It should be a recall, but it ain't. We can thank the good customer service of Daimler-Chrysler for this.

This failure is common on the early 1998 models, so yours must be one of them. It is a design failure. After 1998, the problem was fixed.

A co-worker's harmonic balancer failed on her '98 C280, and it broke on the freeway, and needed a complete engine rebuild. The engine had to removed from the vehicle to be rebuilt by the dealer. Wasn't covered under any warranty, goodwill or otherwise.

We can include this harmonic balancer weakness along with some of the other fatal flaws that should've been recalled on this and other MB vehicles, like the head gaskets on the M104 engines, the engine wiring harness debacle on '93-'95 M104's and M119's....

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Paul S.

2001 E430, Bourdeaux Red, Oyster interior.
79,200 miles.

1973 280SE 4.5, 170,000 miles. 568 Signal Red, Black MB Tex. "The Red Baron".