PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum - View Single Post

joe p · #14 07-28-2002, 11:11 PM

Tell that to the previous owner of the 92 300te I picked up at auction. He spent 800.00 doing stem seals and a chain at the local dealer. It used more oil after the repair than before.

I pulled the head and was suprised it didn't drop a valve as the guides had a very noticable trench cut to the outboard side of the guide. I've seen small block chevys drop valves with less side slop in the guides.

Each to his own but, I still stand on one princible, either fix it right the first time or let it alone.

I've spent most of the last 10 years fixing "quality" repairs done by "qualified" and "certified" "technicians.

m117's tend to leak oil from the backside of the heads after 140k or so, why not kill 2 birds with one stone? Not to mention the intake o-rings harden and leak, injector seal o-rings leak, rear seals leak, front seals leak, motor mounts collaspe and steering shaft joint deteriotate. Age plays a significant role as well. Some of the worst cars I've seen for BIG repairs were low miles units.

Why not cover all in one repair?

Yeah, big bucks but...... add the costs of all those repairs together and I'd bet the pink slip on my 1 ton that it would be a damn sight more than repairing all those one item at a time.

Ignoring the normal wear and tear items for individual repair on a case by case basis knowing it will happen starts to infringe on my sense of ethics. Especially when you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it will be yet another expense for the client.

This is the main reason I let my customers decide and dictate exactly how their car will be repaired. Knowledge is power and I firmly beleive in educating my clients as to their options.

Sure, you can argue you've never seen guide wear, never seen the tensioner ramp wear out, never seen a m117 main oil pan leak and so on, but they do and will.

I've seen the results of many a bandaid repair over the years, sometimes they hold well and other times they are a waste of time and cash. At the very least let the owner decide if they want to roll the dice.

It's like the old debate about lock cly's versus cly's and steering locks. I've seen that bite a bunch of people back quickly. They replace the cly and the damn steering lock freezes 2 months later.

Joe