Wheatridger

It might be me, I think. Last week I bought my first Mercedes, a 2014 GLK 4Matic. At the moment of sale, it had 12,526 miles. Wow- but how?

D'ya know the one about the little old lady who only took her car out of the garage to drive to the store on Sundays? Well, she actually exists; I met her and bought her car! She lives in Cheyenne, Wyoming, a small town where she prefers to walk most places. She walks faster than me, even though she's only about four-foot-four. A retired nurse, she's a Korean, and also a Korean War veteran. Wait, wasn't that a long time ago? Yes, it ended 70 years ago. Last Wednesday, when I bought the car, was the day I turned 70. The seller is 92, and she drove 50 miles solo to meet me halfway to Denver. I'm always going to remember this birthday.

Anyone else have a garage queen, still in its teens?

Silver Shadow

Great story. You got lucky.

Mmr1

You’re very lucky, now know at that age most all the fluids have expired, except maybe the differentials and transmission. The motor oil and brake fluid should be first. The brakes control the stability and all wheel drive. Brake fluid is affected by moisture. And tires have expired maybe 5 years ago, if you are driving highway speed , replace them .

Wheatridger

Discount Tire's guideline is to replace a tire by 10 years. That should be around the time those OEM Continentals wear out. The sidewalls show no cracking, and there's gobs of tread left. I paid for an inspection at the MB dealer that sold and serviced the car. They pointed out the scheduled service intervals for the air filter, spark plugs and transmission fluid, saying they'd "timed out," but gave no indication that it was vital to replace them at this time. I'll poll the local mechanics here in Denver who will be handling the car for me, and do what they say. Remember, this car comes out of Wyoming, which is a high-altitude desert with little humidity. And it's not really a barn find that's been parked for years. It was used weekly, at least. Oh, and the oil was changed last summer, 1000 miles ago, when she got a new battery.

calder-cay

That's in DISAGREEMENT with Discount Tires website:

"While we recommend replacing your tires at 6 years of age, ..." . This is typical of most all auto manufacturers - replace at 6 years old.

I needed to replace the rear tires, and I noticed the front tires were pretty noisy, and they were five years old, so decided to replace all four tires.

What a world of difference for those front tires with the new ones - "tires noise" disappeared.

Wheatridger

Discount goes on to say, "While we recommend replacing your tires at 6 years of age, you can’t just assess your tire’s life based on how old it is. A tire’s lifespan is determined just as much by the conditions a tire is exposed as it is by calendar years. Temperature changes, sun exposure, storage conditions, usage and maintenance schedules all contribute to how a tire ages."

"Tire manufacturers recommend replacement at 10 years, regardless of tread depth."

The past owner always parked in an attached garage, so those environmental factors all lean towards long life.

Mmr1

The way to check the sidewall for cracking is to take out most of the air and get down and check the sidewalls for cracking.

Costco has free nitrogen and a separate outside fill station where I go, so it wouldn’t be difficult.
Don’t think because of where it was stored , it’s just fine. You don’t want to have anything happen at 70 mph .

And read up on fluids , I wouldn’t trust the reasoning behind keeping 10 yr old brake fluid. If components fail, the cost can be thousands .

Coolant degrades from chemical change, over time. It is this change that reduces the effectiveness of its anti corrosive properties.

Wheatridger

I don't want to argue. I'd rather we get back to my original question. Your advice is valid in general, but for now I'm going to do what my mechanics tell me to do. After I spent $250 for a pre-purchase inspection, the MB dealer pronounced the car "absolutely fabulous" and didn't recommend any immediate service. They inspected the tires, too, of course. There's an indy MB shop close to home that I've been consulting during my four months of shopping. I'll drop by soon, show them the service records and see what they say.

This is my first Benz, but I didn't stumble into it blindfolded. I've scanned this entire forum for x204 info, plus several others. My first task was to wax the car with a good carnuba, since that was the one thing the prior owner didn't do.

Silver Shadow

If it's that shiny I think a picture is in order.

Wheatridger

Here's what I got before the snow rolled in.



home sweet home

These two oughta get hitched

tbirdvet

Nice. I just traded in my 2014 and had 48000 miles

andreigbs

She's a beauty, congrats! With that low mileage it's barely broken in. Stick to high-quality MB229.5 spec oils changed regularly and you can expect at least a couple hundred thousands miles from the proven M276 powerplant.

Don't know if you've considered this yet, but I would replace the brake fluid. Unless you have records that show it's been done every few years since 2014, I would do it sooner rather than later.

