I took my S580 2021 (10k miles) for Service A to a local Boston reputable dealership. Drove it back home (~5 miles) and then later to a dinner (~15 miles). Upon arrival to the restaurant, my engine started shaking violently and rumbling loudly. I parked my car and noticed leaked oil on a pavement where I drove and a puddle under the car, a steady oil line as far as I could see. I called home to check if there was any oil on a garage floor. Was told that there was a large puddle of oil on a garage floor (3 feet wide) and a steady oil leak from a garage all the way to the road. I called the tow truck and towed the car to the dealership same evening.

Mu guess is tech forgot to tighten the plug and judging the amount of oil lost based on what I saw in my garage and on a driveway and ~15 mile drive (including highway) and violent shaking of the engine, there was probably no oil left in the engine. There is no dipstick, so I couldn't measure it. It could have stalled at any moment. At no time there was any alerts that oil is low on a display. From what i understand is that oil level gets measured only after 30 minutes on driving. I drove for about 25 minutes.

I went to a dealer the next morning and it being Saturday, they were short staffed and no manager on duty. They gave me a loaner and said that they would look at it on Monday.

My obvious concern is a ruined engine or a significant deterioration of its lifetime. As I understand, there is no good way to measure damages sustained by many different parts in the engine...

I don't know what a dealer will tell me tomorrow, but I wanted to get some thoughts ahead of time as to what can I do in this situation? What options do I have? Anyone had a similar experience?

Ask for a new engine? Ask to rebuild an engine? Ask for a car replacement? This is not a leased car, so I am stuck with an unknown that my engine can fail at some time in the future...

 

You can partly thank MB for this garbage engineering with no oil dipstick and no oil warning. You can also thank them for flat rate and not paying techs properly for servicing your car. Understand many experienced techs have left the business and dealers are staffing the workshop with "trainees" who often have little or no mechanical experience. Many of them grew up with video games and touch screens. Oil changes take twice as long as they used to when there was a dipstick and oil filter located topside. The labor paid by MB hasn't gone up, only down. Anyhow, mistakes happen, could be a pinched oil filter o-ring. Your engine is likely damaged. They will first refill the oil and see how it runs. An engine for your car runs from $60k-$80k, maybe more, and the dealer may do everything they can to avoid having to pay for it. They may even offer to buy the car back, and they will dump it at auction. If not, this is another option you may wish to pursue. If they don't replace the engine, I've seen dealers give a written warranty on the engine for as long as you own the car. That's the minimum I would accept.

 

Wow, sorry to hear about the oil loss. Hopefully this is resolved to your satisfaction.

This is something that might unfortunately be expected at a Speedy Oil Change employing 16 year olds. But not at an MB dealership where they charge a premium for factory certified trained technicians using factory service documentation.

MB is the best of nothing.

 

Reading the few responses so far there appear to be a lot of angry voices at MB. I would suggest that this type of accident can occur at any agency even among the best. Having run a large business, I know it’s all about how they handle their mistake. I would talk with the service manager, no one less. And, I would either ask for a new engine or ask them to take the vehicle in trade with no loss in value due to the engine. If you don’t get satisfaction, next talk with Agency President/owner OR go to MB National in New Jersey.

 

MB national (USA) moved to Atlanta many years ago, and along with that move disposed of many tenured employees and replaced them with cheaper "Southern" labor. That being said, MBUSA generally doesn't care, as you can read hundreds of posts on MBworld about it, and likely will just pass this back to the dealership, as it's their mistake and their problem, not a warranty or sales issue involving MBUSA.

 

What a terrible mistake. I hope the dealer owns up to it.

 

I would demand at the very least a long extended warranty to make sure that there are no lasting effects of this, and you need them to admit what happened in writing.

My assistant has a Honda CRV and it broke down the other day when he was meeting me somewhere. It was putting and smoking out the back and in some sort of limp home mode. He had just had the oil changed by the Honda dealer, so I checked it and not only was it WAY overfilled, but it did not look like freshly changed oil. The dealership had just put new oil in without ever draining the old oil. He had it towed in and it had oil all over the spark plugs, etc.

These are examples why I laugh when people say that I'm crazy for taking my cars to my trusted independent mechanic vs the dealer.

 

Yep, the old fill it without draining it mistake. I've seen that a few times. Dealer service departments are just big grinders jamming as much work in as possible to maximize profit. It's all greed.

 

Yep, which is why I really feel like you are better served finding a good independent mechanic. I had one for Lexus, I'm in the process of finding one for MB, then I will start taking it there.

 

Did you take it to a different dealership or the same dealership that did the oil change? Your wording isn't clear.

 

Yes - i took it to the same dealership. I've used them for the last 10 years and their service was always great.

 

Update.

Dealer said that oil leak was due to faulty O-ring. They drained the remaining oil and looked at it to see if there are any metal pieces. They said that oil looks good and they proposed just to refill the oil, give me engine warranty and send me away the same day. There is no way to inspect the engine thoroughly.

Now it looks to me that there are no good options moving forward. No one would buy from me a car that has this history without a steep discount, even with the warranty. Would you? So, it is obvious that this "unknown" diminishes the value of the car significantly. I can't not disclose this fact at the time of sale.

Replacing the engine is also not an option because it may take up to 6 months as no engines are available.

If they buy the car, then I loose 6.25% is sales tax that I paid when bought this car last year.

