2015 s550 problems, is the dealership taking advantage of me?
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15 edition 1 s550 4 matic coupe, 08 Chevy duramax 2500hd 34k mi, 87 ford bronco 2 32k mi, 72 pantera
2015 s550 problems, is the dealership taking advantage of me?
Hey guys, about 4 months ago I purchased a 2015 s550 4matic edition 1 it was used with one owner who was an old lady who used it for business purposes. we bought it with 40k miles and put about 10k miles into it so far. Absolutely love the car. Luckily we bought an extended comprehensive warranty with the vehicle from Toyota. (since it we bought it from them). So the service a4 came on, time to take it into the shop. I was quoted almost 12k in labor and work. fault codes p035313, p030385, p030085. replace cylinder 3 ignition coil. $590. front cylinder head covers are starting to leak. reseal front cylinder head covers $1730. transmission/differential/ transfer case, front diff pinion house seal is leaking. remove trans and front diff, replace seal and hardware $3800. alignment $300. engine mounts are collapsed and weak $4500. spark plugs are due $1050. transmission service $600. Im located in Las Vegas. Its a lot of money to put into this car just to get it running, any help or suggestions would be much appreciated. Thank you guys.
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2019 C63CS
Well, sounds like quite a battered car. From your fault codes, your engine is misfiring. You didn't notice it was running rough or the CEL flashing? This could have caused your engine mounts to fail prematurely due to the additional vibration. It's specifically reporting an issue with the ignition coil circuit in addition to misfiring on cylinder 3. So that is what it is. The various leaks and collapsed engine mounts if true is also what it is. Those are big jobs. Leaks do happen and engine mounts can also wear out eventually, so not sure what to tell you there. Spark plugs is routine and technically due every 50k miles or 5 years. Not sure about the transmission service. I thought only AMGs require transmission service. Alignment is also pretty standard. That and spark plugs is about the only thing I have a reference for in terms of price. It seems a little high. Alignment on my AMG is only about $200. Don't know what the spark plugs by itself cost, but my most recent 5 year service would have been about $1700 for my AMG including spark plugs. Next one includes my transmission and rear diff and is also around that. I ended up prepaying for the next three services, which was cheaper than paying for the individual services and it locks in today's labor rates. If I sell the car before the end of the prepaid maintenance, here in California they have to refund the unused portion, so it's a win-win.
Last edited by superswiss; Feb 19, 2024 at 06:59 PM.
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15 edition 1 s550 4 matic coupe, 08 Chevy duramax 2500hd 34k mi, 87 ford bronco 2 32k mi, 72 pantera
Never noticed anything running rough nor the cel flash. The engine started to sputter and loose power maybe 3 days ago. Today I drove it to the dealership and it drove like it always has when i first bought it. I do not drive it like a teenager. i baby this thing. so hopefully my comprehensive warranty will take care of all the parts and i will only have to pay for labor is the best case scenario. Just sucks being such a old but new car having all these problems. thank you for the reply. Do you think toyota new about these problems before selling the vehicle to me?
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From: Scottsdale, Arizona
2001 E55AMG
Is this a dealership or independent? Take it for a second opinion. Did you notice anything wrong with it? That seems like an awful lot for you to be unaware of prior to diagnosis.
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15 edition 1 s550 4 matic coupe, 08 Chevy duramax 2500hd 34k mi, 87 ford bronco 2 32k mi, 72 pantera
I brought it to a Mercedes dealership. fletcher jones in las Vegas. I noticed the check engine light came on 2 days ago. it started to sputter when I was going 10-30 miles an hour. Made an appointment right after that. Took it in today and the car drove like it always has.
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Never noticed anything running rough nor the cel flash. The engine started to sputter and loose power maybe 3 days ago. Today I drove it to the dealership and it drove like it always has when i first bought it. I do not drive it like a teenager. i baby this thing. so hopefully my comprehensive warranty will take care of all the parts and i will only have to pay for labor is the best case scenario. Just sucks being such a old but new car having all these problems. thank you for the reply. Do you think toyota new about these problems before selling the vehicle to me?
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Joined: Apr 2021
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From: Scottsdale, Arizona
2001 E55AMG
Hey guys, about 4 months ago I purchased a 2015 s550 4matic edition 1 it was used with one owner who was an old lady who used it for business purposes. we bought it with 40k miles and put about 10k miles into it so far. Absolutely love the car. Luckily we bought an extended comprehensive warranty with the vehicle from Toyota. (since it we bought it from them). So the service a4 came on, time to take it into the shop. I was quoted almost 12k in labor and work. fault codes p035313, p030385, p030085. replace cylinder 3 ignition coil. $590. front cylinder head covers are starting to leak. reseal front cylinder head covers $1730. transmission/differential/ transfer case, front diff pinion house seal is leaking. remove trans and front diff, replace seal and hardware $3800. alignment $300. engine mounts are collapsed and weak $4500. spark plugs are due $1050. transmission service $600. Im located in Las Vegas. Its a lot of money to put into this car just to get it running, any help or suggestions would be much appreciated. Thank you guys.
