change

Guys, I need your help on this matter. While I was driving my ML400, 2105 model with 33K millage on it, I suddenly received a warning message on the dashboard "refer to owners manual with battery sign". and within seconds I heard a warning beep. So I immediately stopped the car, and checked the engine to find the V-Belt missing. I called MB service center and they pulled up the car to the workshop, and after inspection it turned out that the motor oil circulator sensor is damaged from the v-belt snapping and the engine is a write-off because of overheating.

After 40 days of investigating the reason behind the shredding of the V-belt, I get a call from MB saying that they haven't come to a conclusion why the belt got shredded and unfortunately the third year insurance policy dose not cover the belt and consequently I have to pay for a new engine, $53,000. Another fact they claim that the car was driven for 15 miles without the V-belt as per the onboard computer.

The fact that I did not receive a dashboard warning expect seconds before my stop, It frustrates me. There was no indicator or warning sign whatsoever to alarm me to stop the car earlier. I am an experienced driver with over 25 years of driving experience and I would never drive an overheated car if i had a warning sign showing it. Also i didn't feel any change in the behavior of the car for the past 15 miles they claim i drove without v-belt.

Could this scenario happen that i drive 15 miles without v-belt and without oil circulation inside the engine and without any warning lights on the dashboard??

I am over frustrated and disappointed that i paid a premium price for buying a Mercedes Benz to lose it at 35K.

peter2772000

Lawyer up ASAP. As well, even if they don't cover v-belts, the engine is covered. Lawyer up...

JohnnyC

there has to be more to the story....

zenman63

No V belt and no cooling will over heat thats a fact, the red light must have come on as there would be no charge.

I cannot see a leg to stand on here.

Diabolis

In addition to the alternator warning light that would have been illuminated the entire time, there's an instrument in the cluster called an engine temperature gauge. It measures the temperature of the coolant, which in your case would have first indicated an extremely high temperature, and then either stayed in the red or possibly dropped to near zero once all the coolant had vaporized. Even if you were driving at 60 mph, to cover those 15 miles would still take you 15 minutes, during which time you either failed to check your instruments or completely ignored them. I am afraid that your frustration and disappointment is grossly misplaced and that you don't have a leg to stand on despite the advice to lawyer up from the local village idiot.

Packrat555

The v-belt drives the alternator so when it broke your charging system stops working and you got the battery light. The belt also runs the water pump (on most all cars) so it the belt broke you would soon overheat and if you kept driving potentially blow a head gasket and warp the head. Never heard of an oil re-circulation sensor --whats the part number--- its called oil pressure sensor on most cars, oil pump is internal and has nothing to do with a belt drive,

What I call BS on is the statement the on board computer recorded you drove 15 miles without the v-belt. That's is call data logging and I have never heard of any stock car having this capability built into the stock ECU. Technically there is no way for the computer to sense the v-belt presence. If they stated it drove 15 miles while temp sensor was reading overheating I'd still challenge them to show me this on their test equipment. So it they are data logging like they say ask them to display and show the time line. Belt broke, battery light came on, how many miles or minutes later did car overheat? How many miles longer did you drive the car?

ItalianJoe1

Why isn't the car under factory warranty? It should be, and therefore should be covered.

The 276.8 may have the oil pump control valve, I haven't looked, I know the 274 does, and it's right down by the belt. If it got broken off it could have reduced oil pressure dangerously low, which is bad because these cars no longer have an oil pressure sensor so you don't get a warning for that.

If the belt comes off, the alternator stops charging and you get a warning almost immediately.

So many things don't add up here.

jrsmith_68

I am not sure where you got this information from but it is false. Your Mercedes ECUs, particularly the engine and transmission can provide this data. Sure, the ECU can't detect the poly-vee belt, but the instant an error is logged due to it breaking a lot of data is recorded. I have attached a screen shot of what is recorded in your transmission ECU. This was an error I created by forcing a reset of the instrument cluster while the ignition was on.

Diabolis

Incorrect. Cars have had fairly extensive data logging ability for the last 15 years if not longer. More modern (current generations) vehicles monitor and capture hundreds if not thousands of operational parameters for an extended period of time.

And, whenever a catastrophic failure occurs for which MB is asked to foot the bill (i.e. under warranty - the dealership performing the work still needs to pay for the parts and pay the mechanics, they just get paid by Mercedes instead of the customer), the ECU and/or TCU code is routinely sent in its entirety back to Germany for analysis. The dealership doesn't even have to have all the equipment to parse and analyze the operational data that's stored in the ECU / TCU locally - all they have to do is hook up a laptop to the vehicle OBD port and all the data is transmitted to Germany.

Diabolis

The car is under warranty - but the warranty does not cover failure of the operator to take normal corrective action at the first sign of trouble. The OP here continued to drive for 15 miles (24 km) despite having two indicators that something is wrong with the vehicle. The warranty is against defects in material and workmanship, not against operator ignorance or stupidity.