I thought that I would share an interesting problem with my S-430. It is a 2001 with 14,500 miles on it. My wife called me and told me it was running terribly and was making a very loud noise. We called the dealer and they told her to try to drive it in. It was so bad that we got them to flat bed it in. The verdict:
A washer or bolt had broken on one of the cam gears and it had destroyed the head and who knows what else. They are fixing it of course and I think they said it requires the removal of the engine to fix it all. It should be done in a week. I did hear that MB is quite interested in this major failure. It does imply a quality weakness or it could just be a flyer. Any comments, suggestions or words of consolation will be welcome...
Oh, the car is driven carefully and all the service is performed by MB on time...