diatoms

Hi everyone, first post on this forum. Hoping I can get somebody with more knowledge than I to comment, or if anybody has had similar or same experience, would love to hear about it. I live in the Toronto area and took delivery of a 2018 Edition 1 E63S in October 2017. I was loving the car thoroughly until April 2018 when I stepped on the gas to pass somebody on the freeway and heard a loud bang and saw the engine light come on. The car immediately sounded louder (if an AMG could sound angrier, that's what it sounded like), and the car was *very* wobbly, teetering left and right. I drove it to the dealer immediately. They ran their computer scans on the car and said the message came back "plugs and coils" so they replaced all of the plugs and coils. Still no change. They then looked carefully and found the air intake manifold gasket to have been split open (photo attached). They had to drop the engine out of the car in order to actually replace the part. They told me that AMG Germany were completely baffled and had "never seen this happen before ever". However, when the part came in and was replaced, the car still was not "running normally". They then ran more scans on the car and were told by Germany to replace the fuel injectors. Still no change. At this point, they told me that the car was driving normally, with full power, but the only thing was that it was "vibrating" a bit when idle. Eventually, they brought in a technician from AMG Germany they told me, to look at the car, who told them that he thought there was a "microleak" in the turbo charger which was so small it was not being detected by the computers, but that it was causing enough of a disruption in the air/fuel mixture that it was causing the car to "wobble" and "vibrate" at idle. Fast forward another couple of weeks, and a new turbo later, still some "minor wobbling and vibrating" at idle. Fast forward another two weeks, and I got a call from the dealer that they heard back from AMG that the wobbling and vibrating was a software issue that would be resolved with a software update/patch. The dealer told me that there have been a few similar cases of this wobbling and vibrating at idle worldwide so AMG is aware of this and making it a high priority, but likely this software patch wouldn't be coming through for a "few months". Consequently, AMG told the dealer to let me have my car back so it's back in my garage now. This is now 2.5 months after this first happened to me. Needless to say, I'm not happy that I spent a boatload of $$ on a product that I thought would be the top notch family sedan. I had been negotiating with the general manager of the dealership for him to go to Mercedes Canada for me and tell them I wanted them to give me credit for the full value of what I paid for the car and apply it to another vehicle, or put me in a 2019 E63S (even though I would lose out on the Edition 1 package), as I expressed that at this point I've essentially lost confidence in the car. However, I'm guessing now that they've gotten the blessing from AMG Germany that the car is satisfactorily repaired and that this is just a software patch/update fix, they have essentially taken away my leverage to pound the table for them to give me the full original value I paid for the car. As somebody not really really knowledgeable on cars (only a casual hobbyist), I find it hard to be totally convinced that what seems like a physical hardware issue of a car physically wobbling can be due to a software issue, but nowadays so much is controlled by computers I wouldn't be totally surprised either I suppose. It will be really interesting to me whether this actual software patch/update really resolves this wobbling (if I'm still owning this car by the time these "few months" pass by and the software update comes in).

Any comments/thoughts/suggestions welcome. Also if somebody else has experienced this wobbling/vibrating at idle, I would love to know the dealer isn't flat out lying to me that there are other cases out there. I have to say, it *is* quite subtle sub-1,000 rpm and my wife said if I didn't say anything to her, she might not have noticed or commented at all.

Also, anybody know if it's true that this could be software related? Again, I'd love for somebody with a lot more car knowledge than me to educate me and again confirm that my dealer isn't just trying to pull the wool over my eyes...

Thanks in advance to everybody for any comments! Oh and btw, car has 4500 kms on it or less than 2800 miles in 6 months of driving it prior to April 2018..

tony_f8

Quadrobenz

DriveAMG