Shakka

Just wanted to pass along this information. I live in Canada and recently I noticed my S430 was rusting all over the place. Particularily under the wheel wells, on the front panel, below the AMG skirt etc, etc.

tihat how can a 8 yr old car with only 100,000Km rust so much. I basically told them that this is the last MB that i am buying if this is the quality.

So to make a long story short, i took the car to MB's bodyshop in Toronto and they took care of the entire repair. Its a good will program MB has. They replaced every panel that had rust and repainted the entire car.

I must say that i was shocked that they did all this. They had the car for 4 weeks, but its brand new now.

So if anyone else has the same issue, call and im sure that they will take care of it.

Shak

cameraman123

Im surprised you received new panels and a complete repaint. Most simply receive repaints on affected panels or areas. Glad to hear you received the type of service you should be receiving when purchasing such expensive vehicles!

zitsky

Do the 2003 and later vehicles have the same problem with rust? What was specific to the 2000-02 to make their more prone to rust? I was looking at an early 2004 model year S500 (10/2003) in the New York area but was worried that it might have too much of a rust problem.

cameraman123

Rust problems had to do with how the panels were prepped. 03 and later i believe used a zinc coating on panels which prevented rust better

kempes007

Hey I have same problem with rust. My all four doors at bottom are getting rust and I noticed also now on front fenders small spots. I called dealer and they told me that my Warrianty was 5years/50 miles. I have 60K miles on my 2000 S430 and I'm realy shocked how expensive car and good company like Mercedes can let that happed , not even 10 years on the car. Very hard to believe. It's my first Benz and I love it. Don't know what to do probbably after this winter it will look like 50 year old car.

notoriousALE

I have it as well on the drivers F/R doors......

jfendis430

Canada and Europe have a 30 year rust warranty plan in effect. In the US we are just screwed I had rust on both front bottom fenders front doors and trunk lid under the license plate and the did absolutely ZERO about it. I went to all 3 dealers here in St. Louis and they said they cant do anything about it.
Thankfully i have a family member that has a body shop and he took care of all of it for practically cost.

bamberger_1

I went through the full scale issue in tis matter. My car a year 2000 W220, had practically everything in connection to corrossion.
1) both front fendors
2) all 4 doors at the bottom under the plastic rail
3) Trunk lid under the license plate holder
4) all 4 wheel wells
5) the frame of the sun roof
6) both A-columbs, behind the fendors
7) both side door sills (INSIDE!!!! they were completely replaced)
Nothing was covered by the European 30y rust warranty. As a goodwill of the dealer and MB most of the probelms which showed up before the car 8 years old were covered w/o cost for me. For the problems later, they covered about 75%, which appeared to be fair to me. But the question is still how come that a luxury car of a top brand has significant corrossion problems in the first place???????? I asked my customer service guy at MB, if I should buy a later W220, and if the problems are solved. He said if you want to have the corrossion problems to be solved by a W221 or a new C-Class. All other models still have the issue, caused by greedy managers saving a buck, during Juergen Schrempp's time.

kempes007

I TALKED TO SERVICE ADVISOR LAST SATURDAY AND HE SAD THERE WAS A CAMPAIGN ABOUT RUST SOME TIME AGO . BUT HE SAD BECOUSE I HAVE ONLY
60K MILES ON IT THERE IS A GOOD CHANCE THAT MB WILL COVER IT. THEY WANT ME TO BRING IT ON WEEKDAY SO BODY SHOP CAN LOOK AT IT. I WILL BE THERE NEXT THURSDAY, I WILL POST UPDATE WHAT THEY WILL DO. (NJ DEALER)

stevescoots

In the UK they just replace the offending panels, however the 30 year warrantee is only valid provided you have used MB main dealer for all services throughout the cars life.

stevescoots

the rust problem was caused as it was the first generation of cars to use waterbased paints and it was not perfected at the time. other car builders that switched from solvent to water based at the time had the same problems

C280 Sport

Do you drive it in the winter?

