GLKattitude, I'd just about given up on finding this bolt online (necessitating a trip to my local stealership), and finally drilled down and found a link from a Russian supplier (no, I didn't order from them), but it gave me a part number that I was able to use to track one down at Pelican Parts.

Here's the part number for the bolt:

HEXALOBULAR BOLT
Part#: 000-000-00-82-48

Pelican has the part for "only" $42.78 delivered (after tax and cheapest delivery option). Ouch.

They also had the original (superseded) part number in stock, but it was about $20 more.

I really (!) considered reusing the original bolt, but it looks like this sets the preload on at least one bearing, so I figure this is just cheap (kind of...) insurance.

 

I bought that bolt straight from the dealer..had to do get another one when I had to take it apart when my FWD output shaft seal leaked.
Dealer online prices are not bad, but you can't pick it up at the store, they operate this out of different locations.

 

I did try to find the bolt through the online parts dealers (the official MB ones...) but wasn't successful. Maybe I didn't try the "new" part number I uncovered. I really did want to avoid having to drive to a stealership to deal with the parts guy (one or two round trips would cost more more than the FCP Euro postage).

Swapped in the O2 sensors (both were bent up pretty good) yesterday. I did a video on the process since I couldn't find one online (it's not a hard job, but from underneath the car the location of the plugs is impossible to work out).

Got tracking info on the parts from Poland, and the rest of the parts are trickling in from the other domestic sources. Looks like I may have the car back on the road by next weekend!

 

Call up a Benz parts dept and order the parts and have them shipped.

 

If I need another bolt (hope, hope, hope not!) I'll try the MB parts network. I'm guessing it won't be cheaper than FCP Euro though (for the same factory bolt).

 

Unfortunately FCP doesn’t carry this bolt.

 

Oops - my bad (I have too many vendors in play right now!).

I got the bolt from Pelican Parts.

https://www.pelicanparts.com/More_In...=c&SVSVSI=3766

 

Well folks, my "new" 2011 GLK 350 is now officially on the road (fixed, inspected, titled, licensed).

I spent the last 1.5 days rebuilding the transfer case, including that output shaft gear cluster for the front drive, and of course a new front driveshaft. All new bearings and seals in the transfer case, and a good look around at the underside of the car (it's amazing that a car this old with this many miles can look like a 10,000 mile car that's a couple years old). Dropped about $1000 in parts in the process, so the car looks to be a real score (I'm into it for well under half what it would bring on the market).

The moment of truth was todays "clear the readiness indicators drive", and the car performed flawlessly.

Now all I need is a bigger garage...

 

That's awesome! Well done. A few things to check from my experience (had mine since new).
-all pulleys (one of mine seized causing a shredded belt)
-crank pulley (there is a rubber inner lining that was failing and outer part was separating/sliding off.
-engine mounts usually last 60-80k miles - but that only results in vibration in the break pedal when the car is running.

Replace diff fluids (rear and front). Front diff doesn't have fill plug but you had use exactly the same connection used to fill transmission and fill front diff via drain plug (about 0.6L). Those don't have maintenance interval per MB but I would say every 80k is a good interval (every other transmission service)

You will probably need new intake manifold soon. You can see if you have any codes associated with that (they don't necessarily cause CEL).

 

You mention a couple things I'm a bit shocked about (or maybe I'm perplexed).

Engine mount failure at 60-80k ?!?!
I had to change the mounts on my wife's E320 at about 280,000 miles. I've got 140k on the Wrangler now and zero evidence of weak mounts. I had racked up 240k on the Jaguar when i sold it - never needed mounts. Have about 86k on the 2014 GLK350 with no evidence of mount weakness.

You're stating the component quality (specifically mounts in this case) has gone down with more recent MB models ?!?!

Even more confusing is the mention of replacing the intake manifold. I've never heard anyone having to do this, unless there was some one-off warpage due to excessive heat (like with a race car), or maybe physical damage.

Yea, in the 50 years I've been DIY wrenching autos and motorcycles, the only thing I've mostly read about intake manifold maintenance is replacing the gaskets, and even that is a bit rare.

 

Congratulations 🎉🎉🎉 that's an awesome GLK350

I do my own maintenance on my GLK350. As you can see from the picture all those are parts I have bought that I will be putting in within the next 2 weeks. I do the work myself so you shouldn't have any issues. Have fun and enjoy it. Check with FCP euro and if you are doing that work get the new GIUBO, CENTER SHAFT SUPPORT AND BEARING. it will help you a ton.

