Hi,

Starting last month, I noticed a whistling noise between 60 and 70 mph. I took my S class to the dealer and after spending a week and comparing with other S560's. I was told the noise is coming from the rear differential and needs to be replaced. The part came in a week after and was replaced the same day. So the first time my car was at the dealer for two weeks and I was making the payment on S class while I was given a C class as a loaner!
I picked up the car and after driving for a few days, noticed that you can hear a different type of noise when pushing the gas. So I made an appointment again and took the car in. They test drove the car and told me that the noise comes from the tires since they are run flats and get noisy after putting a couple of thousands of miles on them. The noise was really bothering me so I decided to buy a brand new set of tires even current ones were still good! Guess what! The noise was still there!
I took the car to the dealer again and told them that I changed the tires but the noise is still there. They said they have to keep the car for a few days and run a few more tests. I left the car with them and was given another C class as a loaner! My service advisor contacted me after a few days and said the replaced differential is defective and they need to order a new one so the car has to be in the shop for another 10 days. I was angry and frustrated. So I called the Mercedes Benz Customer Care and complained. They put me through one of the referral managers and he talked to me about the possible solution of considering the lemon law. He escalated my case to the Mercedes Benz Law Team and said It will take between 4 to 6 weeks for the update. I still haven't heard anything from them and my car is still in the service.
Received a phone call today from the dealer stating that after changing the rear differential for the second time, the noise is still the same and this might be the characteristics of the car! Really? After keeping the car for that long and changing the differential twice! The dealer will escalate this issue to the Mercedes on Monday to see what is their response. I'm not sure if this will help my case or no?
I will follow up with Mercedes Benz on Monday. Anyone has lemoned their car before? Any advice? Please let me know what do you think?
Thanks in Advance

 

Well, all cars emit sounds and the more quiet the car is, the more you hear even the faintest sounds. That said, this business of replacing the differential—and then telling you that they need to replace it yet again—is a bit much and certainly does raise a red flag, at least to me. At the very least, I would absolutely insist that they give you a better loaner. With the threat of a lemon law case, I should think that the dealer and MBUSA (I am assuming you are in the US) would be willing to do whatever it takes to make you happy and to let them perform the differential transplant one more time. If they bump you up to at least an E Class, so you can be comfortable, I’d let them try to fix the car this one, last time. If it is still unsatisfactory, I would give them a week to buy the car back on their own. After that, I would get a lawyer who specializes in lemon law cases and let him or her handle the whole thing.