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I’m not gonna post too much information right now as I am going through the process.
I have about four months left on my warranty and really have not used it except for motor mounts and an expansion tank (because they offered) years ago, but I wanted to get everything buttoned up that are projects that I can’t do myself. This weekend my heater control coupler broke, so I took her in with a list of a few other things and the process has started.
I’m working with my local Mercedes dealer that is about a mile away and I’ve never worked with them before except to buy parts so I went in and introduced myself to the service director and let him know about my warranty and how **** I was and then we connected with one of the service advisors who has been awesome to work with so far. I’m not pushy in terms of timeline or anything like that because I know it’s a process and ultimately going to be an expensive claim. I have timeline pictures which helped, and after the initial inspection, he took me back into the shop to chat with the AMG tech that was working with the vehicle. We did have a debate about one of the issues, but because of my pictures, that was ironed out.
For reference, I have a platinum exclusionary warranty where basically anything that is not a wear item is covered.
As a sidenote, the service director, as well as the service advisor had only great things to say about Fidelity and reinforced that it was backed by a very large dealer group, which I am aware of from my LX side of my hobby.
I’ll update as I go along, but that will probably be sometime next week.
Last edited by Baltistyle; Jun 5, 2025 at 03:26 PM.
2015 SL400 (M276 Turbo), 2014 C350 Sport (M276 NA), 2004 SL500 (M113), 2004 Audi TT225 (BEA)
Wow! Engine mounts were covered? I thought they would be considered a wear item. I have Endurance and will take a look at my contract. (I have had both good and bad experiences with them, but I agree, I have heard Fidelity is one of the best.)
Yes the mounts were covered, no questions asked. They were even hard for Mercedes to diagnose at the time because they were just at failure and it wasn’t very evident until they actually had the mount in their hand that it had failed.
Currently during this appointment, I’m just waiting for the fidelity adjuster to take a look at the vehicle.
Every contract can be a little bit different, but this is the summary of the exclusionary policy from Fidelity’s website. For those that are unaware, what an exclusionary policy means, it means everything is included in less specifically listed as not included in the contract.
Last edited by Baltistyle; Jun 6, 2025 at 08:49 PM.
How old is the Fidelity warranty policy? My understanding was that they usually go about 10 years old to cover vehicles, you have a 2013?
It was a ‘13 purchased in ‘19 with 42k. The policy was for an additional six years or additional 75,000 miles. I currently have about 73,000 miles on the vehicle. My warranty runs out in September. I did reach out to Trenton to see if I would be able to extend it again if I wanted and he said I should be good to extend it again. I have not done that yet because I wanted to see how this repair goes.
So, a little update. Sorry for the rant...TLDR ; all repairs covered.
This has taken a little bit longer than expected. The Friday before last an inspector came to verify the repairs needed and everything seemed good to go. Unfortunately, that inspector who is a third party, never handed in the finalized inspection report. After a few days of back and forth trying to find the inspector, and Fidelity trying to send a new inspector, nothing was moving forward. During this time I was letting the SA handle the communication but they were getting nowhere. I called up Fidelity and did not get a good answer as to what was going on, but being an SOP driven person, that was not acceptable to me so I politely and forcefully asked for resolution. Yesterday I was promised a resolution but that did not come so today I got on the phone again because even the MB service director could not get through to anyone that could help. Everyone involved said this was very atypical of Fidelity and could not understand what was happening in the background. Todays call started with my explanation that I needed to speak to a senior supervisor with the power to make things happen and would not accept a call back, email or transfer to anyone else, because all of those options had already been tried. Im sure the lady on the phone today was not thrilled with my methods but I waited it out and continued to talk in their circles until a supervisor actually became available for direct transfer, 40 minutes later. Needless to say, I went in hot which was not met well by the supervisor. My reality is that I dont need people to apologize or explain the process to me ten different ways, I just need someone to execute direction and have accountability. Well, after a long wait on hold, which I asked for, the supervisor came back with great news. What happened was completely atypical and not in their control due to the third party inspection businesses being non communicative. The supervisor immediately called the dealership and had them do a remote inspection and very quickly after that, all repairs were approved. Im happy to walk through the process but it should be easier for people that might not be as aggressive as I was today. I thank the original CS lady for bearing with me today since she could have played the transfer game. There was clearly a solution to my issue last week but it was not communicated. I get that they have to follow their procedures but also feel those procedures should take into account when their third party fails and there should be a time period for resolution built into the process.