 

NYCGLK, thanks for the input. Luckily, the one previous owner was fanatical about doing the maintenance, so anything that was on the list has been done (though of course, I'll be checking as I go through the car to make sure).

And actually, I DO think I have a bad motor mount. That's due to the vibration I get only at idle (totally disappears under any other condition). Not sure which one (or more) yet, but it shouldn't be rocket science to check out.

And I'm also going to be perplexed by the notion of changing an intake manifold. The (plastic) manifold on my BMW is ridiculously complex, and had a lot of bolted on bits that had to be changed (oil separator, two DISA valves), but at 17 years old it looked like a new one (I did change the silicon O-rings that make up the gasket for it).

Chris1979, have fun with that maintenance. FWIW, I did just have both guibos / flex discs out (well, the rear one - I had the other unbolted but still connected to the driveshaft). I checked the condition of both, as well as the condition of the center support bearing (and the U-joints in the middle of the rear propshaft / driveshaft) and they were in great condition. Most importantly, it was clear that swapping them out wouldn't be a big job anyway, so I'm going to wait until I see some signs of deterioration before I pull that trigger.

The car continues to impress (me, and my friends who've seen it). Last night I was appalled at the headlights. The right one was clearly out of adjustment (low, so the top of the cut-off was probably 100 feet in front of the car, if that). The left one... yikes. Just a dim blob 20 feet off the front of the bumper. Luckily I'm pretty good at working blind, and was able to figure out that someone did a REALLY bad headlight swap and the bulb just wasn't in the right position. Put it in correctly and locked it down with the wire clip (clever - like the design), aligned it and I'm good to go - at least until I replace both low-beam (projector) bulbs with higher-output LED bulbs (taking care to get some that put out light at the same position as the original bulbs, of course - to prevent changing the focus of the projectors).

 

Yours is 2014 so no manifold issue on yours - totally different design, since you have DFI M276 engine. It's a well documented issue on older M272 engines as the plastic flops and actuators fail with time.
On M272, the engine mounts just sit too close to the exhaust and I think the heat cooks them. Well documented issue and a PITA to replace on AWD models. This may have been improved with updated engine as well.

And yea component quality has been going down for years. With age everything becomes a maintenance item even on Toyotas. The questions is how expensive it is to fix/replace things.

 

https://blog.fcpeuro.com/mercedes-be...ymptoms-review

 

Aaahhhh yes the famous intake manifold problems. Lol. Get the pierburg one. It's not that hard to do just stuff to disconnect. While you do that go ahead and clean the MAF AND THROTTLE BODY AS WELL. Replace the crankcase ventilation too. FCP euro has a nice package for that!!

 

I'm going to do my due diligence on that intake thing. If the problem is with the outside actuators / linkages, and the buildup of carbon inside the intake manifold, I'd be more likely to rebuild (with non-plastic parts). I did something similar with my 2003 BMW 330i ZHP - they had a DISA valve (similar to the MB intake flaps) that was plastic. It was rattling (but not yet detached), and I rebuilt it with a kit that replaced the plastic "flap axle" with a titanium rod, so it will never, ever, ever require replacement again.

The motor mounts look "interesting"... ;-) I suspect it's one of those jobs that's nearly impossible without a "special tool".

I should add that I just completed and uploaded the video showing the process to rebuild the transfer case. I'm hoping that'll help others who are looking at the same issue in the future.

 

For the engine mounts either buy Mercedes mounts or Lemforder mounts. Anything else you will have issues with. If you replace engine mounts also replace trans mount. 2 engine mounts and 1 trans mount. Also to take off engine mounts you unscrew the bottom 2 bolts and lift the engine up as high as you can then proceed with the top mount bolt. It will make your life easier due to their position. FCP sells the tool to take off that too bolt. It's not hard it's just a space thing.

 

Thanks - I do have two Lemforder mounts in my FCP Euro shopping cart. I passed on the transmission mount since I just had it out and it's fine (not hydraulic - just rubber, still in good shape).

I'm going to try to figure out if I can use my crows foot wrench to get to those top motor mount bolts... I'm betting they don't have quite enough reach, and I've read where the standard motor mount wrenches are really too long to work well, leading some to home-brew their own (a couple inches of cut-off box end wrench welded to a 1/2" drive socket).

