That's the other issue, if whoever tried to drill it out doesn't know how to do it property they will drill into the water jacket then you need a new head too.

They need to use this kit for the drill out, it has the proper sized drills to do the job properly.

http://www.baumtools.com/shop/Mercedes-Benz/09-Diesel/MU242-12MM-BROKEN-GLOW-PLUG-REMOVER-KIT

And here's the proper size Time-Sert kit for the glow plugs
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001ZS2BJ4

I went through this 2 years ago
OM606 glow plug change - one broke off

__________________
The OM 642/722.9 powered family
Still going strong
2014 ML350 Bluetec (wife's DD)
2013 E350 Bluetec (my DD)

both my kids cars went to junkyard in 2023
2008 ML320 CDI (Older son’s DD) fatal transmission failure, water soaked/fried rear SAM, numerous other issues, just too far gone to save (165k miles)
2008 E320 Bluetec (Younger son's DD) injector failed open and diluted oil with diesel, spun main bearings (240k miles)

1998 E300DT sold to TimFreeh
1987 300TD sold to vstech

Dealer experience level with this issue and if they have the right tools.. Are reasonable questions. At least in my mind. Lots of experience they would normally just have done it. Perhaps calling you first.

It after all has been a pretty chronic problem. Unreasonable to damage the head with the right tools available. As for them swallowing the cost. With this common problem that is not the mechanics fault usually. Head removal should not be in the picture if they have the right tools. Without them take the car to a place that has both the tools and experience.

You okay letting them try without both items. It is on your dime. Basically just applied common sense. Fundementally it also is not reasonable for a working mechanic to spend hours trying to get a stubborn glow plug out by soaking and playing around for hours. Usually the bay the car is in will be needed.

The reality is in a perhaps substantial amount of cases the glow plug changes on that engine just do not go well. If things are okay and you go ahead. Request some form of anti seize applied to the new plugs. They may or may not do that normally.

I wouldn't authorize anything until speaking with my lawyer. I'm not paying for the dealer's fukup.

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CENSORED due to not family friendly words

Agreed, if this was a knowledgeable dealer who has experience with glow plugs, they would know that breaking them off is to be expected. It's not a screw-up, it's just a part of the job. They would simply perform the broken plug extraction, and charge you a nominal fee for the additional time. No big deal. Sounds like they don't know diesels at this dealer. Run Forrest Run.

The fact that they're even mentioning head removal tells me they have no idea how to handle this situation, so they're going to out-source it. The only reason the head would need to be removed, is because they'll take it to a local machine shop for them to deal with. Win-win for the dealer, they charge you an arm and leg to remove and reinstall the cylinder head. This is a very expensive and unnecessary route to take. It's much cheaper and easier to extract broken plugs in-car without removing the head. Clearly this dealer does not have the talent in-house to do this job.

Here's how its done. Anyone experienced in this procedure can do it with hand tools (no special jigs) as shown here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9AO_cDdwS8

If it were my car, I would take it to a local diesel specialist. Broken GP extraction is a diesel specialist job, not a Mercedes specialist. Diesel engine mechanics deal with this every day of the week on all makes and models of diesel engines. Quite frankly the om606 is one of the easier engines to extract a broken GP from, as the GP bodies are large (M12) so they're easier to drill and tap than the pencil-thin newer style plugs. Plus they're all right on top of the engine for easy access. On a Duramax v8, you have to perform broken GP extraction through the wheel well liner while reaching around suspension components, it's horrible. om606 is easy in comparison. Do yourself a favor and find a diesel engine shop instead of this clueless MB dealer.

__________________
Current fleet:
1998 E300 turbodiesel
2008 E320 bluetec - leaky oil cooler seals replaced
2012 S350 bluetec
2015 GL350 bluetec

Sold:
1996 Passat TDI
1997 E300 diesel

Sounds like plan except for one small detail. The dealer's E&O insurance coverage needs to pay the diesel mechanic for the repair.

I wouldn’t let them touch things further. They botched removing the glow plug now they’re gonna try to drill/extract it out which is a x4 more difficult than threading Out the plug. What could go wrong? It’s clearly in the hands of experts. I’d either ride it with just 5 plugs like everyone mentioned or take it to a better shop to extract things out.

__________________
1993 e300
1995 e320
1994 e320
2006 s500 4matic
2004 Jeep wj overland
2001 Ducati 748
2004 Honda shadow aero

I don't allow demonstrably incompetent people to touch my vehicles after they have demonstrated their incompetence. They would have fixed it without calling if. they had the ability.

Calling an attorney, stomping your feet, fussing and fuming etc. are a waste of energy and time.

Get your car, find someone competent or buy the tools and figure it out.

You attempted to throw money at the problem which is what money is for. Unfortunately, it has landed back on your desk. Sometimes that happens.

Edit: there are less expensive options for a glow plug removal kits. Perhaps someone has experience with them. YouTube University may have some info too.

Reason I became active on this forum; I can screw up my own car for half the money. That said, when someone takes their MB to the dealer for factory trained mechanics to perform a repair, there is an expectation that the repair will be performed correctly.

That said, things sometimes do go wrong, it's just a fact of life. This is why God invented General Liability and Errors and Omissions insurance. The MB dealer carries these types of insurances for a REASON, to protect both themselves and their customers from screw-ups.

If you don't pursue a claim against their insurance you are not availing yourself of the financial remedy available to you. Think of insurance this way; the insurance company is standing ready to cover the screw-up, all you have to do is ask or in their jargon, FILE A CLAIM.

Otherwise, YOU get to EAT the COST of THEIR SCREW-UP.

I think not to expect a dealer to have older mechanics around. 25 year old car?

__________________
1999 w140, quit voting to old, and to old to fight, a god damned veteran

Newer dealers don't even service older (pre 97 I think) cars.

I'm told new mercedes have around 100 interconnected computers. one computer goes down and there goes your car. Our pre-1992, Bruno Sacco era cars have virtually no computer systems.

Engineering maxim: simpler is more reliable than complex.

The problem facing all car makers is simple, the EPA keeps screaming at all of them to make the cars more "environmentally friendly". Their solution? Add more computers and emission systems to the cars until the car itself becomes a bloated, useless machine.

This, in the case of MB of Spokane, is materially false.

__________________
Regards,
Ian White

1995 E300 Diesel w124 OM606
2014 E550 w212 M278 biturbo

2001 BMW 740i E38 M62 (past)
1981 300SD w126 OM617 (past)

There seems to be some issues with this thread. If you are a 606 owner. Changing out glow plugs will often run into issues. It is far from an unusual situation. To expect otherwise is totally unrealistic.

You may have better luck doing them yourself. If you have pretty much endless time.Even then then you can still break them off. It is just a nasty feature of these engines.

New car dealers locally just do primarily warranty work as their hourly rates are so high. Also for people that have money to burn.

In the last few years around my location good independent shops with substantially reduced hourly rates are starting up.

A member also mentioned. On say my 123s any dealer mechanics today have probably never worked on them. The ones that did are retired.

It is up to the owner to estimate the competency of a service facility. Plus their abilities. There are no exacting standards to the best of my knowledge.

Word of mouth is often a good indicator.

I needed a special tool some years back for an aircooled volkswagon. I thought perhaps I could leave a deposit and borrow one. The dealer I approached told me. The aircooled models were well before they even started selling Volkswagon products. So they had no special tools for them.