Never noticed anything running rough nor the cel flash. The engine started to sputter and loose power maybe 3 days ago. Today I drove it to the dealership and it drove like it always has when i first bought it. I do not drive it like a teenager. i baby this thing. so hopefully my comprehensive warranty will take care of all the parts and i will only have to pay for labor is the best case scenario. Just sucks being such a old but new car having all these problems. thank you for the reply. Do you think toyota new about these problems before selling the vehicle to me?
Just a heads up, the following are not considered maintenance and probably not covered by the extended warranty:
Ignition coil
Alignment
Spark plugs
Transmission service
(Engine mounts are 50/50, it really depends on how reputable the warranty company is)
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From: Scottsdale, Arizona
2001 E55AMG
The Toyota dealership likely didn't know or care if any of these issues were present already. It's not their brand and the car is 9 years old. So that doesn't even qualify for Mercedes-Benz Certified Pre-Owned. Has to be less than 6 years old to get CPO. This is an old car by modern standards and sold as-is.
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From: San Francisco Bay Area
2019 C63CS
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15 edition 1 s550 4 matic coupe, 08 Chevy duramax 2500hd 34k mi, 87 ford bronco 2 32k mi, 72 pantera
I apologize, we bought the car with 45k miles its sitting around 52k, i just double checked. so about 7k miles in about 6 months.
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15 edition 1 s550 4 matic coupe, 08 Chevy duramax 2500hd 34k mi, 87 ford bronco 2 32k mi, 72 pantera
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15 edition 1 s550 4 matic coupe, 08 Chevy duramax 2500hd 34k mi, 87 ford bronco 2 32k mi, 72 pantera
yes warranty should cover it all, but still with labor he said its going to be like a 40 hour job? looking at 4-6k in just labor.
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15 edition 1 s550 4 matic coupe, 08 Chevy duramax 2500hd 34k mi, 87 ford bronco 2 32k mi, 72 pantera
does anybody have an idea how long this job should take? 40 hours seems like a lot. and what price are you guys paying for labor?
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They have book hours for these jobs, so that's what the estimate is based on. Actual repair may take more or less time depending on the mechanic or complications. If the book time says 40 hours, then that's the estimate you have to go on. Expect the car to be out for at least two weeks as they likely won't work on it continuously. Labor rates depend on your region.
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Slightly Modified E500, 2005 PT Cruiser
Hey guys, about 4 months ago I purchased a 2015 s550 4matic edition 1 it was used with one owner who was an old lady who used it for business purposes. we bought it with 40k miles and put about 10k miles into it so far. Absolutely love the car. Luckily we bought an extended comprehensive warranty with the vehicle from Toyota. (since it we bought it from them). So the service a4 came on, time to take it into the shop. I was quoted almost 12k in labor and work. fault codes p035313, p030385, p030085. replace cylinder 3 ignition coil. $590. front cylinder head covers are starting to leak. reseal front cylinder head covers $1730. transmission/differential/ transfer case, front diff pinion house seal is leaking. remove trans and front diff, replace seal and hardware $3800. alignment $300. engine mounts are collapsed and weak $4500. spark plugs are due $1050. transmission service $600. Im located in Las Vegas. Its a lot of money to put into this car just to get it running, any help or suggestions would be much appreciated. Thank you guys.
I'm a small mobile mechanic here in Las Vegas specializing in Mercedes, BMW etc and one of my customers had almost everything you've listed on his quote? (That's how he ended up becoming my customer LOL) I mean almost to the letter? So I went through the car for him saved him about $12,000 !! I believe his Bill was about $1800 That was for me to run diagnostics, fix everything that he DID need including, tune up new plugs , two coil packs, there was a bad coolant leak from the plastic coolant pipe against the firewall under the hood cowl. Some turbo coolant leaks as well ... I believe the steelership was in fact "Fletcher Jones" I still have the PDFs of the estimates that he sent me from FJ and they intended to just straight fix and replace parts that 100% did not need fixing moreover the prices were high for even a steelership but that's Las Vegas I guess... Your name wouldn't happen to be "X" and your S550 wouldn't happen to be black would it? LOL
Last edited by JDVIKING; Feb 21, 2024 at 06:48 AM.
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I think it's just bad lack. It doesn't necessarily mean that the dealer took advantage of you. All these things could have developed just as you drove it for the last 1000 miles or so. 7K miles is a lot of miles to assume that some of these issues existed when u bought it.
