2006 CDI SBC Falure
 

My soon to be ex wife just had her brakes go totally out in her 2006 cdi. Unfortunately she didn't crash and burn :) Just kidding. That's my babies momma no matter how much i hate her. We've been separated 6 months and i've been telling her that big red warning on her dash is a serious danger and she needs to take it to the dealer.

Today the brakes just went out completely and she is having it towed to the dealer. So my question is this -- how do I approach the dealer? Here is the history. It has had a visit brake workshop message since i got it that would not go away but it never had the big red warning until a month or so ago. I took it to the dealer last fall or last summer in 2015. I'll have to check when. They said -- they cleared all the codes, replaced the central gateway and it was all good and no more codes. So i pick it up at night and there is still the brake code. I called back and mentioned it but then i tried to fix it myself with the brake switch , wheel bearing , etc. It went away for like a few days at most and came back. Anway, so for the last month or so she has had the big red message and still kept driving it.

Last time i was at the dealer getting parts a few months ago they said the warranty for the SBC expired in Dec 27, 2015 . My thought is they should honor the warranty obviously and i'm thinking that if i pay for the fuel injector seals which i never replaced yet on her car and she has one leaking they would do the SBC for free.

How should I approach it? Should i just let them come to this realization themselves ? See what they offer? I think that is what I'm going to do and then just be nice and stress how dangerous this was and they didn't do anything about it when i had it at the dealer before the warranty expired. I wish i had gotten a print out of the statement i made when I took it to the dealer the first time mentioning the brakes. I hope they are just nice and offer to fix it free. That would really boost my impression of the dealership. It is Mercedes of Nashville by the way. I've only visited once for service for the Central Gateway on that car and it was good.

If they deny me what do i do? Write the head office?

How has she been able to drive it for the last month with the red message flashing? I thought, when that happened, virtually all braking power was lost.

How many miles on the car?

I don't know. Maybe it was a warning message but it was red and said something about brakes. It was different than the casual "Visit brake workshop " message that was there when i was driving it.

She said she heard a pop and then the brakes went completely out and she had to use the parking brake to stop. I'm just glad no one was hurt. She just got to the dealer so i'll keep you all posted .... :)

I hope this thread helps anyone to not be stupid like my wife was and to not drive the car except maybe to the dealer if they see a red brake warning on their car with an SBC module.

Of course the dealer has no mention of "Brakes " in my previous visit even though i told them 5 times the brake message was on. They are going to get back to me with an estimate.

I'd get ready to write a check. If the light had come on and the car had been taken to the dealer before the warranty had expired they would have taken care of it without any issue. Unfortunate that yours timed out after Dec. I would guess you had a warning indicating SBC time out and then she drove it till failure. If you can prove that they read code prior to end of Dec (if light was on) then you may have some traction regarding getting help.

MB already extended the SBC warranty from 4 years to 10 so asking fro more free work is really pushing it.

If you can document a problem in warranty you might have a shot at getting it fixed out of warranty. At some point the warranty has to end and I'd think that 10 years is enough.

However, we don't know if the SBC is the actual cause of the failure. If may have worn brake pads and rotors so thin that a caliper piston popped out. Please post what the dealer says.

......and charges you.

2) How long are the parts and labor covered for replacement (SBC) and (brake parts) on the fix?

You have a chance in my opinion. I would not roll over too easy. Why they did not change it while still under warranty needs a serious explanation. They may have endangered your life.

I am thinking the state motor vehicle department if it comes to it. You also would think they would have been all to aware of any liability issues if it failed shortly after returning it to you. I wonder if all the records of the issue have gone or never existed?

Report the SBC failure to the NHTSA.

They will give approximately zero ****s about an 11 year old car.

I'd see what the dealer says, but I would wager the answer will be no.

Reman units are out there now I am pretty sure, and with a discount the part isn't all that crazy from the dealer. And Indy shops have the means to replace and program them. It's going be like $1,000-$1,500 and she will be good.


Shertex, when the first red warning light is on the braking affect is in no way changed. It happened to mine. I managed to get my car in 3 days before the warranty extension was up.

That's good to know.

I have three months left on my warranty....so hoping it goes out either really soon or not for a LONG time.

I wonder if you couldn't cause your car to trigger a warning and get your pump replaced.

It is only a couple of very specific codes that will get it replaced under warranty.

One of the codes actually references it being "timed out" if I remember correctly.

I've never really looked at one before, but if I understand them they have motor to run the pump that creates the brake pressure. If there are no security seals you could probably take apart the motor and file the brushes down to the point of failure....