Those radiators ARE junk and they DO blow up. It's happened to me four times. I was only stranded on the side of the freeway once. The other times I had learned to clamp the hose onto the remaining plastic nub long enough to get home. And once I helped a stranded motorist with the same problem with that trick.

It's an extremely serious situation with potentially devastating results.

Especially bad are the older radiators that don't have the metal ring in the neck. I assume all those have exploded by now.

The plastic gets brittle and the neck snaps right off. The plastic tstat housing was the same way and MB changed it to metal.

MB should be ashamed. When I spoke to MB customer dis-service about it, the attitude was, "So? What do you expect after 100K miles?" Maybe those aluminum wheels are supposed to fall apart at 100K miles, too? Heck, why not, with thier reasoning?

Geez, it's not a wear item like tires. I haven't seen where the radiator is supposed to be replaced at specific intervals.

Nor have I EVER had a radiator totally fail like that in any other car except MBs. Little leaks? Yes, long ago. Catastrophic failure? Never.

But yes, I love the 124 series. EXCEPT for the radiators and the evaporators.

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2012 E350
2006 Callaway SC560