I have 1999 ML320 with 77K miles on it, and the engine dies in the middle of the road without any warnings. Towed it to MBZ dealer, and MBZ offered $6K on repair. I was going to agree on that intil I found a note about the class action suit:

A Class Action Lawsuit was filed against Mercedes Benz that effects owners of all 1999, 2000 and 2001 Mercedes Benz vehicles. When Mercedes Benz implemented the Flexible Service System (FSS) in 1999, which permitted extended oil change intervals of up to 20,000 miles, they recommended changes with regular (fossil) oils. By 2001 they experienced some engines with excessive sludge deposits and early engine failures. They then recommended oil changes with only specific brands of synthetic motor oils to address this problem. Since Mercedes Benz initial recommendation for use of fossil oils resulted in not only engine failures of 1999, 2000 and 2001 vehicles, but also premature wear in others, a class action suited was filed against Mercedes Benz. Approximately 2 weeks ago, Mercedes Benz agreed to settle this suit by agreeing to extend the warranty on all 1999, 2000 and 2001 Mercedes Benz vehicles to 10 years or 100,000 miles, whichever comes first. In addition, the owners of 1999 vehicles will receive a total of $3,500 of service, of their choice, at a Mercedes Benz dealer."

Now, I checked the records and found that my dealer was using regular oil from 1999 to the middle of 2001, and the intervals between oil change were 10K-12K miles. So I thought the engine failure was due to the FSS problem with regular oil change, so the engine should be replaced on MBZ warranty that we, owners of M-class 1999-2001, should get based on this lawsuit.

How do I proceed with this? Any suggestions are appreciated.

Vlad