Teutonic

Yes, how does a rear wheel drive S430 get along in Canada's biblical snow season?

LAWYER2

So glad I live in Sunny, Dry Phoenix AZ

MR.J

glad i live in the middle of BFE..

good to hear you got it fixed

mbfan1

Anyone else from canada got their rust repaired free of charge from the dealer? Can someone comment on the process?

kempes007

SO I WENT TO A DEALER AND HE TOLD ME THEY WILL COVER 50% OF THE JOB AS A GOOD WILL. TOTAL CAME TO $5000 , FROM MY PACKET HE WANTED $2500 PLUS TAX. I SAD NO THANK YOU FOR $2500 I CAN WALK IN TO ANY BODYSHOP AND THEY WILL DO IT WITH NO PROBLEM. TURN OUT FRIEND OF MY FATHER IS STILL WORKING AT THE BODYSHOP AND HE DID ALL FOUR DOORS FRONT AND REAR FENDRS FOR $850.CAR LOOKS PERFECT.

GDawgC220

Unfortunately MB did not start fully galvanizing body panels till sometime in 2004 (Q3 or Q4 iirc) compared to other car companies which have been doing it for a very long time. Prior to MB using the galvanizing process, panels were treated with some sort of wax based protection, which obviously doesn't hold up well for the salt belt states. Both my parents' '99 ML430 and '01 S500 have corrosion...more so on the S500. They also have a '97 A6 which has zero rust and has been parked outside for most of it's life.

The S has corrosion on all the body panels. The doors have rust bubbles along the bottom, front fenders have rust bubbles (where the panel meets bumper), rear quarter panels have rust bubbles smack in the middle and the wheel arches. I've seen quite a few other early w220s with rust in the exact same spots in the Boston area (as well as w210s, w202s, w163s with rust). Body shops have quoted anywhere from $1500 to $4000 but no guarantees that the rust won't come back as they're just fixing the affected areas and not replacing panels. I wouldn't want to know the cost of replacing all the panels lol.

MB's rust/corrosion warranty is quite sad compared to other car manufacturers, at least in the U.S. 4 years/50k miles is not very long. Others (Audi, BMW, Volvo, etc) have a 12 years/unlimited miles corrosion warranty.

Corsa9000

I have never heard of any car company warranty anything for 30 years, specially rust. Are you sure about this for Canada and Europe? They are not even obligated to make parts for the car 10 years after model change.

HKS2000

I have a S500. I disappointed my S500. We drove 75K only. We have rust problems on each bottom of doors.
Is there no Recall about this problem?
Please help me out to repair and how I can reimburse from the manufacture.
Thanks,

AH1W-COBRA

i cant imagine how frustrating it must be to watch your car start rusting,but can a MB actually be expected to endure the brutal winters in an area that uses somthing as corrosive as salt and spreads it all over the roads with a sand/cinder mix to blast it's way into every seam on the body and start doing what it is designed to do which is corrode.it is just part of the overhead of living in your area.IMO

shellshock

I've got a small rust spot on the bottom of my drivers door. What a shame. I live in Oklahoma, where we never get much snow. Worst yet the car was maintained to perfection by the older couple that owned it before I. Car currently has 110k.

I don't see these cars lasting another 20 years without looking like swiss cheese. If I am having this problem with a car that never sees a harsh winter, I can only imagine how hard other W220 owners are taking it in the harsher climate

aflame

I have a 2001 S430 that was starting to rust. My dealer said, "Contact the collision center, we can help you with that".

The car was just returned, looking like NEW. There were even a couple of dings that got replaced in the process. I love my S-Class, and will be buying another, when the time comes.

PHCMA

I still see my old 1990 LS 400 as a friend bought it. It has been out in Wisconsin winters every year and no rust. Sorry but reality trumps your opinion.

strider-g3

Are you the original owner? I have a 2002 S55 AMG with 105,000 KM and lots of rust. The paint is literally chipping off