ZHH

I was driving through my local MB dealer today (Knauz in Lake Bluff, IL) and I happened to see a new silver E55. I got out and took a peak inside to see a note taped to the steering wheel stating "DO NOT START ENGINE!", I've seen this before on a friend's M coupe, but his engine had blown. It seems to me like something must have went horribly wrong with the car's engine. I didnt get a chance to ask a tech what happened, but do any of you have any insight on the subject, or perhaps is the owner of that car on this board? It got me scared to say the least...

kaneman

It could've just been there to stop people from starting the engine just to hear it...

absent

Unfortunately,it is my car,that's all I can say at the moment,since I'm in the middle of talks with MBUSA.
(and yes,You can not start the engine for fear of more damage)

Turbo2

absent-
Interested to hear more about this...please let us know what happened and what happens once your done talking to MBUSA.

Thanks

E55 KEV

Sorry to hear that absent! Hope it is just something minor and easily overlooked.

JAYCL600

We are all very interested in your response, did you have the RENNtech ECU and pulley installed before "malfunction"?

absent

Absolutely stock,and it is as serious as it can get

Dr Chill

What were the symptoms?

Pbglas

Sorry Absent. If you do not get responsible treatment from MB, please let us know. We might change our minds about buyng MB products.

At any rate let us know.

absent

I let you all know what happened,after this thing is resolved.
I'm curious myself as far as how they going to respond,considering I spend almost 0.5 mln$ on their cars since 2001.

jpb5151

Hey Absent, did Poch talk you into doing burnouts or something?

I'm hoping they'll just slide you into an '04 E55. Problem is, MB knows they'll make more money in the short term by selling that '04 instead of doing the right thing. Best of luck, hope it turns out well.

absent

No burnouts,no abuse(yet),happened at a stoplight(blocked the intersection,had to push the car off to the side as to not to block the traffic-embarassssssssing!!!!!)
Engine not repairable,cause not yet fully known,no response yet from MB.
Dealer so far sympatethic.

Turbo2

This doesn't bode well for Mercedes, it seems like MB's quality is going towards the Chrysler side. I got to drive a Pacifica for about an hour today at work, I must say I have never been a big fan of American cars or given them too much credit, but the Pacifica was really well made, the materials inside were top notch. Obviously reliability has yet to been tested, but I was pleasantly suprised.

Good Luck with your situation and let us know the full details and how it all turns out.

reb13

Wow Absent, I think we all feel for you. Nothing worse than having such a great, new car and having to push it out of the way. I understand that you want to keep details to a minimum while you are working with MBUSA -- hopefully they will do the right thing. In the meantime, for those of us about to take delivery (my car will be born on June 30), is this something that should make us reconsider? Did Knauz say anything about hearing of similar problems, etc?

absent

It seems to be a freak malfunction nobody heard before.
Shouldn't stop anybody from buying E55,could happen to any car.
It's the future action and response from MB that will either make me happy or turn me off completely from any future purchases from them.

Crankin

Is it kompressor related or internal to the engine, if you can tell?

absent

Until they take it completely apart it's a pure speculation.

kaneman

Unfortunately it can happen with any model... I recall a few instances when I participated on the bimmer.org (pre-Roadfly) M5 board with a few '00 M5s where engines catastrophically failed within a short time after delivery. It just really really stinks when it happens to you. BMW in one case replaced the car and I believe in another replaced the engine. Were it me, I'd push for total replacement of the car with a loaner E500 to drive in the meantime.

reb13

I see, and you want them to replace the car with a new one (without the wait). That's absolutely what they should do. Good luck and thanks for the explanation.

mbprince

or fly over your friendly AMG, one man one engine, dude and put him to work!!!

on second thought - not the 'same' guy that built your engine!!!

kaneman

Musta been 'have a Warsteiner with lunch' day...

Dr Chill

I think public flogging of the man on your engine plaque is in order. Sorry to hear of your misfortune. Anything less than a new vehicle quickly in my mind is unsatisfactory. I'm not sure I'd be satisfied with a new engine unless it's of the 500+ hp variety.

absent

If the car was really used,had at least 5-10k miles,I would accept a new engine and be happy.
But on a car barely 1 week old with just 700 miles,only a replacement would be satisfactory.(still no response from MB)

Dr Chill

Each regional sales manager has one vehicle a month not spoken for. They had better step up to the plate pretty soon.

absent

My dealer got an email stating that MB is sending a new engine directly to them ,airfreight from Germany.
I am not a happy camper,not sure how it will affect resale value,especially considering the fact I like to trade cars before they reach 10k miles.