So while this was a little bit bumpy, Fidelity is picking up a rather large bill with no questions asked and no real hassle. Im very happy to have purchased this warranty. The dealer has been great to work with and I now hope all the repairs go smoothly.
The repairs in for warranty are, rear axle seal, coolant false control valve (at rear of engine), and the big one which was a leaking oil pressure solenoid harness. All approved, easy peasy. With the Platinum exclusionary policy I knew these would be approved but its always relieving when they actually say so.
Ill report back after I see the damages. So far, 29 hours of labor approved. Thanks Fidelity!
Great thread. rl’ers have good things to report about Fidelity.
M157 engine, correct?
yes, it’s a 2013 e63 wagon. Roughly 73k miles. I’ve kept it basically stock with no tuning, intake or exhaust and changed oil more than every 3k and do all other small preventive repairs as needed even if the warranty may cover if the items broke. For me, the warranty is to cover larger repairs over a grand or heavy (literally) lifting. I think my deductible is only 50 bucks but I do like maintaining the car myself. I try to keep it so that there’s no reason to ever deny a contractually covered repair. I organized all of my maintenance info though it was never requested. I also have pictures upon discovery of issues, which can help.
I’ve almost always had a warranty on a used car and have dealt with the good and the bad, including one company that went bankrupt back in 2009ish. Ive never owned a new car so warranty brings peace of mind on these vehicles that have expensive engines and transmissions. I’ve not run into one person that’s had anything bad to say about Fidelity when they understand the contract and that is a rare feat.
Personally I also think it’s important to ask the service manager of the shop if they work with and are comfortable with the warranty company. I did check with my Indy and they didn’t want to deal with the large job with a company they didn’t know but since this was a much bigger job, it’s best handled by Mercedes or a partner dealer, and everything has been smooth so far.
For locals, I’ll share the dealer upon resolution of the repairs.
Now to consider the new contract. I plan on keeping this car a long time and think the gamble is worth it. This time it paid 3x in five years. I’m a normal guy so this is a great outcome. I haven’t even had to ask what it’ll cost and have a few other things being done as well just cause it’s there.
At the time I purchased my car, my indy (a different indy since I have a few) had a connection at Mercedes that allowed me to purchase it at 100 dollars over cost and then I paid 1000 down and the balance over the next 24 months. Buying the warranty from the dealership was important for me in order to make the connection and have faith in them standing behind the warranty. I had not had a Fidelity warranty previously and wanted to reduce my risk.
Knowing that I will have to re-up the contract soon, I reached out to Trenton at the end of last year to see of I would be able to continue my coverage due to the cars age and in service date. At that time Trenton checked and said I would be good to go. When it comes time in August, I will reach back out to him, and transparently, the Mb dealer I am currently working with. I do wonder what effect this repair has on the cost of the extension vs if if I had extended in December.
During this process I thought about reaching out to Trenton but also knew it would need me likely speaking to the decision maker. I also only like to use/rely resources that Ive paid for if that makes sense. I would say there is a definite benefit to having an advocate on your side, especially if working the process is new for the consumer. Similar to how a lawyer may advise not to do anything until you talk to them, the advocate can lead you through the most painless path since generally the warranty companies do not directly communicate with the customer.
Last edited by Baltistyle; Jun 17, 2025 at 07:24 PM.
Interesting that your Benz dealer would sell a 3rd party warranty.
Most dealerships have a 3rd party warranty provider as an option for non OEM vehicles in on trade or OEM vehicles that fall out of manufacture or CPO warranty coverage.
