First and foremost, many thanks to the forum members here and the other forums. After well over 450 and maybe pushing 500-ish sets of injectors, mostly MBs, I am hanging up my pop-tester and micrometer.

Got what I would consider my first customer complaint from a set of injectors I sold back in October 2014. So, instead of dealing with the hassle of something popping up three years after the fact or whatever time frames, I've decided it is better to quit. Not bad I guess after literally 1,000s of injectors over the years ... Made a promise that I would consider quitting if I got a complaint so following through ...

So, EXCLUDING the handful of folks who already paid me, those injectors will be done and I certainly stand behind my work as I have always done over the last FIVE YEARS or so. I owe one forum member a lift pump after going through my mental notes, and that will get shipped this upcoming week. As for the handful of folks over on S T D dot com, once the #242s are commercially available, I will stand behind those promises as well.

I have around 100 pounds of mostly MB diesel fuel injectors, e.g., OM616, 617, OM603. I will try this weekend to separate those into sets, and they are for sale.

So, sets of 4 or 5 shipped CONUS with 5 new HS and 1 meter of return line will be $99.00

Sets of 6 shipped CONUS with 6 new HS and 1 meter of return line will be $119.00

I probably have enough HS and return line for 10 sets, but once that is gone, it will just be the injectors and the pricing is the same.

And no, I am not selling my shim sets or equipment. Still keeping my diesel(s).

Many thanks in advance,

Greazzer ... a/k/a Mark

This is incredibly bad news. Although I have not yet been a customer, I can feel it coming. Your reputation is sanitary and screw anyone who complains after three years of use.

Please reconsider.

Mark, hope you reconsider and don't let one customer get to you. Some people are just greedy and looking for their money back. I haven't done a transaction with you, but it seems everyone around the forum says nothing but good things so I wouldn't let this person stop you.

__________________
Only diesels in this driveway.
2005 E320 CDI 243k Black/Black
2008 Chevy 3500HD Duramax 340k
2004 Chevy 2500HD Duramax 220k

I think that Mark jumped the gun just a little bit. He made this posting just before getting my reply. I hope that he reconsiders too as I have no issues with him.

Mark, I need your snail mail address so I can send you these 10 injectors.

Here's my reply (9:34 AM this morning) to his response thinking that after 3 years I'm looking for a refund.

Hi Mark,

Goodness, no! I'm not looking for a refund from you after all this time; that would be totally nuts.

My thinking is that since you're the injector guy on the forum and you know your own work better than anyone, I thought that perhaps you might like to buy them from me and sell them to someone else. As to the original 5 that yours replaced, I have no need for them, so I thought you might like to check them out for yourself and sell them to someone.

As to the failure rates of the new Bosh injectors, I know nothing about that issue but I'm quite sure that if I did, the tech will stand behind them. John Allen is very very smart and has been doing diesels since 1970 or so.

Why I now appreciate my expensive Indy

PeachParts Mercedes ShopForum - Search Results

As to the improved running and shifting, perhaps it's due mostly to a combination of tightening up the intake manifold and setting the altitude adjustment that made it finally run well and that adjusting the turbo boost from 7 psi to 13 may very well account for the boost in mileage from 26.5 mpg (typical highway) to 31.5 (150 mile ride back home from his shop all but 3 miles on the interstate). What I can tell you is that the cold start smoke and nailing, even in the summer, are GONE.

There's no point in me keeping yours because I guarantee you that there is no point in me trying to convince John that they are better than Factory. Your proposition to clean up the 10 and sell them on consignment sounds just fine to me and since my dealings with you have been great, if you're good to go with what you propose that's fine by me. I'll even return your DVD!

__________________
- Neil
'83 W123 (Ol' Yeller)
'82 HP 34C

If every businessman hung up his hat because one single whiney pissant complained about his products or services we literally would have nothing in this world. If you've had one complaint, shoot him the bird and move on with life.

Perhaps consider a written signed statement from people before performing business with them so they understand that you are servicing 30+ year old equipment and there is a chance there could be issues on down the road.

