DMan

Hi guys,

Anyone have their Service A performed yet? My wife's ML is about a year old and is coming up on it soon. Is it just an oil change? Costs?

Thanks in advance.

shortspark

This will be sort of long but it might help you with the service question. My service A will come up in May when my ML350 is one year old. As you know, the service intervals are measured in one year or 10,000 mile segments. Since I do not put many miles on my cars I will never reach 10,000 in just a year, which seems to be your case as well. The service includes checking fluids, changing oil and filter, rotate tires and just general checks.

All my life I have serviced my own vehicles and this one would be a piece of cake for the do it yourself (DIY) type of person. I say that because the maintenance schedule is pretty simple, at least for the first three or four years when just fluids and filters, general checks and tire rotations are required. Also, because you don't even have to crawl under the car as oil extraction is done by a pump from above and the filter is on top of the engine.

Having said all this, I decided to go with the prepaid maintenance for three years. I did that because I'll trade vehicles at the fourth year when maintenance costs increase due to transmission service and the warranty runs out. I also understand that Mercedes stands behind their warranty if you show all work completed by the dealer whereas if you make one little mistake or omission on your own they will void the warranty instantly. The service agreement is good at any dealer in the country and it is set as to price, ie, inflation proof.

Another reason was that I would have to go to the dealer to buy my filters and they are pretty expensive. I use to get filters for my cars at almost any parts house but not any more, at least not for the ML350. The special European blend Mobil One 0W40 synthetic that is recommended for the DIY person is hard to find and also fairly expensive. I would also have to buy a special oil extractor to remove oil from the dip stick. I got a pretty good price on the agreement when I showed them an email I received from another dealer offering a $100 discount on the three year agreement, which they matched. This is in addition to what Mercedes claims to be about a 30% discount using the agreement vs. paying the regular cost of scheduled maintenance each time.

This is a lot more than you asked for but I just thought I would mention it all just in case you would consider buying the pre-paid maintenance agreement. I believe you can buy it right up to the day you bring it in for service. The only down side I see is that if you wreck the car or it is stolen you obviously also loose the money you paid in to buy the service agreement.

another_geek

All the services performed as part of service A and service B can be found here

https://www.mbusa.com/mercedes/servi...ntenance#s_les

Click on the Maintenance Schedules section to view the table. Service A corresponds to the 10,000 mile schedule and Service B corresponds to the 20,000 mile schedule

jellies

I did some checking and the correct Mobil 1 oil isn't hard to find, plus the filter can be had on ebay under the MANN brand which is mb anyway. Total cost under 70 bucks. For the satisfaction and the cost of a cheap oil extraction pump, I plan to do my own A services, keep receipts and pictures, and I don't believe mercedes can void any warranty claims because of that although I will check with them first. At the very least I will ask the local mechanic to do A services.

fabbrisd1

I think ShortSpark is spot on - especially for the first several years I would recommend dealer service since the dealer also will "update" the engine and tranny programming if required/recommended which you can't do DIY.

Prepaid service in 3-packs (30K miles) is the most affordable way to go - with prepaid service your next "coupon" needs to be used at another 10K miles or another 12 months, whichever comes 1st.

I would also recommend that every owner got to mbusa.com, and with VIN# and email register for free Mercedes Owners Online so that Mercedes can email any notices on updates/campaigns directly rather than waiting for the later snail mail notice campaigns.

Keep the beat !

DMan

Thanks for the info guys, much appreciated.

Cyber GS

I agree, I also went with the 3 year pre-paid maintenance and was able to negotiate the cost.

venchka

An observation:
I can't speak for the ML series, but I do know for a fact, and have the paid receipts to prove it, that tire rotation is NOT included in the price of Service A, or any other scheduled Service interval. That is not to say that some dealers may include it. My dealer does not.

Wayne

Cyber GS

I agree. When I had my 2011 ML tire rotation was not included in the A or B service. I had to request it and there was an additional charge.

GregW / Oregon

I've always used the dealer during the warranty period because it allows you to build a relationship that could be valuable later. My front diff went out in the first year after warranty expiration on my '06. I was able to get the dealer to go to bat for me and got a good portion of it covered. I don't know if I'd had that outcome if I had not used them for service. And, as fabbrisd1 says, there are updates and service campaigns you may miss by not going to the dealer. I always do "in-between" changes myself.

fabbrisd1

Mercedes recommends 5K tire rotation... pesky frigging bolts.. ALWAYS require the shop to hand tighten (even the MB dealer)...

awjenni

I have a 2012 Bluetec (P2, Lighting, Driver Assistance and parktronic) and just had the "A" Service done at the local dealer last week. The price was $285.00 without the addition of DEF.

I refill the DEF myself; it is a trivial task and the fluid isn't very expensive.

Al

chikoo

If they void warranty, it would be a direct violation of The Magnuson–Moss Warranty Act. Wouldn't it?

shortspark

They can void warranty if they show you did not follow the maintenance schedule or used the wrong fluids, wrong filters, wrong torque on bolts and filters, etc. You are not required to have a dealership or mechanic service your car during warranty and prior to buying the ML350, I performed all the maintenance on my cars for the last 50 years. I only took a car in for service when I could not fix the problem myself. I kept records, receipts and even photographs of my work. During the past 10 or 15 years, I even took pictures of the mileage and the read out shown on my instrument cluster of service items required (various work codes would pop up in the instrument cluster based on my vehicle's maintenance monitor).

If you are very careful like that and use all the proper grades of oil, filters, etc. you should have no problem. But let the engine blow up and they find you have the wrong oil spec in there or you did not tighten a bolt or screw properly that is related to the failure and you may have a lot of difficulties in getting them to repair it under warranty.

chikoo

I believe the onus is on them to prove negligence/wrong fluid etc.

shortspark

Yes, I imagine it is their responsibility to show error or neglect if a problem develops. And if it is something serious while under warranty and the owner performed all the maintenance himself, you can bet they will look hard for that error.

chikoo

To that point, I always get the oil change (engine/trans/diff) done at the dealer. I do not pay for "visual inspections". I can do that myself.