We had purchased an extended warranty (to 75K miles) from the dealer when we bought the GLK new in December 2013, but it turns out that warranty bought us peace of mind and nothing more. We have had absolutely no issue with anything. Only routine service every 10K miles as per owner's manual. Still the original battery and brakes! 35 mpg in mixed driving, 38 when we do long trips. Third set of tires just started. A great private garage (Star Auto Care in Greenville) has replaced the dealership, even if it means we lose the "free" loaner....

 

Wow, you got really lucky. My 2014 needed a new DPF at 18k miles and took weeks for the dealer to finally admit it.

 

My daughter is at 74K on hers and it's doing really well also. I'm using a different shop than you but also staying away from Carlton in Greenville. Happy motoring!

 

2013 GLK250 here.. also zero problems, although the emission system failing is always on the back of my mind. Especially since its not clear that dealers really have experience to repair such a complicated system. Love the way it drives and size.

 

They're really unique vehicles. When we bought ours it had 63K on it. According to the service records the original owner had emissions components replaced. It appears he worked out the bugs and it's been flawless for us.

 

https://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-...&firstRecord=0

I recommend that you look at the above GLK250's for sale with high miles. When I look at the service history on cars with CarFax data, I never see any service related to emissions. Just saying.

My 250 has 60,000 miles with only one NOX sensor replaced 33,000 miles ago.

John

 

Ours is passing into 115K miles. The weak point is the emissions system by far. The AdBlue preheater is most likely to fail, which causes the SCR system to no work properly for regens, which then will put the truck in limp mode when it's not able to complete a regen and it will warn you the DPF is full (even though it's not).

If/when that happens, the choices available are to tune the software to remove the AdBlue (passive DPF regens will still take place) or replace the preheater. Repair kits are running $8-900 online, you can DIY it or have a shop do it. Tune options cost nearly the same but there are additional rewards that make it worthwhile.

Happy dieseling!

 

I'll keep that in mind as the miles add up. Is the preheater a big deal in the Southeast? I would think climate plays a big role in this.

Thanks for the information!

 

Mine turned 50K yesterday. Have not had ANY warranty issues, still has original tires and brakes, mileage about 36 mpg in mixed driving and I've gotten as high as 41 mpg on road trips at HIGH speeds.

 

Impressive results with tires and brakes. I have 30k miles on tires and brakes on my GLE. Tires will be replaced at about 35k miles and I can feel the brakes starting to fade a bit. Maybe 40k miles for the brakes, just a guess.

 

Did this happen to you?

 

It has happened to many Bluetec owners, and not just with this OM651 engine. I read about similar failures on the other car blog I frequent (TDIClub.com) and it’s relatively common. Which is why VW was forced to offer extended emissions warranty that covers the entire engine, fuel system, exhaust and emissions system for an incredibly long time as part of the settlement with the EPA.

The AdBlue system is a good system, when it works reliably. The problem is that the preheater or temp sensor (or both) often fail, and being inside the AdBlue tank itself becomes a $2-3k job at the stealership or half that if you have an Indy shop just use the repair kit.

I’ve opted to tune the vehicle to skip AdBlue during the cold months when it wants to use the heater and is unable to, and I’ll switch it back to “on” when it’s warm out. This should suffice to keep the DPF happy and able to still do regens (passive without AdBlue and active with it).

The extra power though sure is nice and addictive...