"Services performed AS-IS and WITHOUT WARRANTY"

__________________
Current stable:
1995 E320 149K (Nancy)
1983 500SL 120K (SLoL)

Black Sheep:
1985 524TD 167K (TotalDumpster™)

Gone but not forgotten:
1986 300SDL (RIP)
1991 350SD
1991 560SEL
1990 560SEL
1986 500SEL Euro (Rusted to nothing at 47K!)

I should also make it clear that my comments above were directed at nobody in particular. Everybody doing business regardless of where they are, what they do, and who they deal with will have someone somewhere at some point who is displeased with their services or products. Nobody's perfect!

__________________
Current stable:
1995 E320 149K (Nancy)
1983 500SL 120K (SLoL)

Black Sheep:
1985 524TD 167K (TotalDumpster™)

Gone but not forgotten:
1986 300SDL (RIP)
1991 350SD
1991 560SEL
1990 560SEL
1986 500SEL Euro (Rusted to nothing at 47K!)

Mark, It seems to me that one complaint in five years is a reason to stay in business rather than abandon it, especially where the complaint comes three years after you did the work. All businesses get complaints; no repair shop would be in business if it operated under the standard you set for yourself.

Take John Allen, the Inde that DubMutant praises, as an example. According to Allen's website, he guarantees his work for one month or 1,000 miles, apparently whichever is shorter. See

J.F. Allen Mercedes Repair, Shelburne MA | Car Talk - Mechanics Files

You should reconsider whether you want to go out of business due to this single incident.

Thank you gents (or gals). It was really a complaint back in 2014. The person was never really happy with my nozzles, or heat shields, or service. I took the injectors back after receiving what I would consider a rather "smart-ass" commentary. Nothing personal about the Buyer. He paid for a service and my expectations are that he (or she) should be 100% happy. I re-did them for free and I made a video on the 2nd go around to evidence everything worked fine. I sent the CD along so the person could play it. For whatever reasons, that person was not happy. I never got a nasty or rude email from that person (the one I got today). Rather, a narrative of extensive repairs and how the injectors never quite worked well, et cet.

Having said the above, I realized the following: how tough would it be for a person to claim at some point that my injectors caused their priceless diesel automobile to turn into a fireball of death? Or, their not-so-hot running engine is now just running so horribly that it has caused them so much grief that a lawsuit would be forthcoming .... Not saying at all I ever got that from that person, but it's really not worth the headaches a few years down the road. If folks had a leaker, I would certainly re-do that at my expense. In the last 5 years, I think I can count real leakers on one hand. I have rebuilt injectors for folks from every single continent except Antarctica.

I stand behind my work and word. The person received a full refund today from 3 years ago less what I physically invested in consumables, plus they do not need to send me back the injectors at all. I have 100 pounds or so which I plan on cleaning and posting for sale here or on E B A Y. My only competitor in the injector game charges literally twice what I charge plus some more and if you had a gripe, you got a piece of candy by way of a jaw breaker and a small piece of sandpaper ... lol . Back a few years I used to get around 1 set per month from folks who bought injectors from my competitor. I can say they needed to be serviced spare the jaw breaker piece of candy and a piece of sandpaper.

Nope, I am very thankful to have served the hobby and the MB community but I am keeping my word to myself that once I got a complaint, it would be time to hang-up the gloves.

Mark has set a very high standard for himself if my exchange with him has inspired him to retire from rebuilding injectors, I will respect that.

Assuming that my injectors were the cause for smoking and nailing back in 2014, I got in touch with him and bought a set of injectors with one of his last sets of #1930 nozzles. Ol' Yeller had sat for 5+ years and so I thought that it was possible that it was time for rebuilt injectors and since I couldn't take the car out of service to send mine to him and wait to get them back, I bought a set of used injectors from him with these nozzles.

