Hi all,

My 2020 GLB 35 had the entire cylinder head replaced at 37000kms. Has been a dream since the repair! Drove for about 5 seconds at the time with extreme vibrations at low RPMs before pulling over and organising a tow.

6-7 weeks for diagnosis and replacement.

Fast forward to Friday night, went for a road trip for the long weekend. 47000kms on the odo. 11pm. 4-ish hours into the drive in regional NSW, Australia... Threw a rod. Parts of my piston and connecting rod are now laying in my engine bay, decent sized hole in the block. Tonne of smoke, oil and coolant everywhere.

Long weekend here so, car is in a holding yard at the moment, will get it towed back to a dealer during the week. Crazy. Hoping to get a new car out of this; the bare minimum is how much my rental car and overnight accommodation cost in regional NSW, and everything in the engine bay to be brand new.

Followed up today to try and get the car sent back to my local dealer, they refused and said they would send it to the closest one. (3 hours away from me).
They then backflipped and said I’d have to pay for it, because I cancelled the roadside assistance tow on Friday night.
They gave me a 2+ hour wait time at midnight, on the side of a dark highway in the middle of nowhere. A patrolling highway patrol pulled over to help and gave us the number of the local tow-truck operator. He was there within 20 minutes so I cancelled the roadside assist, which, at the time, was unable to locate me due to the remoteness… Because of this, they are looking to invoice me for the above. Terrible service.

I’m also down $100~ for the nights motel and about $1000 for a rental car over the long weekend.

oh man … worst story yet on this engine

So sorry for your difficulties. Maybe you should contact a consumer reporter at your local news station. In the U.S. such reporters are good at shinning a light on such consumer difficulties. It's amazing how some bad publicity can shame a company into doing the right thing by the consumer.

That sucks man. Sorry for your bad luck. Hopefully you're able to get things resolved. Keep us posted.

Pulled the video of the incident from my dashcam:

Just read your post. Just got my GLB35 back from the dealership after them replacing the cylinder head.

It looks like a very dangerous situation. Hopefully MB will make it right for you...VW/Audi has just recalled 74,000 SUV's for the connecting rods after multiple car fires:

https://www.autoevolution.com/news/v...es-201687.html

"An evaluation of claims shows that the majority are for unwanted engine noise, with most incidents occurring by the 1,000-mile mark (1,600 kilometers). Given that a sudden loss of motive power and an engine oil leak that may result in an underhood fire cannot be ruled out, the automaker ultimately decided to recall no fewer than 74,067 crossovers."

https://autos.yahoo.com/vw-audi-reca...140900075.html

"The VW/Audi recall notice calls out connecting rods produced for the base engine (VW's ubiquitous 2.0-liter turbo four-cylinder) as the culprit. Rods produced outside of factory specifications can cause unbalanced engine operation, which will likely lead to catastrophic engine failure if not immediately addressed.

"Deviations in the mechanical production process of the connecting rods may have caused an increased particle occurrence in the engine oil circuit, which may lead to extensive wear and play and result in damage to the connecting rod bearings," the defect notice to NHTSA said. "A connecting rod bearing with continuously rising bearing play leads to excessive engine noise. If the excessive engine noise and engine warning light is ignored and the vehicle continues to be driven, this condition may result in engine failure, potentially causing a loss of motive power while driving, and in rare cases a loss of engine oil which may pose a risk of a vehicle fire," it said.

A test is being developed that can identify failing engines prior to any symptoms, and the permanent fix (as described by the manufacturer) is a complete engine replacement. "

Sorry to hear, and glad you made it through the ordeal. Please keep us updated. Makes you wonder about what MB is trying to achieve relative to product quality, doesn’t it?

Fwiw my GLB250 had the cylinder heads replaced too after 18 months of ownership.

Thanks for posting. How has the engine performed since cylinder head replacement?

It's been about 2500 miles since the cylinder head was replaced. Car seems to be fine, although I got a "Coolant Level Low" warning this morning when I turned on the car. Checked the coolant and it was fine. Restarted the car and the warning went away. I even got an email from Mercedes telling me the coolant was low.

crazy im dealing with this now

This kind of stuff drives me insane. The dealer closest to me doesn't even offer loaner cars for service?!?! I didn't even think MB would allow a dealer to do that.

I think this will be my last Mercedes. I've a been a loyal customer for over 20 years and have owned 5 cars. 3 of them real AMG models. The brand seems to be going in a direction I don't like. They now have 10,082,932 models of cars. Half of those models being over-priced lower quality products (GLB being one of them) that Mercedes never would have put their name on 10 years ago. Don't even get me started on these all electric models...

The GLB does what I need it to do which haul the kids around, but if this was something I had saved up for hoping it would be a nice car then I'd be disappointed.

Wow. Thanks for the video. I have a 2022 and have over 21k miles on it...i drive a lot.
Is this relatively prevalent in all model years or only particular ones?

I think all of them. I brought my GLK 2011 to the dealer to replace a fuel pump and they were waiting it for 2 weeks so provided me a loaner. It was a 2023 GLB, and I wasn't amazed of it.
Everything was worse: stearing, suspension, A/C, seats. The overall feeling was that I was seating in a cheaper car and everything was cheap. I was hesitant to wait when my old good 2011 buddy comes back to me.

I noticed none of the dealers are supplying cars when you bring yours in for service. MB is just not what it used to be. my 2021 MB already had a complete engine replacement and today, 6 months later, the engine light is on again. These cars are real junk now. Relying on their name but offering junk. not buying another one and will be turning this back as a lemon if the engine light proves to be a major problem.