Skeeter

It isn't just the fact that they are screwing me over the repair cost. That's a BIG part of it of course. But it is also the fact that they've marked my car with the 'Status 8'. Granted I only have 3k miles left on the car, but I was planning on buying an aftermarket warranty and selling the car with the aftermarket warranty. OR trading the car in on a new benz. No dealer with take this car as a trade-in with the status 8. I asked and was told as much...

But meanwhile, yes, I'll have the lawyer (found a great one!) coordinate the repairs with an expert who will document the damage. Meanwhile, I'm going to rent as nice a car as I can find (nothing as nice as the E55, but it'll be better than my spare vehicle). MBUSA will have to repay me for rental costs if I win, as well as attorney fees.

The only question is what to do after the car is fixed. With ~4k left on the warranty, if it takes more than a few months to settle, I'm going to be in an awkward position. Can't sell the thing with the Status 8 and I don't want to go over 50k miles and run out of warranty (or what's left of it).

The lawyer said that MBUSA is notorious for hiring overly pushy lawyers at great expense, even if they have a terrible case. Said that I have a very clear cut case of bad faith denial of warranty. If the extra 18hp caused this big a failure they are still screwed b/c this suggests an engineering failure. Also, he'll be able to compel them to list every case of this problem on other E's, and I'm sure there will be plenty, all covered under warranty I'll bet.

But he did say that they grind you down and take a VERY long time to settle. Fine with me, I've already put my time in and will take this as long as it needs to go. They will loose and they'll be forced to pay expenses, so they are only hurting their own bottom line.

As an aside, I asked him who the best manufacturer was to deal with. He said that ALL the Germans were awful. He said MB is the worst, with BMW a close second, and that the only people who were reasonable were the reps from Toyota. Ugh. Guess I'll have to check into Lexus models and see what's cooking.

More to come...

Skeeter

alltrac

ya know...ive taken my 2004 with renntech pulley, ECU, headers, airbox, code3 heat exchanger and throttlebody, and lowered to the dealer multiple times with no problems whatsoever. Most of the techs and SA just admired it and asked how fast is it. Warranty work was done with no problems. Unbelieveable

Skeeter

Tell me about it! Add to this the fact that over half the Renntech dealers are MB FACTORY DEALERS! WTF?

Skeeter

Roehl

Wow, I just finish reading this thread from start to finish all the. This is one hot story for ABC7 eyewitness news to tell. Remember how ABC7 busted those Mobil Express Lube all over southern california?

From denying a warranty over a slyvania bulb to renntech pulley in which the dealer itself sells.

It's payback time!

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/feature?...tos&id=5788268

Skeeter

Roehl,

Now there's a good suggestion! I've actually had my company covered (in a positive way) by the ABC consumer reporter. I still have his contact info (direct phone #, email, etc) and should see if I can generate any press interest and negative (i.e. truthful) stories about MBUSA's position in denying warranty coverage and installing Renntech parts at the same time...

I'll put out some feelers next week.

Thanks for the thought,

Skeeter

BMWEATR

check this site out.

CWW

Bahaha....Oh this is a Fu$kin' CLASSIC...

One of the reviews on that site:

"The worst thing about this car was not the electrical issues but the leather/suede trim of the designo edition. This trim could not handle the high heat and humidity of Houston Texas, it smelled like cat's **** - The LA Times noted that this may have been caused by the glue MB used, regardless I was offered no compensation. I will always wonder if somehow an animal had relieved itself in the vehicle, but conversations with another owner of the same designo model (and also with the dealership's mechanics) confirm that this outrageous smell is widespread with the designo trim.

MB Fanatic

Any updates Skeeter?

TuneTime

all of this would of been advoided of the tech that was working on your car the day you brought it in for the subframe wasen't a nosey loudmouth.... I have seen it time and time again.... as soon as a modded MB rolls into the shop... its like little kids... everyone comes over to look, they rev it up.... like playing with a toy... and your luck the MBUSA field tech was there that day....

why was he looking that close at the pulley anyways.....

if it was me and i was the tech... i would of fixed the subframe made my hours and went home..... end of story...

answer is find the tech and ask him why he started this whole ****storm?

oh yeah... i have seen 1 car with the same problem... it was a 04 SL55.. the guy was complaining about a "looseness" in the rear of the car.... he had two bolts (out of 4)remaining in the rear subframe.... i jacked up the car and the back wheels were on the floor still... lol... and this car was bone stock...