Enjoy the car, if you are going to fix all these issues, and take care of that car going forward, sounds like u are about to renew/replace most of the high-ticket common wear&tear engine parts. Who knows, u might be able to drive it for 100K from here and pay $0 on service. My first W222 was a pre-facelift, and I drove it all the way to ~75-80K miles. I paid 0 (zero) on maintenance as I never needed any engine work (granted I sold it with lower control arms needing replacement). I only did some transmission service when it was under-warranty.
Enjoy the car, if you are going to fix all these issues, and take care of that car going forward, sounds like u are about to renew/replace most of the high-ticket common wear&tear engine parts. Who knows, u might be able to drive it for 100K from here and pay $0 on service. My first W222 was a pre-facelift, and I drove it all the way to ~75-80K miles. I paid 0 (zero) on maintenance as I never needed any engine work (granted I sold it with lower control arms needing replacement). I only did some transmission service when it was under-warranty.
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222 S-65
OP Fidelity with Platinum coverage will cover mounts, coils and countless other issues.
If your extended warranty covers what MB is suggesting pay the deductible and let them take care of it.
If your extended warranty covers what MB is suggesting pay the deductible and let them take care of it.
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From: Hampshire , UK
2015 S500, 2016 GL63 AMG
One thing I would add would be that if you were having all the spark plugs changed then I would suggest the dealer could actually replace that coil pack in barely 10 minutes while doing the spark plugs, a replacement coil pack should be a lot less that 500$ , I did a search on you tube and found a video on changing them, I needed to do just one of mine 18 months ago, the coil packs at the time were scarce and MB UK had over 300 on back order, I found a good genuine merc one for about £60 online and did the job in about 40 minutes at most including removing all the plastic engine covers, I did also have to buy a special little unusual " E-torx " socket set from Amazon for about £10 to fit the fixing bolt holding the coil pack in place though
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15 edition 1 s550 4 matic coupe, 08 Chevy duramax 2500hd 34k mi, 87 ford bronco 2 32k mi, 72 pantera
Wow, as I'm reading your post... An eerie feeling of deja came over me!
I'm a small mobile mechanic here in Las Vegas specializing in Mercedes, BMW etc and one of my customers had almost everything you've listed on his quote? (That's how he ended up becoming my customer LOL) I mean almost to the letter? So I went through the car for him saved him about $12,000 !! I believe his Bill was about $1800 That was for me to run diagnostics, fix everything that he DID need including, tune up new plugs , two coil packs, there was a bad coolant leak from the plastic coolant pipe against the firewall under the hood cowl. Some turbo coolant leaks as well ... I believe the steelership was in fact "Fletcher Jones" I still have the PDFs of the estimates that he sent me from FJ and they intended to just straight fix and replace parts that 100% did not need fixing moreover the prices were high for even a steelership but that's Las Vegas I guess... Your name wouldn't happen to be "X" and your S550 wouldn't happen to be black would it? LOL
I'm a small mobile mechanic here in Las Vegas specializing in Mercedes, BMW etc and one of my customers had almost everything you've listed on his quote? (That's how he ended up becoming my customer LOL) I mean almost to the letter? So I went through the car for him saved him about $12,000 !! I believe his Bill was about $1800 That was for me to run diagnostics, fix everything that he DID need including, tune up new plugs , two coil packs, there was a bad coolant leak from the plastic coolant pipe against the firewall under the hood cowl. Some turbo coolant leaks as well ... I believe the steelership was in fact "Fletcher Jones" I still have the PDFs of the estimates that he sent me from FJ and they intended to just straight fix and replace parts that 100% did not need fixing moreover the prices were high for even a steelership but that's Las Vegas I guess... Your name wouldn't happen to be "X" and your S550 wouldn't happen to be black would it? LOL
One thing I would add would be that if you were having all the spark plugs changed then I would suggest the dealer could actually replace that coil pack in barely 10 minutes while doing the spark plugs, a replacement coil pack should be a lot less that 500$ , I did a search on you tube and found a video on changing them, I needed to do just one of mine 18 months ago, the coil packs at the time were scarce and MB UK had over 300 on back order, I found a good genuine merc one for about £60 online and did the job in about 40 minutes at most including removing all the plastic engine covers, I did also have to buy a special little unusual " E-torx " socket set from Amazon for about £10 to fit the fixing bolt holding the coil pack in place though
no literally covers everything but labor
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If you’re paying for labor you should take it somewhere else and get a second opinion, an independent MB shop will be much cheaper. Labor rates at MB dealers are $200+ an hour.
2015 S550 with 55k miles is worth nowhere near $47,000 lol
2015 S550 with 55k miles is worth nowhere near $47,000 lol
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OP I have worked with a LOT of extended warranties.... I’m in the auto repair biz. I have never encountered an extended warranty that does not pay for parts, labor and tax (less deductible) for covered parts.
