James M Carroll

My MB dealer has removed both bolts to the door check on the drivers door.

They have now told me the only way to fix this is by welding the plate to the car since they can not get the bolts back in position in the front wall of the car.

Please help!

I am desparate and the dealer will not do anything even they caused this problem.

Jim

Ghostty

The dealer did something like that and doesn't want to fix it? Get to the manager, then manager above him, that's not something that they can do just like that. They broke it - they need to fix it. As simple as that. Stand your ground on this. Meantime, contact your insurance, see what they have to say about this.

There is the option to follow trough consumer's affairs (or whatever the department is called), but i'd keep that as the last resort.

Hope you'll get an answer soon,
Ghostty

moretech

I sure agree with Ghostty above . This kind of thing is so uncalled for. Just no sense for a problem like this.

moretech

Ghostty

One question came to my mind - is this the only proper way to fix it? They have a whole system that tells them how to take apart/put together parts. Many people here on forum have that system, can't remember right now the name (it's not SDS, maybe DAS? XENTRY?)

Another thing - if possible - contact another dealer and see what he'll say. If they'll confirm that welding is the only way - you won't have a choice. If not - the first have to fix it.

Regards

Rudeney

OK, looking at this:

http://benzbits.com/r230/DoorCheck.pdf

I really don't see what they could break that would require welding unless they stripped out the captive nuts on the A pillar (where bolts #3 in the diagram attach). In that case, the solution would be to re-tap the nuts for a larger size bolt. And if they did do this, they should be responsible for the repair - broken nuts and bolts are usually the techs fault (over-torquing) but even if they broke due to a defect, that would be factored into the book rates charged. For example, if it takes an extra two hours to fix this, they figure 1 job out of 10 will have an issue, so they add an extra ~15 minutes to the book rate to compensate.

James M Carroll

sorry I disappeared, major computer problems.


So... the dealer is willing to fix this however they can not seem to order the correct bolts, nuts.


Does anyone know if the "captive Nuts" can be accessed / so they can be replaced. I don't understand how the dealer messed this up so badly.


Originally only one bolt was loose, but they managed to mess up both, as they tried to replace both with the wrong bolts!


I have asked them to find out from Germany, but they seem to think they can figure this out themselves. I really don't trust them to correct the problem....


any suggestions what I should do?
JMC

moretech

I cannot begin to tell you how mad I'd be if some dealer mechanic has such a low knowledge of his product that he cannot put a bolt in right and cause such a mess. I hope it all comes out ok for you. I am guessing "captive" means the nuts are welded in place on the back side of the pillar and he stripped them out with the wrong threaded bolts. Unless there is some access to the area where the nuts are located from beneath the car this could be tough to solve. I'm sure going to remember this thread for a long time as how things can go really to pot.

moretech