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I have a 2009 E Class Blue Tec that had an oil leak at 89,000 miles that required oil cooler seal replacement under extended warranty. Then at 130,000 miles after warranty expired dealer identified oil cooler leak during B service. Dealer replaced oil cooler which with related parts cost $3415. This along with B service and transmission service and replacing engine and transmission mounts totaled a service bill of $6375. Love the car but this brings my total lifetime maintenance cost to $18,760 at 130,000 miles and this after having bought the 100,000 mile extended warranty. All of my maintenence has been by MB dealer. I was considering buying a new E or S class but this repair is convincing me I can not afford Mercedes maintenance costs and I may switch brands.
2008 ML 320 CDI. Use to own 2003 C320 wagon and 2005 C240 4M wagon (what was I thinking...)
$18K. Wow. I got off easy fixing MB defects with a measly $6K, but mine only has 70K miles. I have no intention of keeping it to 100K. MB longevity is only a legend now. I knew people that had 400-500K miles on their 1980-90s MBs. A 100K seems to be a challenge now. A friend is facing $6K worth of damage on his C350 when the plastic actuator in the manifold broke and the pieces got sucked into the head, damaging the valves, piston and head. MB now wants to sell him a new intake, head, new values and pistons. Car has been dealer serviced with 80K miles. Had they put in a metal piece instead of cheap plastic it would never have happened.
I get a kick out of pointing out MB quality when I take my ML in now. [everyone needs entertainment right?] They recently picked me up from the train station in a CLA 250. I got in looked at the door panels and interior and started laughing. (The fit on the door panels in particular was really bad.) He asked why I was laughing? My response, which he didn't like: "Has MB come to this? The quality of the materials, fit and finish on a Hyundai Sonata is like a Rolls Royce compared to this".
formerly drove a 2010 ML350 BLUETEC, currently drive Mazda, Chevrolet, and Toyota
I share the pain with many of you current and former Bluetec owners. I've had problem after problem with my 2010 ML350 BLUETEC which culminated in a seized engine at 82K miles in April 2015. You may find my thread helpful in building your case and ensuring MBUSA/ your dealer does services and repairs correctly, including using the correct oil : https://mbworld.org/forums/diesel-fo...ne-seized.html
This is a basic materials science issue. It is a shame on MB no to recognize this oil leak. When they use rubber gaskets in the hear of the engine, it will fail sooner or later and the records show that. Nothing short of a metal gasket should have been used there. It is a tue shame for MB who has over 80 years of experience with Diesel. Their old diesel engines never leaked and ran for over 700000 miles with no issue. We should work for a court order to pull all the record of diesel engines with the cheap gaskets. No one should have ever paid a penny for this fault. I am totally for a law suit against MB. let us join forces and get this taken care of.
When did a Mercedes diesel engine failed below 100k miles?
When the seat got torn during the first 5 years of the life of the car?
Is Mercedes-Benz following the path of GM in the 90s?
Don’t they see the value of old MB is going down so rapidly? Used MBs are now cheaper than some GM models of the same age and below same size Japanese!
Last edited by mhasan4; Feb 18, 2016 at 12:47 PM.
Reason: More info
I'll have to admit that I am getting turned off by the reliability of the MB diesels. It is a premium product, so I don't expect service/parts/labour to be cheap, but I also expect a premium product to be well engineered and reliable.
Wife owns a 2008 R320 CDI, that yes leaks oil. She's had enough of the maintenance costs of the R320 and is going Japanese, looks like she's going Honda in the next week or two. My 2010 ML350 bluetec also leaks oil. Not bad enough that I need to add oil between services, but come on really? We bought MB diesels for a variety of reasons, but the perceived factors of reliability and being "greener" haven't really lived up to expectations.
These oil leaks/maintenance issues are almost going to shove me all the way to full electric with no oil to leak headaches. The hospital I work at has installed 6 "free" level 2 chargers (well you still have to pay for parking, but I pay for parking now anyhow...) and so far there is only one BMW i3 that takes advantage of the free charge.
Folks,
let us collect the data on the Bluetec. I have search ~40 cars on cars.com and found 20 cars with leaks and torn seats (from CarFax report on the site). Please add your car or any you know to the list. There is no such record of engine failure for any other car in the industry! M-B should recall the bluetecs and offer full repair and warranty. As a Material Scientist, I was stunned by the choice of material in that gasket. I never suspected anyone in Germany (one of the top countries in materials engineering) would do such a mistake rather than by Mercedes-Benz who has over 80 years of experience with diesel engines and have actually produced the best diesel engines in the world. Worse, the gasket is located deep in the engine that it would take a skilled technician between 25 to 35 hours to repair it, according to experts!M-B should have not used anything but metal gasket in that location.
