astonmartinv8

We've had our 2015 CLS63S for about 6 years and have generally had a good experience with our local dealer (Mercedes Benz Sydney) who we have used for all work except a windscreen replacement. They are relatively expensive but the car has been reliable and we haven't had to worry too much. Recently the car went in for a service, then about 100kms later the car ran rough and was towed to the dealer. The fault was diagnosed as the cylinder 5 coil pack. We had the same job done on another coil in 2021, at the same time as a service (though not a plugs service). It cost us $480.53 parts and labour at this same dealer. This time the job cost $1209.09 for the same thing. Labour was $270 in 2021, but $987.15 now. So labour was $717 more. The job actually has 7 x 6m work units allocated in the Mercedes workshop system. Labour here is just over $300 p/h. Naturally, we complained. The service assistant contacted me and advised that they had made a mistake and charged 3.5hrs labour and should have only charged around 2. They said they had credited me $450 to my account for the next time I returned to them. I said "so you overcharged me" and they said "yes" so I asked for money back. I was then told they couldn't do this as the paper work had all been done. I now need to escalate to the service manager to try and get my money back.

What worries me about this is that it seems to be blatant overcharging. I know we are all skeptical, but if a dealer is going to charge the same amount per hour for a service tech as I pay for a junior lawyer, then the bill better be right.

The question I had was for those in the know - how long does it really take for a Mercedes dealer to diagnose and replace a coil pack?

Baltistyle

Hooking up a scanner that is already turned on, takes five minutes to read the code. Replacing the coil pack on cylinder 5 for a competent mechanic is under twenty minutes. Swapping coil packs from one cylinder to another to follow the fault may take another twenty minutes including the scan. A diy repair would be below 300. Many just buy a whole pack of coils (good aftermarket or oem can be had for fractions of the cost of the dealer) and do it in an afternoon. Fcp has a pack of coils for under 700. This would also be the time to do spark plugs, but there is a very specific procedure that must be followed so you MUST index them properly or can have disastrous results. Any paid mechanic, even MB themselves will just follow the torque procedure but that is not sufficient. We can walk you through it, or find a good Indy that also knows about measuring for property indexing. There is no need to use mb out of warranty for any reason.

PeterUbers

Here's a pic of my then 11 year old replacing my coils 2 years ago. He charged me four packs of Pokémon cards and a Wendy's crispy chicken meal. It took him about 1.5 hours after I helped with the exposure.

i get my coils from FCP