Other than that, I would probably do a tire rotation and balance, then happy motoring.

Wheatridger

Makes sense to me, but the dealer said it wasn't necessary yet. I've seen an instrument that can test for water in the fluid. I'm going to consult some nearby MB shops about this question soon.

John CC

Your Maintenance Booklet should say it's the only item in "Service 4", every two years.

andreigbs

Many stealerships are notorious for saying either "everything is perfect" knowing full well it's not, and you'll have an expensive failure soon, or "it's all bad, you need to replace everything" when most things are fine and the repair(s) could actually be done DIY at home.

The truth is always somewhere in the middle. That's why MB puts out maintenance schedules, so you avoid failures and expensive repairs that could've been prevented with a fluid change, for example.

Study the maintenance book, get caught up on what was missed unless you have records it was done. Simple as that.

And avoid dealerships once out of warranty. Find a good Euro Indy or learn to do things yourself.

Mmr1

Yes the manual said to change the brake fluid at 20,000m OR EVERY 2 years . I can say changing it at 30,000 I stop quicker.

Odd Piggy

Brake fluid change is more of a time thing than a mileage thing. The fluid in the system is probably fully saturated with moisture. The wet boiling point of Mercedes DOT 4+ fluid (if that’s what’s in it) is 329 F at sea level. I think I see Colorado plates in one of the pics, so maybe there’s some altitude and mountain driving. A German car indy shop should be around $100 for something like Pentosin Super Dot 4.

andreigbs

Yep, cheap insurance to get it flushed. I think I paid $120 for the service at my local shop. It certainly improved both pedal feel and brake modulation.

It's not a superfluous thing; all auto mfr's specify a time or miles interval on this item for good reason.

Wheatridger

Today I dropped by German Motors, an indy shop servicing only Mercedes. After looking at the dealer's maintenance and inspection records, they pronounced it good to go until the next oil change. They'll test the brake fluid at that time. They didn't want to change the transmission fluid, either. They have no reason to lead me astray, because they make a living doing this kind of work.

The local climate does make a difference, they added. In a foggy, rainy or humid climate, brake fluid should be changed more often. MB cars are driven all over the world, so they make adverse assumptions when they set the maintenance intervals. This car lived in a garage on the barren plains of Cheyenne, Wyoming. It's so dry here in Denver that running a humidifier won't get my office above 30% humidity.

But I'll remember your advice and get to it within the new year.

Mmr1

Oh , so MB is wrong on the brake fluid change interval . 2 years doesn’t count for you because you live in a special place .

habbyguy

Brake fluid is hygroscopic and absorbs moisture, which is the primary reason for needing to change it periodically.

So yes, if you live in a very dry climate (like here in Arizona) your brake system will absorb less moisture.

Of course, if you're really a bot that has only a Mercedes dealership maintenance schedule and price list loaded in your memory, you're free to change it as often as you like.

calder-cay

----- hint -----
You can get a pretty good ballpark of the "moisture condition" of the brake fluid using a multimeter.
Open the hood, unscrew the brake fluid fill cap, set multimeter ot DC Volts (12 is fine).
Place the red probe in the fluid, and place the black probe to the master cyclinder body - unpainted portion.
Let the multimeter settle down a few seconds .... if the readout is 0.3V or higher, it's time to flush-n-fill !!!

Odd Piggy

Did we miss something? Maybe the previous owner had it serviced at a dealer and maintenance records show it doesn’t need it. ???

My wife had an aunt like that. She would get a new car every 8 years whether she needed one or not. None of them ever had more than 20k on them. But she never missed her annual check up at the dealer where her nephew worked.

Wheatridger

That's a useful tip, thanks! I'll try that test soon. Please bear in mind that I only bought this six days ago. It took a whole day and two grand to get it smog tested, VIN verified and licensed. I've only driven it a couple hundred miles so far. My assumption was that the brake fluid would need to be changed, but two expert local shops have told me it's not urgent. Is that how Mercedes mechanics are, routinely deferring critical maintenance to save their customers money? I don't know, I'm new in town.

Now, please -- does anybody else have a low-mileage GLK story?

SteveE400

LOW mileage? Not quite. Our 2015 GLK has about 44K miles, but the little one has been (shhh) completely trouble-free. We plan to keep it for the long haul, too. Of course, it replaced a 4Runner that was 14 years old, with 180K miles, so average miles/year is down since wife retired.

Now, the E400? Dealer knows me by first name. Car is a frequent flyer there (at least until expiration of ELW) for all sorts of things that matter to me, but that the average owner would not notice.