min job to replace. I'm having some issues that I think could be related to a bushing or control arm. Intermittently the car on the highways starts pulling pretty hard to left. Eventually it goes away and the car tracks straight it's very intermittent and random. It's not the road, I'm positive of that. New tires, 4 wheel alignment, still the same thing. It feels a bit like it wanders. I'm having it looked at this weekend.
I recently had a P0299 low turbo boost error that I cleared by replacing the air filters. My GL550 has around 97k miles on it and recently drove from LA to Little Rock, then Dallas back to Little Rock and used no oil. I really like my GL.
We got a new engine at 45K miles due to bore scoring, now at 150k and this has been the most reliable car we've had in 15 years other than a Yukon Denali XL.
We got a new engine at 45K miles due to bore scoring, now at 150k and this has been the most reliable car we've had in 15 years other than a Yukon Denali XL.
what year and where did you get your new engine from?
2014 GL 450 (M278) Purchased as very low mileage CPO in 2015 from MB Dealer. Always Maintained by dealerships per manufacturers scheduling. Vehicle lightly used and as of 3/2014 has accumulated 57000mi. Last month check engine light was diagnosed at the dealer as CODE #P030585, (combustion misfire) on the usual cylinder #5. Coil replaced and engine light off. 2 weeks later engine light back on, running rough, towed back to the dealer and now diagnosed as cylinder #5 "60% leak" and new head required to diagnose further. This situation is obviously outrageous given the maintenance care and light usage for what we assumed was a 150,000 mile vehicle, we began researching the reliability of the M278 engine. We have been MB brand loyalists for over 20 years having owned 6 other models, none of these have been serious problems until these events. Unfortunately, and previously unknown to us, this particular engine does have some known manufacturing issues and MB corporate is more that well aware of these problems; Of note the "Front two cylinders" manufacturing errors. From reading other threads, it is also obvious that they are fairly uncooperative with others in the past with helping their consumers deal with the problems they are left with. Also unfortunately for us, we also own the same year model E 550. Along with the similar engine, that vehicle also suffers from numerous issues such as low mileage turbo repairs and engine mount replacements. If any of you have had positive experiences with either of these, or other MB vehicles, bless you but be sure to find some wood to tap on since our experience shows, you may be blissfully running out of time to unload the things.
Hi, sorry this happened but just googling MB M278 engine problems leads me to bore scoring issues...
I wasn't sure how this issue manifests itself, but seems like your experience tells us how: rough running, check codes and its low compression
This also explains why these cars are so cheap in AUS: ~$25k AUD for 2013 M class with this engine...
(Perhaps a pre-purchase leak down test would have revealed this issue?)
BTW low milage doesn't mean it was driven easy or treated well...also std service is the bare minimum, also MB only requires long 25k kms oil changes, fine if you do lots of highway kms like me and warm it up every time, but prob not enough if you drive it hard and or don't let the engine warm up.
How old was your car when starting to have issues? I had a 2014 A180 for 8yrs (290k kms) no cooling system issues (apart from 3 way valve t-stat at 250k kms), so I wonder if age related rather than milage...
We have a 2013 GL450. bought it in 2016 as a CPO with 24K miles. It now has 98K miles. Love the engine and the power it provides the GL. No motor issues (knock on wood). Have always maintained at the dealer (Viti in RI) and have spent plenty of $ for odds and end issues (the rear airbag suspension and all the air lines had to replaced $$$).
Looking to replace it with a GLE next year but I think we will have to get the 450 because I dont think my wife will like going from a v8 to the I4 in the 350.
Own a 2008 ML350 and drove more than 200k miles with it. Have an opportunity to get a 2013 GL 450 with 35k miles, it’s an 11 yr old car but given how well the ML350 has been, wondering if the GL will be about the same albeit more wear and tear given the weight especially in tires. How are these engines and are they prone to any issues?
Just wanted to share that our 12 year S550, Euro car, 95t km down, just passed the bore scope and compression test with ease. Cylinder walls /sleeves almost look like new, the mech was pleasantly surprised aswell. Hope to be able to prolong its life beyond this with the same treatment as before - oil changes below 10t km, warm up by aux heater, long distances, 102 octane premium and happy Autobahn craze when possible to burn any residues from cruise operation.
I am glad the m278 scoring ghost has passed us by and will continue to drive the car with even more good gut feel.
Glad to hear it, especially for such an early M278. Gives me hope for my 2014 as well. It's mainly just vehicle for weekend use, gets babied and frequent oil changes etc.
It seems that those running tunes cause the engines to fail in short order and even some not running tunes seem to fail. My 63 is still running strong as ever with around 130k miles. The engine does go through a couple of quarts of oil every 10k miles but, even when it was under warranty, that would be way more than acceptable. I've always used Mobile 1 0w-40, Mann filters, and use a topsider for oil changes.
07-24-2023, 11:18 PM
GL 450 - E 550