 

Just an FYI for anyone following this thread (or considering rebuilding their transfer case). The front output shaft that I sourced from Maktrans has developed a bit of play in one plane (feels like one of the U-joint bearings inside the assembly (and therefore unrepairable). Worse, I've sent them multiple emails and requests and have not heard back in a week now. I had high hopes for Maktrans as a source of this hard-to-find part, but that confidence is diminishing quickly with each passing day. I really hope this is just due to a communications glitch, and not an unwillingness to stand behind their products.

Of course, I'll keep y'all posted on any updates.

Speaking of which, I did install the motor mounts. Bear of a job, but what a difference it made in the ride quality / vibrations! And yep, I posted some videos on the process (how to find / modify the special tool you need, how to diagnose / difference in worn out and new mounts, and how to add a $10 supplemental heat shield to your mounts to (hopefully) keep them alive for much, much longer).

 

A quick update for anyone following this / or considering replacing their transfer case output shaft.

I'd been told that Maktrans was a quality supplier, but need to share some info on my experience so everyone can make an informed decision.

I bought the $480 output shaft assembly from them, and installed it within a week or so. A couple weeks later, I'm doing something else under the car and notice that it's developed a disturbing amount of play in one plane (a sure indicator that one of the internal U-joints is loose). I spent two weeks making MANY attempts to get someone - anyone - from Maktrans to contact me, but had no luck.

Well, today I did get a reply. Here's the sum total of their response:So be warned - Maktrans has no useable warranty for anything they sell (perhaps they do take care of their immediate neighborhood in Poland). And based on my 1/1 failure rate, that doesn't bode well.

I hope someone else can come up with a vendor who can supply that output shaft!

 

Just FWIW, here's a one year update.

I ended up rebuilding the transfer case again, as I damaged the front output shaft seal when I did the first rebuild. Of course, I did a follow-up video, and added a whole lotta info on getting the preload correct (something that apparently even MB doesn't always get right). ;-)

The car has been amazing. Very reliable and economical (23.7mpg on my first really long mixed-driving road trip), burning nothing but regular.

The actual repairs I've done since this thread wound down almost a year ago:
1) Replace the upholstery on the driver's seat (lower section), as there was some damage when I bought it
2) Replaced the front brake pads with Akebono EUR1406 pads (the old ones were fine, but created a lot of annoying dust)
3) Replaced the (worn out when I bought it) motor mounts. Huge improvement in smoothness and quietness, though "not a fun job" in a 4Matic.
4) Replaced the left fog light housing (broken when I bought the car)
5) Replaced the air intake hoses (the fabric ones that go to the engine cover / air filter housing, from the snorkels). They were in really bad shape when I bought the car
6) Replaced the radio (head / control unit) which failed during an attempted GPS file update (CD/DVD player failed). Found identical eBay unit for a couple hundred bucks, so no major harm done. ;-)

I'm famously fussy about over-maintaining my vehicles, but really haven't been driven to go nuts on this one (yet, anyway). The suspension steel feels tight and "good", and honestly it drives like a car with a LOT less miles than it has.

Speaking of which, I've put about 25,000 miles on the car since I bought it (taking me to around 175,000 miles) and I have zero qualms about using it as my road trip car (just completed a nearly 8,000 mile round trip Arizona to Maine).

Oh, and I did throw a "new" set of GLE wheels on it for "summer duty" (everything but winter road trips, when I use the original all-season tires which were almost new).

 

How about an update on the Maktrans part. Seems like last report was it needed to be replaced.

 

I'm still using the original output shaft. I was (obviously) concerned about what felt like a bit of play in the (internal) U-joint, and even more the dismissive approach of the company to my repeated requests for advice.

But at this point I'd have to say they're probably still the only game in town, and I'd have to recommend their output shaft. 25,000 or so miles and still working fine. That's good because I really don't want to go through that job a third time. ;-)

 

Does it still seem to have the play you were concerned about, or did that change after you re-did things?

 

I still had the very small amount of play when moving the installed propshaft, and it seemed to be in one (or two - don't recall) directions that would be what you'd expect with play in the internal U-joint in the output shaft. I wasn't able to feel play with the output shaft gear cluster out of the car, but it's also difficult to put any real force on it, too. My take-away is that either there IS play in the splines between the output shaft and the propshaft, or that there is a tiny bit of play in the U-joint in the output shaft gear cluster. Either way, it doesn't seem to be a problem for now, so I'm going to not worry much about it, though I'll check it when I'm under the car to make sure nothing is getting worse.