Here is the list, please add yours and submit your case to the Attorney General
1
Year
Model
VIN
Mileage when leaked
Date reported
As posted on another thread I also had a check engine light on, so I minimally needed that fixed. I was bracing myself for a $5,000 repair, you know expect the worst and be pleasantly surprised when it isn't quite as bad as you expected. Well as you can imagine/discussed above, the oil cooler gasket is in a ridiculous place, so there is ridiculous labour to take apart the engine and repair it. The only good news is that the check engine light is due to intermittently stuck intake manifold valve. So a lot of the labour to take apart the engine to repair/replace that only requires a few more hours of labour to repair the oil cooler leak. Based on dealer initial estimate I don't think my $5000 expectation will be enough, on top of that I also needed to add approx $2000 for a previously unexpected/unknown adBlue leak due to a couple of leaking lines.
MB is supposed to represent luxury and quality, but owning a diesel MB is getting plain stupid. Adblue has a heater as it freezes under about -11C. In Toronto we of course have winter temps that get colder than -11C and the AdBlue is obviously not heated when the car is parked and turned off or the battery would be dead in a couple of hours. So again, bad engineering/design for cold climates. I'm sure that over time the cycling between freezing/thawing Adblue fluid caused the Adblue lines to fail.
MB seems to be only engineering their products to make sure these failures don't happen within the warranty period. After getting my ML350 back it should be good for a couple of years, before failures set in again. So my only decision is do I just drive for maybe 2 more years max or do I just get rid of this ASAP as you never know when the next headache will start???
Please please add your VIN together with the approximate mileage and date when your engine leaked. Let us take it to the Attorney General of New Jersey (Where MB headquarter is located). It will cost us nothing to submit a claim. Each of us should submit the same claim showing clear evidence of failure at the manufacturing level. We need a volunteer to write a good letter. This is an obvious case. Someone in Florida forced MB (through the Attorney General) to reacquire their car as a lemon.
This is a Lemon! There is NO such failure in any engine made by any known manufacture. Please check the table: some engines has failed at ~28k! This is a $60k car. MB should be ashamed of this record and should hurry up to correct it plus granting at least 100k mile warranty on the repair.
[I have a 2009 r320 and it is at 146000km and leaking oil.sounds like the same issue, the oil cooler.I am from Toronto area and would like to participate any action agains the MB I can provide my vin # if you need that too.This is my first ever MB and will never even think about buying one since this one give me so many headaces so far. Staring from suspention, faulty ignitian switch adblue injector and list keeping going on. I was stupid enough not to get extended warrenty which they offered me when I bought this because I thought this kind of maker produce better cars.please help if anybody can to admit MB to do something about this issue.
aQUOTE=mhasan4;6722201]Please please add your VIN together with the approximate mileage and date when your engine leaked. Let us take it to the Attorney General of New Jersey (Where MB headquarter is located). It will cost us nothing to submit a claim. Each of us should submit the same claim showing clear evidence of failure at the manufacturing level. We need a volunteer to write a good letter. This is an obvious case. Someone in Florida forced MB (through the Attorney General) to reacquire their car as a lemon.
This is a Lemon! There is NO such failure in any engine made by any known manufacture. Please check the table: some engines has failed at ~28k! This is a $60k car. MB should be ashamed of this record and should hurry up to correct it plus granting at least 100k mile warranty on the repair.
My 2013 ML350 Bluetec oil cooler crapped out at 51,000 miles costing me $2,800 to repair. Bought it new, never towed with it, and had all maintenance done at the dealer (at dealer cost mind you). I was surprised by this expensive repair so soon in a diesel's life but they just seemed annoyed at my surprise. I believe the manager said 'most people pay for the extended warranty (which would have cost more than the repair) or get rid of them before 36,000 miles'. Indirectly I guess he is telling me to get rid of my Mercedes? This being my first Mercedes, my question is--Now that I got the repair with Mercedes re-engineered oil cooler gasket, is the problem gone or will it return in another 50k? Should I unload this now and move on to another manufacturer--I payed Mercedes prices and bought diesel expecting rock solid reliability and really feel let down on my main point.
formerly drove a 2010 ML350 BLUETEC, currently drive Mazda, Chevrolet, and Toyota
TJoeR,
Many of us share your pain. In my opinion, the best thing you can do is drive anything but a Mercedes until MBUSA decides to take accountability for these common defects. Please feel free to join our collective legal action as recently referenced in this thread and in my thread as found here: https://mbworld.org/forums/diesel-fo...-seized-9.html
My 2013 ML350 Bluetec oil cooler crapped out at 51,000 miles costing me $2,800 to repair. Bought it new, never towed with it, and had all maintenance done at the dealer (at dealer cost mind you). I was surprised by this expensive repair so soon in a diesel's life but they just seemed annoyed at my surprise. I believe the manager said 'most people pay for the extended warranty (which would have cost more than the repair) or get rid of them before 36,000 miles'. Indirectly I guess he is telling me to get rid of my Mercedes? This being my first Mercedes, my question is--Now that I got the repair with Mercedes re-engineered oil cooler gasket, is the problem gone or will it return in another 50k? Should I unload this now and move on to another manufacturer--I payed Mercedes prices and bought diesel expecting rock solid reliability and really feel let down on my main point.