After my local independent installed the #1930 equipped injectors, the car smoked and nailed until it warmed up. I sent videos of this to Mark (the "smart" commentary?) and he immediately agreed to take them apart, clean them and test them. He hired his son to video the assembly and pop-test which he posted and sent to me on DVD.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iksIlypNh8Q

As I recall, after installation, the smoking and nailing were less but never went away nor did the fuel mileage rise as I had expected. And I concluded that this was Part of Life With a Diesel these days. I had owned three MB diesels prior wit the last one sold back in 2000.

The car never seemed to run properly. Starting about a 1.5 years ago, it shuddered terribly when coming to a stop and Mike, my local, sort of shrugged his shoulders despite his (and his father's) many years as an independent that serviced mostly MBs in the New Bedford, MA area where I live.

This May I had business in Amherst and so I decided to drop by John Allen's for a chat. John and I went to high school together back when he was interested in Mini-Coopers and his dad, a mathematician, was my academic advisor at UMass. Having launched what became Robison Service in Springfield back in the mid-80s with John Robison, I was well aware that John Allen was still in the business of MB repair.

John's son Brian (worked with John for 20 years) made some quick adjustments and the idling smoothed right out but he felt that still, there was something wrong. Given the reputation of J.F. Allen company, it was no surprise that the next opening was in 6 weeks; this past Wed. July 5. Despite Mike, my local, having checked the compression the second time that Mark's injectors were installed (compression was good), Brian wanted to start from Square One. He has learned to believe nothing that someone says that someone else has been done to their car and I agreed that this was the best strategy.

And with that as background, here's my first email to Mark this AM.

Hi Mark,

Perhaps you might remember me. I bought a set of 5 special injectors from you for $300 back in 2014. After installation, the engine smoked on start-up and it nailed badly until it warmed up. I remember sending you some short video clips. My mechanic took them back out, reinstalled my old injectors (engine smoked on start-up and nailed badly); you kindly took yours back. You ultra-sound cleaned them again, pop-tested them, etc. and made a DVD of the pop-test and spray pattern. I took them back and kept them. The car ran a bit better but honestly didn't totally eliminate the problem nor did they improve my fuel mileage (typically 26.5 mpg highway) which is why I bought them in the first place. My local independent mechanic played with the rack damper, this and that but no improvement.

Earlier this week I had the car checked by an outstanding independent MB shop in western Mass. to get to the bottom of this poor running condition. He recommended that we start from square one to track it down and I agreed. Did a valve adjust, pulled the injectors, did a compression test, pop-tested your injectors. They pop-tested just fine but he did notice that the spray patter was narrower than stock and that they don't have the small center spray that strikes the "ball" in the pre-chamber. His recommendation was to replace them with Bosch re-manufactured injectors. He has a wide range of reliable suppliers and found a good deal on new Bosch injectors and pulled the trigger on those.

He also tightened the intake manifold nuts and retorqued the head to curve an oil leak, adjusted the altitude setting on the injection pump and then the turbo-boost setting since the air cleaner had to come off anyway to check the intake manifold nuts.

In a nut shell, the last thing to be done was to install the new injectors because of the need to wait for over-night shipping to arrive. Upon start up, the car immediately ran great; so well so that the mechanic forgot to run diesel purge through it. As such, I don't need your injectors. I also don't need the injectors that were in the car when I bought yours. We pop-tested those too and they all pop-tested well (looked like 1800 psi to me) but one didn't have a great spray pattern.

Would you be interested in buying these 10? I could return them to you along with the DVD you made.

The original Bosch injectors are shown in the first photos and your injectors are those with the red dust caps on them.

Thanks,

- Neil

Despite basically offering to take them back and sell both sets (is how I interpreted his reply) on consignment, Mark evidently changed his mind and after finding my old invoice PayPal'ed me $250 just as I was composing an email asking to confirm his mailing address with an offer to get them shipped back to him this AM.

If someone can confirm Mark's mail address in a PM to me, I would appreciate it. As I said in my note, the #1930 equipped injectors pop-tested just fine and I have no doubt that someone would be happy to have them but it is best that they be returned to Mark first.

