we47b1me

Morning everyone,

This is an incredible read, and something I wish I would have known before purchasing my truck last year:

http://www.stephensservice.com/bluetec-diesel-issuesproblems

I read to "stay away, stay away" from BlueTecs from various members here, but could not pass up the deal on the CPO I stepped into last August. That being said, with a year and change left on the CPO warranty, I do want to make a check list for the dealer to start making their way through. This includes most of the items listed in Stephen's article above (making sure software is up to date, soot filter, lubrication for timing chain, proper oil for SoCal and short trip driving etc etc.)

Most of it is obvious from the blog post to get the most longevity of these OM651's, but am curious if anyone had paid him the $200 for "all the SB's, and other literature he has). I emailed him wanting to do this, but have not heard back in a few days, and given he was 70 at the time, and the website doesn't seem active, I wanted to see if any members had done this in the past, and if they happen to have all the workshop documentation he has that I am looking for to research and build my " to-do list" for my truck.

Thanks in advance.
C

peter2772000

I conversed with him thru emails this past summer. He turned me on to the spin-on filter adapter as well. I didn't see the part about the $200 and simply sent him $50 or $100 as a gesture of thanks and towards his grandson's education. However, I don't continually avail myself of his updates etc.

I've done pretty well everything I can to ensure maximum reliability and longevity with this engine. Initial oil sample results cam back a coupla months ago with flying colours, so time to give it a rest and just enjoy the damn thing...

Diabolis

That article reads just like a sermon by Peter Popoff and has roughly the same amount of truth, which must be how Mr. Stephens also generates most of his income.

While it is true that only following the Mercedes prescribed once-a-year maintenance interval is one way to make sure your car only lasts for the duration of the warranty, the rest is so full of crap that it would take twenty times as much space to address all the fallacies and BS. If you change the oil every 5000 km and give the car an Italian tuneup once a month, an OM642 will outlast any gas engine in Merc's lineup. Guaranteed.

we47b1me

Ha! Well I'm more than happy to change the oil more frequently. I'm in the OM651 engine though, but the same principles would apply. In LA, so not too worried about the temperature fluctuations he mentioned. Really wanted to just make sure I'm doing everything I can do make sure that DPF burnoff in all the short trips I take during the day. I don't imagine this truck will last as long as my W163, which had 325k miles on the clock, and still ran like it was knew. That was back when Mercedes had a little more quality driving their products

Diabolis

Ahh - the "250" oil burner four pot wasn't available in Canada in the ML, but it was in the GLK (which I also owned). Aside from issues with the piezoelectric injectors on some of the European cars using that engine in places where the fuel has a lot of sulfur, I am not aware of any problems specific to it, and furthermore you'll never have to worry about leaking oil cooler seals on yours.

What I wrote above regarding the maintenance also applies to it and any other diesel engine. All other things being equal, the fact that it's a smaller engine than the 642 in a heavy ML probably means that you are by default working it harder, which is a good thing from a crankcase water burn-off perspective. Sure, the DEF injection system introduces a lot more complexity on any diesel vehicle and thus possible issues with it, but the engine itself is not one of them. 99% of the whiners here are people that have bought a Merc thinking that they can only take it in for one oil change per year and expect the maintenance costs to be the same as on a new Toyota Corolla.

we47b1me

Good to know -- yeah this is the 5th MB, and the only one (right now) that I've ever had a CPO warranty on it, as I would always do 90% of the work myself, so well aware of the maintenance necessity on these babies.

Thanks Diabolis.

DanD.

Quick question: Why? What so different vs OM642?

Diabolis

Because unlike the 3L V6 OM642 with the oil cooler in the middle of the hot "V" on which the seals are known to fail and take 16 hours of labour to replace, the OM651 is a 2.2L inline 4. It is known to leak oil from the chain tensioner gasket, but that repair is covered by a recall and takes maybe 45 minutes to perform.

Crya

iTrader: (1)

Hi all, new to MB Diesels. My wife has her eye on a '15 ML 250. 40,000 miles. Priced at $28k. So far, my research here isn't saying "run away", but there's not a lot I'm seeing. Am I missing the treasure drove of advice or was the 250 in the US not very common? And most significantly, can anyone tell me of the 250 was part if Dieselgate?

Diabolis

Merc only put the smaller OM641 in the US MLs for one year only (2015) so there's a very small number of them on the roads compared to cars with the OM642. A better source of information may be the GLK (X204) forum as all diesel GLKs in the US used that engine.
Seeing as the vast majority of the complaints here pertain to the cost of replacing the oil cooler seals on the OM642 equipped cars and are furthermore made by folks who don't want to dish out any money on regular oil changes (and yes, Mercedes is to partially blame for claiming that you can go 16,000 km between oil changes ON A DIESEL WITH DPFs that has to use low-SAPS oils), once you take those out of the equation it is certainly no less reliable than a gasoline powered ML. Is it part of dieselgate? Not the real dieselgate (the VW one), but it is one of the Merc diesels that only enables the SCR / DEF system above a certain temperature, which apparently some litigation-happy folks thought they can also cash in on.

DC-BENZ

Start saving/reserving $2k a year for 3yrs(Timing chain, Oil Cooler, DPF tank) after 50k miles and you should be ok.