hello, everyone. been lurking a while but finally registered in hopes of receiving feedback.

bought my wife our first mb after years of bmw sedans & suvs. swore i'd never buy a mb, as i enjoyed bmw's driving dynamics. last week, we traded the wife's 2015 x5 for a 2017 gls450. both of us felt bmw had lost its edge and the 2 year old x5 was already feeling extremely dated.

love the gls450 but in less than a week, it's been in the shop twice for the same problem, which still hasn't been resolved & will result in another trip to the dealer monday morning. curious if anyone else has experienced our problem, which manifested itself straightaway.

essentially, the two driver's vents don't blow cold a/c under load. the two passenger vents blow ice cold air all the time & the temperature variance between the two pair of vents is material. when stopped, the driver's vents return to cold air but revert to lukewarm air under load (i.e. acceleration). i would immediately suspect a vacuum issue but i haven't kept up with the electronics of newer vehicles & don't really know how these new electronically-driven vehicles operate. this happens with the a/c on "max air" or auto with the temperature gauges on the lowest cold setting. and yes, the a/c button is on.

on the first visit, which was four days after delivery, the dealer found & replaced an a/c line that was defective & leaking (not certain regarding which line but will check my receipt & update). once i quickly (2 days later) determined that the repair didn't solve the problem, the dealer drained & recharged the unit on the second visit, then reprogrammed the vehicle due to a suspected faulty a/c temperature sensor.

i drove the vehicle today & immediately noticed the problem still wasn't resolved. i'll take it in monday morning & mention the lemon law. i really don't want to go that route but it's concerning that this sort of problem would manifest itself & remain unresolved on a vehicle <2 weeks old (build date was mid-february).

anyone else experienced this issue or a similar a/c issue. love the vehicle & want it to work out but very concerned considering this is our first mb. thoughts & feedback appreciated.

 

This is unfortunately the state of affairs around the world these days.


Gone are days of yore when you brought the car to the garage, and they started looking for what went wrong. After they fixed it, they pushed whatever cost hey had incurred up the line to the manufacturers warranty department.


Unfortunately, these departments are no longer staffed by engineers and mechanics, but by accountants and masters in event organization.
They understand nothing whatsoever about operating and repairing motor vehicles, and even less about what the engineers are telling them. Being in a perpetual state of paranoia about being taken for a ride, they have retaliated by developing all kinds of silly procedures because, according to them, everything should be traceable and everyone should be held accountable. Except them.


So now it works like this : the car is hooked up to a machine. The machine spits out a code. The code is forwarded to a warranty department. The warranty department plugs it into their machine. That machine spits out another code with the part to be replaced or procedure ti be implemented. The accountants and masters in event organization have predetermined how much time it takes (and hence what it costs) to replace said part or execute the recommended procedure. The dealer executes the instruction and is reimbursed the predetermined amount.
If the problem is not fixed, the next fault code is plugged into the machine, and the dog and poney show starts all over again. If the dealer takes longer to replace the part tor run the procedure than predetermined by the accountants and masters in event organization he's sh*t outta luck.


If the mechanic knows what's going on, and knows the real fault is going to show up only after the fifth try, and decides to ignore the procedure, the customer walks out five minutes later with a fixed vehicle. And the dealer doean't receive a penny for his troubles OR the replacement part because the accountants and masters in event organization haven't pre-approved the procedure.


If, after a pre-determined number of tries the problem is still not fixed, a 'factory engineer-specialist' is sent out to investigate and make recommendations. His findings are sent out to the accountants and masters in event organization.
They will first state the problem was caused by the customer and warranty is invalidated.
If the customer doesn't take no for an answer he may eventually have his problem fixed.
If he threatens litigation at this point his chances substantially approve if he's in the US. In Europe he's in for the long haul.


Moral of the story : be patient and try to work it out with the dealership.


Pete

 

Had a similar issue on a delivery new 2014 at that time - I think it's actually a metal "pipe" thingy was the cause of the leak at that time.

In that case - the internal system debris was the issue - and my guys had to go a bit deeper - but they did get it resolved.

Your dealer should be very supportive of getting to the bottom of this and getting it fixed.

Unfortunately it wasn't caught at factory - new units are actually delivered with Climate-Control-Off

 

Cannot believe this post has been here for 7 years. I bought a 2024 GLS 450, yes, the brand new 2024 facelift model. The AC is bad, blow hot air, right out of the dealership door. Sent to a nearby dealership repair shop and they do not have the needed parts because the car "is too new".