I really need some insight on which of the following services might be bogus and what I could do myself. I'm pretty comfortable working on my vehicles but this is the first time I have owned a Mercedes Benz so I do not know what is out of my league and what isn't....... I haven't noticed any problems with the vehicle. It is driving great still.




Any advice, insight more than welcomed.

 

labor is inflated.

most off the stuff you can do by yourself except rear main seal.

once you are ready to do the service on your own pm me and I will walk you though each job.

 

Boy oh boy - I hope you got a kiss with this because with a kiss it's seduction and without the kiss it's rape. I agree the labor is vastly over charged. I'[d find another dealer or preferably a good Indie to look after my vehicle in future.

 

$100 labor to pour you fuel injection cleaner? They would be shot.

 

Thank you everyone so far for your responses. Shardul, will definitely be sending you a pm soon but I've managed to track down quite a few DIY guides here on MBWorld for the tasks at hand.

I work at a Dodge dealership just down the road from an MB dealership, called MB today and got all the parts for the more pressing tasks at wholesale. Ran my total parts cost vs the shop's total cost. The difference is $1,386.80 vs their $1,902.46

First project - ordered the lower control arm and ball joints for both front sides. Also ordered the boot separator and installer/removal tool on ebay.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/400272819495...84.m1497.l2649

http://www.ebay.com/itm/250703667420...84.m1497.l2649

While knocking this one out I am planning on going ahead and doing the transmission mount. Hopefully going to get to it this weekend but the car is going back into the body
shop tomorrow(not the guys above). I was rear ended and it looks like when they replaced the tail light and straightened some of the body back out they didn't get a good seal. Water is collecting in the back right tail lamp and causing corrosion so throwing the check tail light error because of bad contacts.

While I'm at it I am going to go ahead and do the supercharger and serpentine belts. These 3 items alone would have cost me $2,250 with this shop.

Hopefully Sunday - rear drive shaft flex disc. I am sure I will be making a post because I haven't found any really good information on it but when I was under the car today it looks pretty straight forward. While I am at this one I am also going to try to get to the fuel filter and replace all the spark plugs.

Spark plugs were priced at $29.00 a piece, I got the OEMs from Benz at $14.80.

Besides those major line items the only thing left is the rear main seal leak, fuel injection service, brake system flush and cooling system. I have access to a service bay at work with a built in drain so I am planning on doing all the fluid flushes there because I am sure it will be messy.

I'll take $1,386 in parts vs $6,655.03 parts and labor any day.

Question about the rear main seal - obviously a really slow leak. My oil has stayed at an almost completely constant level. I did see some oil gathered at the bottom of the transmission where it meets the engine today. Read that I need to check some valves somewhere, will do that first. How bad of a problem is this? It is a 10 year old car, leaks happen. Obviously if its a small leak it will eventually get worse but I was planning on taking it to another independent whenever my budget has reinflated a little bit. Any words of caution? Is this a critical fix?

The guy at LuxuryAutoworks, Thomas was actually a pretty nice guy today. He was a little rude on the phone yesterday when I called them after they sent me the invoice. I'm not here to bash him at all because he raised it on the rack and we went down the list item by item with him showing me where the problem was and why it needed to be fixed.

After these fixes I'm fairly confident I will be back in superior shape, the only thing that scares me is in the future if I have problems with the ABC. I've read so many horror stories I'm wondering if I should do an ABC flush soon as preemptive maintenance.

 

$819 to replace the spark plugs.....there is a special place in hell for these guys.

I wouldnt let them put air in my tires.

 

you can get a step colder NGK plugs for 100 shipped for 16

don't worry about the rear main seal they all tend to weep a bit

 

They listed 'conditioner' for the transmission. please do not add conditioner to the tranny - ever. For suspension work, take the MB parts to a regular low-cost shop and have them do it. Its a pain to get ball joints out if you have no experience but its common practice for them.