2012 merc amg

Yesterday when I stopped for gas on the way to Florida I started pulling leaves and all sorts of things out of the intercooler housings and the radiator housing, these things pick up all sorts of road debris, even pulled out part of a orange parking light lens I probably picked up in NY. At least in Florida it will probably be only occasional palm tree debris. There were a lot of leaves on the road in New England with the trees shedding. If I were to do that type of driving a lot I'd think about putting mesh screen over these openings.

bobblehead

I agree. But for sure, this kind of mesh will have to be a diy .. buying a piece of wire mesh and cut into size and then zip-tied to some kind of support. For sure, there are aftermarket maker for this kind of things right now.

2012 merc amg

Not the worlds greatest design as is. I really wonder how these would fare driving in a snowstorm behind trucks and that sort of thing. Might get iced over in there

2 '02 S600

Yeah my wagon is a leaf sucker. I've cleaned out some leaves from the front a couple of times, hopefully those that I don't get out eventually disintegrate over time.

Pingupinktu

With all these probs really makes me thinking abt walking away from my car yet to be picked up... the maintenance pack/ELW quote from contacts listed in previous thread are so expensive it can afford a small car on its own!

otakki

Exactly what I mentioned on one of the threads about this car when it first came out.

I was just thinking 2 days ago: Is there some kind of disposable nylon mesh material that can just be stretched over the front end and catch debris, ie finer fishnet?

Jonathan Reedy

Dude, super sick of seeing your post complaining about this car every single day. Give it a rest or trade it in. We get it, you have buyers remorse. Sell it or get over it but please for the love of god stop blasting this forum with your nitpicking.

Pingupinktu

The man has legitimate concerns and findings. I don't think he's alone in experiencing these issues. The car was meant for summer release, and drive on ultra flat and smooth German autobahn asphalt. Now for those in the northwest have to deal with gravels and salt grains mixed into the wintry mixture need to understand the risk of bringing their car out during these weather conditions.

There are plenty of almighty praises on YouTube and everyone is pretty sick of hearing abt that too 🙀

nynd

Agreed - these are legitimate concerns. Think of when a rock comes flying and hits the intercooler or rad just in the right spot. I wouldn't want to see that bill. Putting a mesh of some sort if ideal but I think there was issues where it reduces the airflow or disrupts the pattern such that it interferes with optimal cooling. Still - there has to be a nice idea where you can insert some rubber lined mesh that can block that area for protection. Other more complicated method would involve removing the bumper cover and working from the back end.

petee1997

All these what ifs. Get over it. It's just a car and what will happen, will happen. Until something happens enjoy the damn thing. If you are going to worry, worry about a semi hitting you at 75mph instead of a rock hitting a radiator.

2012 merc amg

Definitely a legitimate concern. I just scooped out a few more handfuls of leaves last gas stop. Now that I’m in Florida there are palm leaves mixed in too. I like the idea of the nylon mesh screen and will probably try that. It sure would be better than picking stuff out of those every fuel stop. For those that don’t do anything. Just wait and see what happens. In the good side I did some back road driving today and ya this car is a beast and does handle amazing. Much better than the CTS v wagon I use to have.

2012 merc amg

But I would not suggest this car for someone who is going to drive it in bad road conditions. If I lived in s area like that I’d drive a beater car winters or something.

2012 merc amg

Question.? Do u actually own one of these cars or are you just dreaming about owning one and only want to hear all the good things only?

Jonathan Reedy

I have not taken delivery yet, my wagon sits in Halifax as of now happy to compare features list if you'd like a pissing contest. My point is that you have half a dozen threads complaining about, in my opinion, exceptionally benign things. You have also openly admitted to buyers remorse. I want to hear about all aspects of the car which are important and relevant. The thread about the car with transmission issues is absolutely important and not looking to read rainbows, sunshine and puppy dogs.

But if you take a look back at the majority of your threads they are complaining about things like gas guzzling, too many buttons, plastic interior and leaves in the scoops. Put some nylon screen behind your inlet, take some pictures of that and make a thread about the action you took to remediate your issue. That's when these forums get fun. I look forward to the day that more of us have taken delivery and we can drown out the noise.

Hoping delivery day for me is mid November, will post pics then. Also, I live in the PNW and will be happily blasting up the sea to sky hwy to whistler every weekend, as she was meant to. Would be great to see your mods to fix the problem, looking forward to that thread!

Not an attack but look at is this way, if one of your employees in whatever line of business you are in came to you with problems only and no solutions wouldn't you fire or coach that person? If no other reason that to stop hearing the whining.

