Quote:
Originally posted by blackmercedes
Uh, okay, sorry I gave my opinion. I have a little experience with MB's in driving and owning them (over 800K-km's worth) and in my experience (didn't I say that...?) the alternator is not an early failure item, and shouldn't be part of a sub 100K maintenance schedule. however, I qualified my statement that perhaps there were models (newer ones...) that did were more failure prone. However, Dr. Diesel did not say "I do E300 alternators all day long" but that he has done several. However, before going out on a limb and replacing a perfectly good alternator, you might want to explore some other options, including the battery. A new battery is much cheaper than a new alternator if you're taking the "throw parts at it" approach.
And I happened to have owned a 1998 E300 turbo that was the worst car I've ever had. It was on the hoist more than on the road. In my experience, and again that is MY limited experience, about the only thing on my E300 that didn't break was the alternator. I'll stop now. BTW, taking the rear seat out is pretty easy, but I'll let a Master Tech tackle it...
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I'm interested in your opinion contrary to what you may think, for the more I hear about these fine cars, the more I can judge for myself!
How was your example of that 1998 W-210 E-300 DT "the worst car [you] ever had?" Didn't know lemons grew that far North!
How long and how many miles before you
bit the bullet and cut your losses?
I have no intention of "replacing a perfectly good alternator" as that is not prudent. But if the dealer through their
Starmark warranty program determines that mine has gone South, I'll surely not object when they do replace it. I've already had to spend considerable dinero in the two months only that I've owned this car on new rotors all around and of course new Red boxed pads to go along with them because the dealer had neglected to replace the original rotors that were warped prior to the car being certifyied. As you may already know, MBZ does not recommend turning rotors, but replacing them only.
BTW, my car did that "Battery-charge" bit four AMs in a row, but has not done so for the last four mornings, so it would appear that whatever was causing the problem has cleared out mysteriously.
I would not even try to guesstimate the number of miles that I've driven my ten different MBZ diesels over the years from 1966 to the present. Every summer, traveling from So Cal to my cottage on the WPG river just North of Kenora, averages approximately 5K miles RT alone, so every year with that trip plus another 20 to 25K without counting the summer trips really can add up. That's why I'm partial to diesels, having owned more than 17 vehicles since that first 1961 MBZ 190 Db. Only one of those diesels was a pickup; The remainder were all cars.
The fact that
Dr. Diesel has had to replace any altenators at all is something for me to note, considering that far less than 7K examples of this car made it here to N A, and even fewer of them are to be seen in So Cal. My dealer is supposed to be the largest dealer in the country, yet they don't regularly service any!
