TheVoid

All,

Just wanted to share my story and see if anyone else has experienced the same.

It all started about 2 and 1/2 weeks back when I was driving my e63 to get some dinner with my wife and son. Stopped at a red light and the car started to idle rough as if it wasn't firing on all cylinders. The check engine light came on and began to flash. I put the car into neutral and gave it a little gas to see if it would clear up and it was clear that there was an issue. I drove it right home (less than 2 miles) and waited for Monday morning as the dealerships in Dallas are closed on Sunday's. Monday morning came around and I called the dealership who informed me that I may have just gotten some bad gas. I bought this as I had just filled my tank so I went out to my garage and started my car. It ran perfect! I got dressed for work and stated to head into the office and within 10 minutes it started to exhibit the same issues again. I was at a red light so I waited for the green and tried to make it to a parking lot so I could have it towed in. As soon as I gave it gas it poured huge amounts of white some out the exhaust.

Guess what... Water and oil don't mix well...

Fast forward two weeks and I finally get a call back from the dealership who inform me that a bolt on one of the heads broke and filled the right cylinders with water. Rods were bent, the belt was all but torn from the pulleys, the head cracked around the bolt, blah blah blah...

I have just over 26000 miles and now have a rebuilt engine. Anyone ever heard of an issue like this or experienced anything similar?

Tom_Boy

No, not at all. I have an 08 with 32K miles. Been rock-solid. Odd things do happen. Sounds like they just put in a whole new long block assembelly versus attempting to rebuild that whole mess huh?

TheVoid

No idea what they have done to fix it. I'll find out tomorrow when I pick it up. I won't be real happy if they rebuilt it without replacing the core components..heads, all the rods, etc. I told them I wanted a compression test report so I can make sure I haven't lost any power.

All I can say is that this really sucks!!!

MB_Forever

Oh man.... sorry to hear about that bro

Did you have anybody work on the car before the incident? I can't imagine the bolt breaking so soon, so easily

_AMG_

Sorry to hear about that, its actually quite surprising because the M156 is built like a nuclear bunker. Your engine shouldn't have this type of problem at 26K miles.
Did the dealer say why the block and the bolt were cracked?

DAGREEKNYC

i would figure that the bolt was over torqued if it cracked around the head. cracked bolt and head ? you might of had a blown head gasket and those techs broke a bolt trying to remove or when they tried to reinstall the head .

as long as its under warranty you are in good shape but i would want to see the old head that was replaced and hope that they didnt try and JB weld it .

I have lost faith in most Dealership techs , especially since they are independant shops .

Zax63

The good news is that the guy who originally overtorqued the head bolt signed his name to the engine. I can see the call now... "Ah, Gunther, ve need to talk...SCHNELL!"

sknight

That signed engine stuff is mostly marketing at this point.

220S

My assumption has been that it was always about marketing. No doubt "one man, one engine" was thought up in a Daimler board meeting. I don't think Melcher or Aufrecht would have ever come up with that slogan.

sknight

And the failure won't go back to anyone. It's simply an engine failure, and it's not like there is a strict limited edition nature. They will make as many are ordered.

Jakpro1

Let us know what they ended up doing with the motor. Kinda curious over here. It's my understanding that on something newer like an 09, it should be an entire engine replace and not rebuild.

sknight

Quick question- these are the one time use only hollow bolts, right?

Yuille36

Yes, as the bolts are torqued they stretch. One time use, just like ARP fasteners.

Staff@RPM

ARP fasteners are not 1 time use bolts. They can be used over and over as long as they are installed correctly.

infantry

Wow man, sorry to hear that. 07 e63 here with 54k miles and not a problem except a slight cracked motor mount which got replaced under warranty, and the worthless chrome AMG wheels cracked on me.

Busta Riles

Regardless, only one guy puts the engine together, & it's the same guy who puts his name on it.

220S

I thought that MBUSA doesn't allow rebuilds at the dealer level period and requires a crated motor be brought in as a replacement. I easily could be wrong but I thought my service manager said something to that effect.

Jon2007E63P30

I am probably one of the highest mileage M156 guys here.

70K miles at this point and never a problem.

black05scamg

no i got 72k on mine runs strong

sunil517

installed new KNN and so far No CEL
I still can not believe head gasket going bad with such low miles. I can see that on a E55 with boost.
My BMW had a bad VVC valve (same as a PVC) and they told me the piston ring was shot new motor> I took the car home. BMW M5 message board told me to change CCV 80 bucks later I am running strong. Dealers are just out to make $ and don't car about you or your car.
It could of been something small and they saw $ signs for wrnty repair and said let change the motor. Who knows.

NCE500

+1. I have seen very few M156 engine issues posted here, and would expect that MB would replace your engine with a new one, based on your description of symptoms, provided you are under MB warranty.

Very interested to hear the outcome of your ordeal, I hope that things turn out satisfactory for you.

sknight

That's a bit farfetched, the reason is, on a warranty, especially an expensive one, they are bound by Mercedes' instructions and can not deviate from them, even if the technician has a solution. A friend of mine had that for the M5 problems way back, and they flat out refused to allow him to do the fix he knew would work, without mechanical intervention. The dealer said the same thing because they don't want to risk losing reimbursement, and often times, that means, when the engine is removed, it's crated up, DO NOT DISASSEMBLE posted on it, then shipped back to HQ. In the long run, sometimes they see this as a way to reduce multiple visits and actually save in the long term. So even if the PCV was bad, Mercedes likely had an internal reason to request the engine and even has a process to exactly follow for the dealer- a protocol which is binding in order to get paid.

Vader13

I bought a Starmarked with an extended warranty on a Black 09 ML63 with 34K on it for 59K..before tx and all that..
Two weeks later the oil cooler failed and the engine blew up.
A few AMG techs all flew out, everyone was in a bit of a panic. I did not post the ordeal online as they did not seem to want online drama.
I met the builder, very cool guys.
So they even went into the trans and updated parts there.
The list of what they did is like a phonebook.
End of the day. I was out of the car for 4 weeks.
I got a brand NEW motor.
The bill was
72 THOUSAND Dollars..
Watch the oil coolers gents..
I am just breaking it in like any new motor, but this car screams...And I almost got a Range Rover Supercharged sport.

jpohl402

My friends 07 with 60 randomly, for no reason - had one of the pistons start knocking on the spark plug, shattering it.
Needless to say it caused some damage....

Speedriven1

Nor would they have wanted to! It may be sacrilege, but anyone (ANYONE) can have a bad day or be preoccupied with something else - I wouldn't want a "bad day" engine, you know? And you can sort of see it: some of the cars are just stronger than others, which doesn't really happen as much with the 350s or 550s or (further back) the 500s.