Originally Posted by jay_bob

It's done.

Vehicle has 126k miles.

Replacing them myself was not an option with my work load and travel schedule as I mentioned previously.

I hated spending that much money but I could not afford trying to take this on in my ~48 hour window I was going to be home.

Also I would have had to acquire the proper tools and the parts in time to start this morning.

I got back the bad plugs, #5 looked terrible from not having fired in a week. It's true, they do depend on the GPs for normal operation for the stupid DPF regen.

OE plugs on the sponsor site $77/ea x 6 = $462.
OE relay $199
Reamer $79
That is $740. Figure another $30 for shipping so $770.
Plus I have to declare that $770 on my state income tax and pay 8% or another $62.
We're up to $832 and I haven't even started the job yet.

It was definitely worth the $600 to have someone who knows what they are doing take care of it, and have all the special tools at hand if something went wrong.

Plus my wife was able to take the car to the dealer herself, drive away with a loaner, and pick it up when it was done. I come home to a happy wife and don't have to miss what I had plans to do this weekend to work on the car.


Ok off my soap box.

The repair invoice had an interesting comment. The comment from the tech is that it is mandatory to replace all the plugs and the relay if any plug fails.

I believe in symmetrical maintenance so I would have replaced all the plugs on principle anyway but I would like to know if the statement is true. If there is someone on the board who is a current, certified MB mechanic, or service advisor, I would like your opinion on this and if possible can you share the documentation.

Originally Posted by Diesel911

You said that you travel.

It should be easy enough go call a few Mercedes Dealers in differen locations and ask them what they charge for labor and what parts they would change.

Also becoming a Mercedes Benz Club of America Member usually gets you a discount. The amount of the discount seems to vary between Dealers but some have mentioned 10%.

The cost to be a Member is too steep for Me but if you have a fleet of Mercedes Cars and want to buy only Mercedes parts and have work done it could pay off.