Supposedly the new seal was used in 2010+ OM642 engines. I'm not sure use has much to do with it as we've towed a boat with our 2011 since it was new. It started leaking around 5 years and 70k. Going to have an independent do the repair as MB quoted $3200 - $500 good will from MBUSA. Independent was ~$1700. I plan to keep the vehicle as long as I can so I will grumble and get it repaired. If it lasts another 5 years and 70k I'll decide then whether it will be worth it to repair again. Also just had a timing chain replaced. The rest of the vehicle hasn't started downhill yet so repairs are still cheaper than a new car payment.
[QUOTE=mhasan4;6721352]Folks,
let us collect the data on the Bluetec. I have search ~40 cars on cars.com and found 20 cars with leaks and torn seats (from CarFax report on the site). Please add your car or any you know to the list. There is no such record of engine failure for any other car in the industry! M-B should recall the bluetecs and offer full repair and warranty. As a Material Scientist, I was stunned by the choice of material in that gasket. I never suspected anyone in Germany (one of the top countries in materials engineering) would do such a mistake rather than by Mercedes-Benz who has over 80 years of experience with diesel engines and have actually produced the best diesel engines in the world. Worse, the gasket is located deep in the engine that it would take a skilled technician between 25 to 35 hours to repair it, according to experts!M-B should have not used anything but metal gasket in that location.
Here is the list, please add yours and submit your case to the Attorney General
1
Year
Model
VIN
Mileage when leaked
Date reported
19
2011
E350 WDDHF2EB7BA493038 34,385 12/03/2014
November 10, 2017. Los Angeles, Ca.
2012 GL350 Oil puddle on garage floor. Oil Cooler O rings replaced at 62,000 miles. At 80,000 miles dealer determined engine rear main bearing seals are defective since the vehicle now marks it's territory on my garage floor. Vehicle has had all maintenance performed at the recommended intervals.
VIN 4JGBF2FE8CA793872
Last edited by mrtouareg; Nov 10, 2017 at 11:36 PM.
Reason: did not include vin
I purchased my 2011 ML350 BlueTech in July 2017, with a few miles over 50k from a MB dealership. As part of the purchase agreement they performed a D check at which time they found an issue with the oil cooler and replaced it. I drove the car for about 2-months and the serpentine belt failed, which the MB dealership replaced for nothing, which I was very happy.
I have been loving this vehicle since the day I drove it off the dealership lot. It now has 58k on it, been running great and 1200 miles from an A check. I noticed a couple of days ago a couple oil spots (size of a penny) on the garage floor and thought to myself now what is wrong. Could it be the oil cooler again? (I believe the oil cooler is close to the firewall). Tried to determine the location of the leak, which looks like the driver's side toward the front of the vehicle. I looked closely at the oil filter housing for leaks (nothing), The oil is dropping on the top of the skid plate, but unable to determine the source which seems to be lower as nothing above has any oil residue on it. The exterior of the side plate has oil on it too, which has been spread out due to the aerodynamics.
Any thoughts as to where this leak is occurring. Will be setting up an appointment at the MB dealer for an A check and look for the oil leak on Monday.
Any thoughts as to where this leak is occurring. Will be setting up an appointment at the MB dealer for an A check and look for the oil leak on Monday.
Any oil leaked or spilled on top of the engine shows up at the same weep hole on the back of the block.
could be oil cooler or oil cooler seals, or turbo in take gasket, or oil filler cap, or a messy oil change.
Folks,
let us collect the data on the Bluetec. I have search ~40 cars on cars.com and found 20 cars with leaks and torn seats (from CarFax report on the site). Please add your car or any you know to the list. There is no such record of engine failure for any other car in the industry! M-B should recall the bluetecs and offer full repair and warranty. As a Material Scientist, I was stunned by the choice of material in that gasket. I never suspected anyone in Germany (one of the top countries in materials engineering) would do such a mistake rather than by Mercedes-Benz who has over 80 years of experience with diesel engines and have actually produced the best diesel engines in the world. Worse, the gasket is located deep in the engine that it would take a skilled technician between 25 to 35 hours to repair it, according to experts!M-B should have not used anything but metal gasket in that location.
Here is the list, please add yours and submit your case to the Attorney General
1
Year
Model
VIN
Mileage when leaked
Date reported
formerly drove a 2010 ML350 BLUETEC, currently drive Mazda, Chevrolet, and Toyota
Thanks for your important work to address this issue. Your information is spot on, and I'll message you my ML info to include in your efforts. I started this other thread to try to resolve my ordeal over several months, where I now pledge to never buy a Mercedes again because of the mistreatment....: https://mbworld.org/forums/diesel-fo...ne-seized.html
I thought my unplanned repairs were bad at $7000 with an Indy turbo, flapper motor, glow plug module, front R & L wheel bearings, all under 90000 miles. A rear main seal leak starting st 60,000 but finally diagnosed properly at 90,000. EST to repair $1200 suspension and transmission needs to be removed. Tried at205 work then stopped the leak. An oil changed with penn euro L , 500 mile and leak at least slowed. That is one expensive car if in 10 year it has depreciated to $5000.
mileage was great but fuel saving was lost on increase in oil change cost and glow plug module and flapper motor.
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Oil leaking, 2012 MB Gl350
2011 ML350 BlueTech