Blue63s

Hahaha Cant say I would call that a legitimate concern, Its like saying I hate my windshield because bugs die on it...You want no large vents that collect leaves get a Tesla


I drove the car at the AMG event in Victoria on the track, Its an unbelievable car, I still don't have my car so I should be the one complaining

Blue63s

This will be my winter beater and all around daily driver. I am sure it will be great in all conditions

2012 merc amg

I would say most people who are secure with themselves like my posts, I have provided a lot of useful information to a new owner of this car of things to be attentive with and useful information regarding things like gas mileage, bet most people did not know this car does not go into 4 cylinder mode with Distronic engaged, also as I thought with all the features this car has over the older models such as the 9 speed auto trans, the glide mode in the trans, the variable displacement and a smaller displacement motor it does infact get better gas mileage than the older models as I thought it would, I have proven that. As the car breaks in more I'm sure it will only get better. i have also given much useful information about break in of these cars, although people like you probably don't really care about that and when you go back to the dealer for warrantee claims because you were careless with things that you chose to ignore, you raise the price of these cars for the rest of us through warrantee claims that could have been avoided. You asked the profession I was in, I was a Quality Control Engineer within the Automotive field and am now retired. I was simply giving my honest impressions of this car in my threads and you got pissed off because I have my car and you don't.

thunderMB

These openings are a BIG PROBLEM.
Not just hypothetically, but in fact.
My car was 6 days old, driving on a very clean highway in October (ie. ideal conditions). A 1/2 inch stone popped onto the small rad on the passenger side, puncturing the radiator. Got a low coolant warning. Rad needed replacement. Fortunately I was near a gas station so I could buy anti freeze and keep topping it up to allow me to get to a safe spot.
All 3 rads in the front are way too exposed.
My solution (ugly though it is, as I was in a hurry) is shown on the attached photo.
Mercedes is irresponsible for allowing this car to go out this way. It's a bloody everyday driving car, not some garage queen that ill never be driven (and as my car demonstrated , it only took 6 days in perfect driving conditions to puncture the aluminum rad). By the way, both my C63 and AMG GTS have protective grills on their corresponding openings - see photo -silver car is my GTS).

2012 merc amg

Wow smart move. Are those wire mesh screens? How did you secure them in? I’m doing the same thing ASAP. Just getting settled in Florida now. I just got to my house after a 3 day drive in the car last night. I’m lucky I did not get a punctured radiator too. I pulled out some orange parking lens plastic out of the drivers side intercoiler radiator. That stuff was sharp. These openings are debris magnets. But maybe we should not talk about it. Don’t want to agitate anybody here dreaming about how perfect these cars will be in there minds and not living in the real world of engineering and quality issues. All cars have their issues and that’s what these forums should be about. Your fix could save thousands of people from ending up in a bad situation. Thanks for posting.

PeterUbers

I think the op’s posts are well received and important

i like how he’s not just drinking the w213 koolaid and keeping it real

dont like it ?... ignore or move on

2012 merc amg

Thanks Peter. I was being sarcastic lol. I’m going to strongly recommend to Mercedes they start producing screens like these and install them as part of a TSB on these cars. We should not have a car where we are all spending over 100 grand on and start having to create our own modifications as easy as cutting screen may be. A lot of people won’t do it themselves and are going to run into issues.

thunderMB

Yes, just some chicken wire that I happened to have around.
A bit too flimsy, but at least easy to cut.
Unfortunately, since the shape of the openings are quiet complex, it would take a long time to fit properly measured home made screens.
I made cardboard templates, then cut the screen, then fastened it to the ribs just using wire. If you look you can see the fairly ugly wire fastening.
Note that Mercedes is not the only one to miss this fairly obvious issue. My last Porsche GT3 had a similar issue, but Porsche addressed it quite quickly and all subsequent cars came with a nice factory fitted screen with about 1./4 inch openings. See photo.
In fact many manufactures, such as Jaguar, use the wire screens as a differentiator on their "performance" cars.

E634Me

https://www.twpinc.com/wire-mesh-mat...tainless-steel

Think I'll order some when I get home and am waiting for the car to arrive back stateside. Then should be pretty simple to make a quick pattern and snip out a set of screens. After a few coats of primer and paint, I'll attach them with either some black tie wraps or some safety wire. I suspect the factory vents are some kind of plastic, and if so, the tie wraps might be the better choice as I'm worried that safety wire might cut through the vent grille material after some period of time and vibration.

2012 merc amg

Mercedes really needs to come out with customer screens available to everyone on these cars, I just spoke with Customer Service.

Vic55

This is just annoying, why should any of us (who didnt take part in the engineering process) even have to worry about something so obvious. I cant believe that we have to "jimmy rig" our cars to protect certain operational items. I am not McGyver nor should I be when paying for a 130k car.