They don't have any other comparable cars to exchange. Even if they did, I don't know how finance numbers would work. I have a finance rate sat at 1.7%. Now banks offer 3.5%, double that rate or ~$2200 per year in extra finance charge...

I don't see any options even if dealership was willing to give it to me.

What would you do in this situation?

 

So, lets unpack this. If they are willing to own up to the fact that they did this, and give you an extended engine warranty, and the car runs fine with no issues after the oil is filled...I would probably accept that and move on. Other things you can ask for is a monetary amount to compensate you for any reduced value, sort of like a diminished value claim for body damage.

How would a prospective buyer know that this had happened years ago? If the car is running fine and there are no issues i wouldn't disclose it.

 

Engine is damaged and will last no as long as the original one. No way of knowing . When I sell it, I will have to disclose this significant fact and unless I give a big discount, buyers would prefer to buy another car. They are offering a engine warranty for as long as I own it, but its not transferable to a new buyer...

 

Yes, I agree in requesting diminished value compensation (all-inclusive retail to replace engine) however, disagree with non-disclosure. If not documented in vehicle master inquiry (VMI) it will be on record somewhere since warranty will (or should) be honored throughout MBUSA dealerships.

 

The engine may not be damaged, and you don't know for sure that its lifespan will be reduced. I don't know how long you plan to keep the car, but 40-50k miles from now if everything is operating well this will be a distant memory and I personally would not feel any need to disclose that happened to a buyer.

But, what is the amount that you think the value might be reduced? Ask them for that. Worst they can say is no...may be worth it to talk to an attorney too...I think thats a completely reasonable request.

 

Agree on the attorney part. A consultation is usually not too expensive and will give you the scope of possible remedies. More importantly, having solid information from a professional will allow you to more easily make friends with the choices you have and to some extent prevent you from playing the "I wonder if" game. The least objectionable choice is what you're going to have on offer; knowing you did the best you could with what you had helps puts it behind you sooner.

 

Have them show you the filter. You should be able to see any metallic flakes if there are any. If there aren't any, you may be fine.

 

Exactly - this is unknown at this point if an engine is damaged or not. Most likely than not it is damaged and it may break in 20-30k miles. No one knows. At this time a dealership is willing to work with me to give me "piece of mind". I have a hard time defining what would that be ...

 

If it's any consultation, the 100% synthetic oils used have a very good adhesion factor and molecularity embed deeply into the bearings, sleeves, etc.
It appears you haven't taken delivery yet.
If the dealership hasn't disposed of the oil yet I would send a sample to an independent oil testing laboratory to look for high metal content.
If they disposed of the oil and filter, I would have them run the engine for some time and then send off a sample of the new oil.
This will quickly tell you the story as any abnormal metal particulate will be in the sample.
They would never see 'CHIPS' or 'metal pieces' but a mud toothpaste like substance.
Good luck.

 

Holy fawk WTF?? Hope this works out for you Sir

 

So the dealer did exactly what I said they would....avoid paying for anything...... "Defective O-ring" is the cover-up term used for a pinched o-ring when the filter was installed....or the filter was never tightened....installer error and not checking their work....it happens, seen it. I hope you have a written, signed and dated copy of the engine warranty you have been offered. Dealership employees come and go....and can "not know anything about that" when they replace the previous regime.

I also disagree that you have to disclose this to a future buyer, you are not responsible for the future reliability of any system on a used car once it's sold. When you're ready you'll probably be trading it in somewhere anyways. Besides, anyone who buys a used 48v MB in the future without some kind of warranty is committing financial suicide anyways.

 

Since they have acknowledged the negligence, it seems to me that it is their obligation to make you whole as a result of that negligence. Buying your car back is one option. They would be responsible for any losses you incur because of sales taxes and/or interest rate changes. It’s up to you to decide what making you whole means, but you can certainly hold out for them to replace the car. If it were me, I would be trading out of the car now while this is fresh in everyone’s mind and let them cover your “loss”

 

I'll play devil's advocate here....He'd have to prove there was some damage done to the engine, and at this point if it's running smooth and quiet, there is no practical way to do that. Negligence doesn't equal damage, at least not at the moment. There's been no losses so far, other than the time lost dealing with it. Had the engine seized for example, this would be a different conversation.

 

Their job is to make you whole. The engine shook. Make sure that diagnosis and offer was in writing already so you can use it as evidence. A warranty just will mean a headache in the future. If they are unwilling to look (scope cylinders, pull bottom pan) in the engine now, they will fight you the whole time. Let them buy it back to include every charge you have mentioned. It sucks but they have insurance for this. You could/would even deserve the car payments for while this hassle happened. Last, your state may limit the extent of the damages.

If all of this sounds like too much, take it for a ppi and get it scoped, if it seems ok, ask the dealer for a 500k mile warranty with free oil changes up till then every 5-7.5k miles. The long warranty ensures a full ownership without cost other than time. Make your ask greater than any cost to take the car back now, get you what you want (they have a whole network to order from) and they take the 20-30k hit now vs your mental hit and future time hit.

personally I’d already have talked to a lawyer friend because the car is totaled. Putting oil in a squeaky bearing does not replace the metal lost. Liken it to a haircut. You never have more hair after a haircut, never. Areas in the engine that squeaked were scratched, no if and or buts.

If they talk down to you at all or make it not a big deal, just politely refuse to talk with them until legal is involved. It’s a mistake. People and businesses have to own up or society does not work.

good luck