I originally back in April at the start of all this took my 03 E55 into a repair shop for installation of a new harmonic balancer. Picked the car up 3 days later and made it no more than 5 miles out of the shop before the balancer spun off the nose of the crank. Trying to avoid litigation I had hoped the shop could repair keyway and install a new balancer. 6 weeks later I pick the car up from the shop and make it once again no more than 5 miles from the shop and my engine seizes. Had the car towed to Mercedes and they discovered: (see attached photos). The repair shop changed out the engine oil without my consent but refused to produce paperwork for it as it was “done as a favour”. Truth is that when they decided to use a dremel tool to try and remove the remaining pieces of woodruff key they also sent a bunch of metal shaving into the exposed oil pan. Not only that, but here they changed out the oil they failed to remove both drain plugs, yet still added the maximum 8.5 litres of fresh oil to the engine (hence
why Mercedes found such an excessive amount of oil in the engine. It is now going through the courts and the defendant has completely fabricated a story saying that he never changed the oil on the car etc.... As you’ll see
in the photos he had reset the service D interval which corresponds with the mileage on the one receipt which I could get out of him (I drove the car 6 kilometres out of his shop before it seized and the odometer now stands as shown) for a new battery. He is also claiming that the pulley spun off the crank because the bolt I supplied was “faulty”. Any tips or advice from anyone who has gone through something similar would be greatly appreciated. After the first incident I was suspicious of him such that I recorded audio of our conversation regarding the failed balancer installation. I have been advised that this will be accepted as evidenced. Please
listen to the audio recording which I have posted on YouTube, especially the last 30 seconds where he blatantly admits to not having either the proper torque wrench, or crankshaft holding tool to do the job properly. The case goes to court late February.

 

Not understanding the oil issue. If he just reset the indicator and did not touch the oil, what did he do exactly.
And if he did not have the tools the first time and lied, well he won't have the tools the second time I would think.
If the engine locked up....it's all done and you can only replace it and part it out or fix it . Either way you need another shop because these guy's have no clue.

 

Added a few more details to the initial post. They did in fact change the oil, without my consent, as they were attempting to hide the evidence of oil shavings which fell into the exposed oil pan when they took the dremel tool to the crank snout. They refused to provide paperwork for the oil change saying it was “done as a favour”. I went down there after the engine seized and tried to muscle it out of them, which is when they threatened to call the cops. It was at this time that I got in touch with legal representation. The correlation between the mileage noted on the one invoice which I did get out of them and the service due as well as current odometer readings I am hoping will be enough to prove that they in fact had to have been the ones to reset the interval. The story they have fabricated is that I picked the car up, drove it for a week, and then came back to have just a battery installed. Truth is that the car never left their shop in between. I put 6 Km on it since that oil was changed out and the engine seized.

 

Wow...I would be sick to my stomach. That's significant damage, sadly so many of these cars have suffered from crank snout damage over the years from inexperienced mechanics or owners.

I seriously commend you for keeping your composure during the recording, also surprised the mechanic was not overly defensive, he is going to rely on the Amazon bolt being his line of defense.

I wish you the very best of luck.

 

I’m hoping that my email correspondence with the supplier of the the bolt as well as the statement from Mercedes Benz regarding installation of the balancer will be evidence enough to quash any myths that the bolt was faulty. The fact that he states he “should have just re-used the old bolt” should be evidence enough to prove his incompetence to an expert witness.

 

Also, it is to my understanding that unless the mechanic has the customer sign off on liability for supplying their own parts (which in this case they did not), responsibility still falls upon the repair shop who installed the parts.

 

The shop will most likely be held liable for damages.

 

Better make sure you can legally record someone without their consent before posting this on the internet. Some states don’t allow this.

 

No offense but I have to ask....Why did you go back after they screwed up the first time. There's no way I would have trusted them to do a crank repair if they can't even put a simple pulley on. They are going to drag this out forever.

 

I just read something about this is Road & Track, how you should shut off your dash cam audio when taking a car in for service because even that audio could be deemed illegal depending on where you are.

 

Don't worry he is in Canada... that place is like the Wild West.

 

wow this is sad...this mechanic knows nothing about mercedes. he must work on a lot of honda's and toyota's where you can just gun the crank bolt in.

sorry this had to happen to you.