Skeeter

Yes, they can (and DO) Status 8 your car. They did it to me without even looking at the pulley! saw the belt and assume the rest.

And folks, I could live with the status 8 if they held it to a strict code. But in my case, they allege that an extra 18H.P. caused a rear-axle bolt to tear from the subframe, snapping off the insert it bolts into.

Photos to come in my update page shortly...
Skeeter

jangy

I take it renntech isn't helping?

AMGfan

Skeeter...I feel your pain brother...I'm a status 8. As a matter fact, I did a small burnout at the service bay intake area yesterday (when I was picking up a license plate bulb for my S430) as a way to honor our scarlet number !

Their service manager gave me the evil eye...too bad.

jangy

I can't imagine being denied warranty, especially on something like this. What an a$$ of a service manager.

jcjmw

I agree. If the tech would have just kept his mouth shut, not only could all of this have been avoided but there still would be a returning customer for them to service.

stevebez

Hoo boy just finished this thread - well skimmed allot so might not be fully up to speed but...

Might have tried to get the car from them - put your stock pulley back and take it to another dealer and claim - "what are you talking about" regarding mods. Not ideal, or sit well morally but hey we are dealing with a-holes here so...

The other laternative is... get it fixed and move on. It seems to me a new bolt a re-thread of the body fixing and a helicoil insert and you are golden. This might take a few hours at the right shop. How much is 3 hours of your life worth vs xxxx many hours you are spending fighting them. You don't need any welding from what I can gather from your break. The other break mentioned is more severe in that the body piece was actually pulled off the car... that would need some surgically precise welding to get that right ... re seal the undercarriage from rust etc ... royal pain, but not beyond fixing.

I know... principles etc so you dont want them to get away with it etc... but when you mod you know they can pull the get out of jail card anytime really, warranted or not (pun intended).

Once your car is fixed, write a letter to MBUSA telling them what a simple job it was to fix 100%, and that further to you not buying any more MB's ... more than likely so will your faimiliy, friends etc... copy the ferking CEO himself.

May as well drop a hint that the pending class action law suit you are preparing for SBC brake failures, across ALL MB's with SBC, will land on their desk momentarily, as will a copy of your interview on Larry King live and Oprah Winfrey regarding the movie in the making about it. Along the lines of Elen Brokovich with obvious changes, where you are the hero taking on MB and winning... would be interesting to see their expression once they got the letter, and even better when the video and class action suit arrived...

In an ideal world I suppose... in the real world, maybe just get it fixed and sue for costs if it turns out to be substantial, and dont buy benz again. I dont think I will buy MB again... think I am off to Beemer/or P-cars...

You see, MB, one bolt and you're already lost 2 customers maybe more. Wake up you ferking marketing pencil pushers and get real.

adam28

I'm sorry to hear what has happened it is a real shame! I highly doubt it will go all the way to ligitation and I don't know if this has been mentioned before on this tread or not.. but in case you need it; here is the specific law.

The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act Federal law sets forth requirements for warranties and contains a number of provisions to prevent vehicle manufacturers, dealers and others from unjustly denying warranty coverage. With regard to aftermarket parts, warranty coverage cannot be denied simply because such parts are present on the vehicle. The warranty coverage cannot be denied unless the aftermarket part is proven to have caused the malfunction or damage.
Magnuson Moss Warranty Act
US Code - Title 15, Chapter 50, Sections 2301-2312 Legally, a vehicle manufacturer can not void the warranty on a vehicle due to an aftermarket part unless they can prove that the aftermarket part caused or contributed to the failure in the vehicle (per the Magnuson Moss Warranty Act (15 U.S.C. 2302(C)). If your vehicle manufacturer fails to honour the warranty, contact the FTC at (202) 326-3128 or www.ftc.gov .

Good luck with everything and keep us all posted!

e55 baller

Not sure if you did get a lawyer first but you must do this.

I had a 1994 Supra w/ after market warranty that lost compression at 50K miles. The warranty folks came out. Saw a mod and denied it.

I got a lawyer (sister in-law) and she wrote a letter on her firms letter head and they settled 2 weeks later.

I had a 2001 Audi S4 that had blow turbos at 30K miles. Came into get it repaired and they had the car for 40 days and then they denied it since they saw large after market brakes. I called Audi of America and got it straightened out that day and my rep who denied my warranty got canned.