And so, just to let folks know, I had no beef with Mark; in fact I think he was incredibly generous with his refund and offer to let me keep the #1930 equipped injectors (plus my original Bosch injectors) anyway. And I think that Mark makes it clear that he has no beef with me. He is making good on a promise he made to himself long ago and you can't argue with a man about that.

__________________
- Neil
'83 W123 (Ol' Yeller)
'82 HP 34C

Grezzer dont take this to be a down side to all the help you have given to so many members in the past . I wish i was closer to you . I need to build my own pop tester .The cost of cleaning the old type fuel injectors for my m103 engine is like the price of 1/2 the cost of a new set of 6 . I have the seals to do the job but without cleaning the injectors i wont instal them . Good luck with what ever you think is best in the end. ..

Greazzer, I am sad to hear this news as I have used your service before and have been incredibly happy with the results. I'm also worried that now I will have nowhere to go to get injectors properly serviced.

__________________

Here's an update.

Was able to sort out numerous sets, so the plan is as follows:

I will post pictures and something to identify each set. Here are the rules:

1. NO RETURNS, NO REFUNDS, now or down the road, either 1 year or 2 years, or 3 years, et cet; Please make sure you want the injectors. I will be running them through the same exact process I have been doing for five (5) years. I have always stood behind my work and will do so here, but with these rules until I run out of injectors.

2. If you have a problem with an injector(s), the Buyer must notify me within 30 days from the shipping delivery date. I do not care about whatever mileage the Buyer claims he or she has on an injector. I only ship USPS priority mail with insurance and tracking (except those hand delivered or picked up by folks) so I will go by the date which the USPS says it delivered them. After 30 days, it is fully understood and absolutely agreed between Buyer and Seller that the time period for any complaints or issues or re-do's of any kind is over. No exceptions. So, in other words, after 30 days of delivery it is 100% agreed that those injectors meet all Buyer expectations, et cet.

3. Because I generally hold pressure at least 1 minute, leaks are very, very rare. Normally a leak is from either the return line or the high pressure steel line (or both). However, if someone thinks they have a leaker, I will re-do the injector or replace it with a similar one. Whichever I think is best.

4. I will no longer eat postage as I have done over the years unless the Buyer really received a defective injector so be sure where the leak is coming from.

5. If someone has new nozzles or nozzles they want installed, they can send those for one of the numerous sets I have. I cannot force myself to get a nickle of pound for all the injectors I horded over the last year or so.

6. As for those forum members who screwed me a few years ago and never returned those loaners (prior to me charging a fully refundable core charge), you can keep those sets. I have no doubt in my mind you are just pacing yourself for a few years before returning the loaners, but at this point, just keep them.

7. I am NOT interested in any swaps or trades of any kind. I take PayPal unless you do not have a PayPal account so you can send me a USPS Money Order. I used to take any kind of money order although I told folks to only send USPS. So, if I get a non-USPS money order, I will just tear it up.

8. Not to sound utterly unreasonably here, but these are my rules. If for some reason, something is not clear, then post your question and I will try to answer it and those questions and answers will end up as clarifications of rules. If I get a PM or email, I will cut and paste it here and answer it.

Thanks in advance, and I will be only posting injector stuff here until I burn through all sets I have

Thanks in advance.

They're 30 year old engines, people need to get real,

The injectors you've for me were all perfect. If any had problems oh well-they're rebuilt 30yr old parts exposed to a bazillion PSI, heat, and random fuel quality.

__________________
$60 OM617 Blank Exhaust Flanges
$110 OM606 Blank Exhaust Flanges
No merc at the moment

greazzer, I thought you did quality work for me for a very reasonable price, and with great service to boot. Cheers,

__________________

A very sad day indeed.

Hopefully someone will step up and fill this enormous hole!

__________________
Respectfully,
/s/
M. Dillon
'87 124.193 (300TD) "White Whale", ~392k miles, 3.5l IP fitted
'95 124.131 (E300) "Sapphire", 380k miles
'73 Balboa 20 "Sanctification"
Charleston SC