I still have active Fidelity Platinum exclusionary warranty on my '14 Wagon until late Dec '25 bought almost 5 years ago at 38K miles. It currently has 51K and not one single claim.
Any tips on how to get car inspected before it expires?
I still have active Fidelity Platinum exclusionary warranty on my '14 Wagon until late Dec '25 bought almost 5 years ago at 38K miles. It currently has 51K and not one single claim.
Any tips on how to get car inspected before it expires?
Id say to take it to the place you would have it repaired, let them know about your warranty and get it fully inspected for anything that may be covered. Make sure they work with Fidelity regularly. I specifically went in for three items I knew about from my own inspection but the SA being a good SA offered the inspection because they understood I walked in with basically an open checkbook.
it’s important to read the contract, and then take a general look over your car. Since you have a platinum contract, there’s many things that might be covered that you’re not thinking about. And sometimes the argument could be that the part is not failed so it is not covered, but there is a fine line between failure and not performing as designed. For example, technically, my oil solenoid didn’t fail, but the connection to it did, and technically the connection and the electronics did not fail, but clearly the part was not designed to leak.
I needed to edit this because it’s an interesting side fact that the higher level tech there did not think that the solenoid was leaking and that it was coming from the camshaft position sensors. I told him that I’ve replaced those sensors and cleaned the harness in the past so the leak was truly from that area. Their initial check for the leak involved only pulling the harness off the ECU, but since there was no infiltration and no code, I had to push with my pictures. Basically the pigtails are only made for the camshaft sensors because it’s not believed that the magnets and the oil pressure solenoid harness can also leak. All of the sensors and magnets have leaked on my car. I think we should somehow lobby Mercedes for the two pin pigtails, which I’ve already purchased aftermarket, but it’s not something Mercedes would install, which I understand so it’d be nice to have an OEM part as well.
Last edited by Baltistyle; Jun 17, 2025 at 10:27 PM.
Interesting that your Benz dealer would sell a 3rd party warranty.
Since each car I’ve purchased has been used, the dealers have always offered a warranty product that is not factory. It’s a way to continue to feed their service departments. I’ll also add that I bought this from a local Benz dealer that is not where I’m getting it serviced and not where I purchased the vehicle, merely purchased the warranty. I did take it there for the motor mounts, but the friends no longer work at that facility, which is why I wound up at this new one. When I first learned of Fidelity from my friend, a pro mechanic, I assumed it was related to Mercedes but actually it’s related to one of the largest Toyota dealer networks.
Last edited by Baltistyle; Jun 17, 2025 at 10:17 PM.
I still have active Fidelity Platinum exclusionary warranty on my '14 Wagon until late Dec '25 bought almost 5 years ago at 38K miles. It currently has 51K and not one single claim.
Any tips on how to get car inspected before it expires?
Fidelity coverage is for "mechanical breakdown", so in order to have repairs made and covered by the warranty coverage, there needs to be a documented, legitimate issue. Customers complaining about a noise or squeak even while the part is in perfect mechanical condition will not see replacement covered.
Still working through it as some parts had to be ordered and a space needed to clear up on the rack. I should have it back tomorrow.
since they were removing my intake during this repair, I asked if they would walnut blast my valves, but this Mercedes dealership does not do that. The other day I got to thinking I should ask if they will just do a little bit of cleaning of the valves if indeed they were very dirty and basically said whatever they will do is better than nothing..They used some solvent but I don’t think they were going to make them “spotless”. It’s hard for me to show the after pic from the video they sent but here is a picture of the before cleaning. The after pic I could see them 90-95 percent cleaner and don’t know when in the process they took the video so I’ll have to ask them how in depth they actually went. They had issues sending pics through the internal system so I don’t want to be a pain. 73k mile below.
You might have to adjust the brightness or contrast on your phone to really see how nasty they were. The picture was taken in live mode, and I wasn’t sure how to capture when it was bright if you are familiar with Apple phones..
Afterwords
Last edited by Baltistyle; Jun 26, 2025 at 11:03 AM.
