PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum - View Single Post

Ashman · #2 10-13-2002, 03:00 AM

could be true, but my latest experience with roadside assistance in los angeles with my dads brand new SL500 did not yield the same kind of results.

he had put 25 miles on the car, and the next morning it failed to start. After calling roadside assitance, 2 hours later a man showed up in his Mercedes Ml320 roadside assitance vehicle.

The problem is that he had never touched a new SL500. He had no clue about anything, and nothing he tried would work.

The car had full power to everything but the starter.

I commented about it perhaps being a starter Relay. He claimed the car had no such relay and he could not understand why it would not start.

Well needless to say, even after several hours at the dealership, with the head foreman working on the car, the problem had not been found.

It was only after my father mentioned to them that I had suggested a starter relay that they found the problem, a faulty starter relay.

So maybe on an older MB with less electronics this would have been simple, but a brand new model, with an untrained roadside assitance technician. appeared to be a headache in the making.

When dealing with such a brand new vehicle, one would think they would send out someone with a little knowledge on the aforementioned vehicle, but unfortunately this was not the case, and my diagnosis after testing the car for 5 minutes, not even being a mechanic or anything close to one, was dead on accurate, while it took an entire salvo of dealer technicians to figure out that it indeed was the starter relay.

Thanks but I'll take a good ol classic w124 mercedes over any newer model, at least I know the techs will know how to fix it if it breaks.

I even asked the head shop foreman at the dealer one simple question which he could not answer, nor could the west coast regional rep for mb answer.

"Whats the point of all these sophisticated computers in the cars if they can't tell you what specifically is wrong with the car."

They could not answer me, because there is no answer. the computers in the cars and the machines they use to read them could not find a code of error. Seems strange that the computers can tell you so much about the car and what is wrong, but can't tell you to check a relay if the starter wont kick over but everything else works.

Alon