saturnstyl

A service, 9530 miles - warranty covered it.
Lubed all door seals
Rotate and balance - tires are wearing like crazy on the edges, centers still look brand new!
Short test- nothing relevant showed up.
All new pads and rotors - covered by the 12 month 12,000 mile "Give'm anything to keep them happy" warranty. My brakes started squeaking yesterday while backing up. We can't have that now can we? It seems the rotors were wearing faster than the pads! Had about 2mm wear on pads, but the rotors were very heavily scarred, typical of every ML500 we see at my dealer. No noise now, but seems it has a very hard pedal. Hopefully it will wear in.
Replaced all wiper blades, again under 12-12.

Kar don

sweet deal. I had all my rotors and pads changed outside the 12-12 for free.

pointman

Saturn, you think i can score the same brake deal? my 04 500 is ten months old with 13k.

Ronin007

One of two things causing this. Either the tires are underinflated which I am sure the dealer checked or you drive aggressively and need higher tire pressure than stock. The latter has always been my issue, but then again I use to do club racing and it never really leaves you!!

Kar don

ronin, he is the dealer! lol. He is a tech at a mercedes-benz dealer and he did the A service on his own car.

Ronin007

My bad!!!

I still would be interested in why his tires are wearing only on the outside edges.

Amfung

What's this 12-12 warranty ? With the '05 not having FSS, should I be considering this 12-12 ? Does it cost money ??

Kar don

the 12-12 is the 12 month/12,000 mile warranty on wear items... such as brake pads, rotors, clutch (if applicable), wiper blades, belts, etc.

saturnstyl

Give it a try Pointman... The worst they can do is say no. Even so, they are likely to offer you a break on parts or labor to keep you happy.
12 month 12,000 mile warranty is where things that are not normally covered, basically are covered. Warranty does not pay for wipers, brakes, tires, and stuff that is a normal wear item, but for the first year they usually do depending on circumstances. Tires is typically only a 6,000 mile thing at MAX. Sometimes they will buy one or two, but its rare. You have to keep in mind its still dealer discretion, for example if your brakes are totally worn out, they will not cover them. If they are making noise and have lots of life left, they will cover them. Its a system designed to keep a new owner happy with their purchase.

BTW the tires are typically kept at 35 PSI, I did let them get a little low but the weather has turned cold and caused that... I know I am an aggressive driver, so I will be replacing these prolly next year sometime. I'll be lucky to see 20K out of them. Still undecided on replacements. I don't like that the michelins are not V-rated and the styling is a bit aggressive for my ML. I don't like that the dunlops vibrate badly when cold, and are wearing so fast. As of right now, the dunlops win merely on style points... That goes a long way for me! Dunlops are about $105ish and michelins go for $165-190 each.

Ronin007

Thanks saturnstyl. I normally run my tires at 40 psi to prevent the excessive wear on the outer edges as I tend to push my vehicles. I still have the Dunlops on the ML and they do seem to be wearing fast. Have not started to think about what tires to replace them with, but I probably have another year before I really have to worry about them. Good luck on your tire search!!

akbro93704

This is very off topic for this thread, and heavily discussed on this forum, but I want to hear it from a real MB tech....What are the penalties of using below 91 octane gas in a Mercedes?? Less power? less smooth engine? worse gas mileage?thanks!

pointman

thanks Saturn, well do... i just fear the old "we fixed it now you only ahve to pay a bill of b million dollars!" which by the way, has happened to me before.

Amfung

Thanks. It looks like it's for '04 only then.

saturnstyl

Simply go to the dealer and have them perform "correction programming" in the ME control unit. They can set the octane rating lower, which will reduce the ignition timing. You will see a reduction in fuel economy, and power.
On my trip across most of the USA, I went from 93 octane all the way down to 91 (one station only had 90 as the highest, I kept driving). My mileage was reduced from 21 MPG max, to 18 across the great plains. This is on a 2 point octane reduction only, which the computer is capable of adjusting for automatically.
Running lower octane without making the corrections necessary will eventually cause engine damage. Detonation is extremely hard on the engine and causes catastrophic damage. At best you can get a blown head gasket, if you have a worst case scenario you can shell out for a new engine entirely.
Its funny I didn't even know 85 octane existed until my trip! 87 is the midgrade out west, and here 87 is the lowest!