Hey guys!

My wife bought a GLK250 soon to be 2 years ago. Always had it serviced at the dealer. And by always I really mean the two times she changed oil. This time I decided that I can do it after having done it on my GL a couple times.

I bought the kit from ID parts with filter and 7L of oil. What I normally do, is fill up all but one liter, then drain the old oil from the catcher into the freshly emptied containers as a sanity check to make sure it is roughly same amount as I am putting in. Plus to see if any oil is burning/leaking somewhere.

This time after having filled it up with 6L, the catcher still had quite a bit of oil. I emptied the last bottle - about half of it went into engine, half went to a another half empty bottle left from GL (same oil). Filled the last, 7th liter out of the catcher, then emptied the rest into a 4 liter jug. Guys, there was 2+ liters that went into the jug. So overall, something like 9+ liters have been drained from her engine which should be shy of 7. Dipstick is midrange with the 6.5 that I put in.

​​​​​Looked around the engine bay, sure enough there is oil coverage all over. When I pulled down the undercarriage shield I noticed the bottom was in oil gunk, but didn't think much of it, perhaps a previous repair. Now I'm very angry and very worried. I know that some came up at the oil fill - there is oil all over that. But I do not know how it got everywhere else... Now I'm thinking maybe too much oil can cause things like head gasket to blow? She did get low on coolant twice this year which concerned me. But dealer told me not to worry.

Do I have any recourse? I can take the oil in and show them, show the engine bay, show that they did the last change. But they can say that since they didn't drain the oil I cannot prove that they did this?

I'm sooo upset! I was too scared to touch someone else car, even my wife's, that is why I only ever did work on my own. I told her that she best just take it in for service, that she would pay more but have peace of mind. And it turns out that it's the opposite. That these morons could well have sentenced the engine.
has anyone ever had this type of situation? Any advice?

 

Im no pro, but I would put back in the dirty old oil, two quarts overfilled, go back to the dealer. Have them put it on a lift , and get them to fix the leaks, which will they won’t want to do.
I’ve never overfilled a car but from what I’ve read oil pressure increases and makes seals leak, it also rides up into the cilinder and burns. My question, how can you not ever check your oil level in a year? That in itself is asking for trouble. Like if you had a head gasket leak you would never know. How many miles is on the oil?

 

That is a good question. I guess that I don't have good habits. I trusted that if oil level would drop I would get notified. I never would have thought it would be overfilled by MB. On mine I do check it regularly and look over for any leaks, but that is an OM642, and I half expect something to go wrong on it. From what I've read 651s are pretty trouble free.

I thought of doing that. But that seems like just getting them to tell me to pound sand but with extra steps? You think there is any chance they would help in that case?

 

I’m always getting fluids overfilled. Maybe some sludge in my crankcase raises my level.
I think put back in the overfilled old oil, go to the dealer, complain knowing there will probably no full resolution, then contact mb corporate and file a complaint.
They caused any leaks you now have. It was higher a year ago.
Complain to BBB, that can push them along, threaten allot of bad reviews, companies don’t like bad reviews.

 

They will try all they can to deny everything. To save $. Here is my experience with the CPO used program at a Chicago dealer. I got a used 13 in 15. I found out it was in an accident. They said I probably did it. The wiper- light control failed, the rear windows won’t open when real cold, the seatbelt won’t retract. Mb talked their way out of all the repairs and now I regret I let them do it. I paid for the extra warranty. They got my cash, I got it in the a

 

You've never checked the dipstick in the last 10,000 miles?

 

My glk takes 7.5L . Are you sure oil level os correct now with 7L?

 

It's possible that coolant got into the oil. Did you notice any milky residue in the oil? If coolant has got into your oil it could mean a head gasket leak rather than oil overfill.

 

It's more likely that the monkeys with wrenches at the stealership overfilled the oil, and it's also possible that you have seepage. You are sure you drained a total of 9 liters? That's a lot of oil. I would have checked the oil myself as soon as the car rolled out of the service bay. Stories like these is why I have trust issues and refer to them as monkeys that work for stealerships.

I don't think showing or telling them is going to solve anything. I would just clean up the exterior as well as you can, make sure the oil is at correct level and NEVER go to the stealer for anything that you can do yourself or pay a good Indy HALF to do a better job.

If you really want to lose sleep, worry about whether those monkeys even used the correct 229.51 or 229.52 oil for your OM651 engine! Chances are quite high they just dump whatever bulk oil they put in everything else, not even bothering to check it afterward...

The bottom engine cover can be degreased and pressure washed, then I'd clean the engine itself carefully and inspect periodically for leaks.

And check the coolant level as karmikan suggested. Hopefully there are no gaskets gone south.

 

Too much engine oil can blow out upper engine seals! This happens on our GLK's, I know I am a victim of it. I could not do anything about it other than to buy and replace the seals myself. BUT I will never allow the person who did the overfill to work on my car again, ever!

 

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Same here. The datacard for mine says "13A OIL OFFSET AMOUNT +1300 ML OIL" so 6.5L + 1.3L would bring it to 7.8L (which is at MAX level of a dipstick). I've observed around 7.5L drained after dealership oil changes (when I had pre-paid service )
I typically stop adding when the oil dipstick shows 2/3, not a MAX mark on a WARM engine after an oil change. On a cold engine, it most likely will show up as overfilled but not with 9L+ of oil like OP mentioned .... With this much oil, it would probably start coming out of PCV breather on top of the valve cover after a few trips...