Channel your fustration into action. This **** happens with any brand.

Tuskir

Just curious, but does anyone know why most service managers are so determined to deny warranty over every little thing. Do they get paid commissions on how much money the customers pay dealers or what? So it is in their personal interest to get customers to pay repairs (commissions) instead of Mercedes paying repairs (no commission)?

Skeeter

Hey everyone!

Sorry for the LONG lag in updates. I still need to play my cards close to the vest as I have good information that the enemy (MBUSA) is monitoring this thread, so I don't want to give the full story just yet. Through this entire process, MB has gone OUT OF THEIR WAY to screw me and run me around in circles. All my attempts to resolve this through polite and proper channels proved fruitless and immensely frustrating.

So yes, I ended up hiring a specialist lawyer who has tangled with MB several times. The good news is that the car is back on the road. I had the repairs made by a body shop that is used by local MB dealerships, paying out of pocket. Sure enough, they've fixed this exact failure, UNDER WARRANTY, on other E55's.

This entire debacle that has had me on the phone with MB for hours, had the E off the road for MONTHS while I tried in vain to prod MB into doing the right thing until I realized that they are so screwed as an organization that polite resolution was off the map.

The crowning irony is this: the dealership gave me a quote of around $4-5k to make this repair at the body shop they use. It turns out that this quote was based on the cost to repair another E55, which they mysteriously fixed UNDER WARRANTY. So I took my car to that same shop.

And it turns out that after ALL THIS DRAMA and BS, the repair cost a mere ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS to repair! $1k! I'll post pictures soon to show what work was done. But all this crap over ONE THOU?!

The other E55 that MBSF fixed under warranty was driven for a long time with the torn sub frame bolt, and the car ended up getting tons of additional damage (crushed differential, scraped up underbody, etc).

The actual sub frame insert repair was my only problem, since I took it in before any further damage occurred. ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS and I'm back on the road. The remaining ~$4k that MBSF told me I'd have to pay was based on lack of research by MBSF. And yet they covered THE ENTIRE BILL for the other E55, which suffered an identical failure and kept driving on the damaged part. Talk about screwed up...

If they'd told me it was a $1k fix, I'd have paid to have it done and never taken it in to begin with. But now it is too late: I have a 'Status 8' still and will push HARD to get recompense for the time, trouble, cost, and lost use/depreciation caused by the lousy service manager at MBSF and poor customer support at MBUSA. All this over a pulley swap that brought on a mere 5% increase in power.

Check out the photo of the part that failed and the new insert. Turns out the rear assembly bolts not to the sub frame itself, but to a big insert that goes into the sub frame. That's what failed. Looks like a bad part that wasn't welded together properly. I'm guessing that this is less rare a failure than the dealership tried to make me believe. All parties who looked at the part agree that there is NO WAY that the pulley was at all involved, so let's see what comes of my legal action...

Skeeter

Skeeter

Oh, and those are not my scary fingernails holding the old and new part I was taking the photo.

Skeeter

SLK55R

Too funny skeeter ... I was about to remark about the fingernails!

Good luck it looks like you have all your ducks in a row and should be able to win this one!

MB_Forever

I hope you hit them hard skeeter. It is completely un-acceptable to treat a loyal customer like that I think the dealership is more to blame than MBUSA since it seems that the fault might've been due to one of their techs messing up on your previous visit. However, MBUSA denied warranty over the phone without even sending someone to examine the damage

Now, this will probably cost them more in litigation and/or settlement.

Fast55

Well, I do hope you are correct and that MBUSA is monitoring this thread. I already know that there's no way I'm keeping the 55 when the lease is up next year. I'll be happy to bring this up as soon as the hard sell starts (yeah, it makes sense for me to keep the 55, I'll only have to pay 10-20K more than it's worth). Anyone want a Kleemann pulley for cheap next January?

1985mb

Wow

best of luck to the OP

D Bst

Fantastic update news... glad you are back enjoying the beast..

However.... makes me wonder if we shouldn't all be crawling under the rear of the car to check this exact thing... It could be one of us with this problem down the road....

Wonder if MB will issue a TSB some time in the future... could be a whole mess of lawsuits based on what I see here in this thread, what you've "discovered", and what the consequences could be for someone who has a problem driving down a congested freeway @ speed?

Keep us posted..