They look indeed 95% cleaner - well played, you're definitely in it for the long haul and doing it right
Thanks. Its been weighing on me as to whether to diy. I knew they were dirty from a boroscope inspection and if you remember my thread about cylinder walls, I had two drafty cylinders and have been working on getting the rings clean. When monitoring my cam adaptations, the left bank, which was dirtier, has a few degrees of adjustment while the right side has virtually none. Ive seen this reported by other users but not really delved into much since very few if any have gotten the check engine light due to a reluctor ring, on our engines. Cleaning was a first step to monitoring whether this is reluctor ring related, or adjuster related, dirty intake related. I figured if I could get it cleaned/cleaner, and offer to pay (which im not sure they will even charge me for) it would be less expensive than any alternative in the future and/or would save me from probably two days of work. I do wonder if there is actually a useful catch-can but I think thats still debatable as to its efficacy in our engines. I also think that with the change in oil chemistry for gdi engines, and other ways we have figured out how to oil them better will create results better than the first 70k.
Thanks. Its been weighing on me as to whether to diy. I knew they were dirty from a boroscope inspection and if you remember my thread about cylinder walls, I had two drafty cylinders and have been working on getting the rings clean. When monitoring my cam adaptations, the left bank, which was dirtier, has a few degrees of adjustment while the right side has virtually none. Ive seen this reported by other users but not really delved into much since very few if any have gotten the check engine light due to a reluctor ring, on our engines. Cleaning was a first step to monitoring whether this is reluctor ring related, or adjuster related, dirty intake related. I figured if I could get it cleaned/cleaner, and offer to pay (which im not sure they will even charge me for) it would be less expensive than any alternative in the future and/or would save me from probably two days of work. I do wonder if there is actually a useful catch-can but I think thats still debatable as to its efficacy in our engines. I also think that with the change in oil chemistry for gdi engines, and other ways we have figured out how to oil them better will create results better than the first 70k.
as you know, cleaning the valves and walnut blasting is so rarely discussed on this forum, I have about two threads linked in the sticky on that, but no real feedback on people who have had it done or cleaned the valves and then reported back performance gains or return to baseline performance.
I'll be real interested to see if you see improvements when you log your car now that these valves have been cleaned. Wishing you good vibes.
as you know, cleaning the valves and walnut blasting is so rarely discussed on this forum, I have about two threads linked in the sticky on that, but no real feedback on people who have had it done or cleaned the valves and then reported back performance gains or return to baseline performance.
I'll be real interested to see if you see improvements when you log your car now that these valves have been cleaned. Wishing you good vibes.
Thanks for the vibes. The only oddness Ive noticed when scanning is the adaptation of the cams, as well as one slightly "off" but in range o2 sensor. Ill be correcting that o2 once I get the car back. For the valves, Ive always found it odd that its not discussed more and while the engines may be more tolerant than other brands, the valves were definitely very dirty. I can only assume that cleaning the valves will offer a considerable flow improvement for combustion. Considering how tightly tuned the cars are from the factory and that there are now new designs for dual injection or procedures for chemical cleanings from new, I think its been realized dirty valves are bad. Thinking, back in the day and sometimes these days you have people still porting their engines for all the flow they can get and you can be sure their intake valves are not blocked by carbon. Then lastly, some will have the argument for the reason of the dirty valves but the reality is that many many engines like this have drafty rings so they also have dirty valves. Ive done everything to chase my oil use and it just uses oil the way I drive, and that oil winds up leaving in a round about way through the intake.
Peter, on the Facebook group today, others shared some pics of similarly dirty valves. I literally just joined and that was the topic.
In other news, I still dont have the car back which I thought might happen today. The tech has been very thorough and found some other items to replace that are under warranty. A temp sensor, a pinion seal, and oil cooler seal. there's very little access in the front of our engines so being that its hard to inspect, I had not noticed the sensor or oil cooler issues. the pinion seal I thought was dry but when doing the axle seal they must have noticed something.
Last edited by Baltistyle; Jun 27, 2025 at 07:30 PM.
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