Bad mechanic
 

I had a mechanic look over the benz i was going to buy and told him to look at everything to make the purchase with his approval and let him tell me what was wrong with the car. He told me he would run comoression test and check everything. He has inspected the car but not carefully and now the car has many repairs, Like head gasget leak rear main seal(possible), tranny cooler lines and a few other things. After spending a grand with him to fix everything he said needed to repair, the car still has the vibration that it came with and im out a grand plus i have a car with more problems than i bargained for. He was the mechanic for the owner and we made the deal in his shop after his check up of the car. He told me the engine is indestructabe and the trannies last forever and now i find almost 2k more of repairs plus the 1k i spent. I could have bought a better car with less repairs for the same money. What would anyone else do in this situation.
I feel he sold the car for the guy that had him work on it for so long and so many repairs. I feel like i got screwed basically.

I used a charge card but dont know whether to dispute it or not.



Bedros

First of all, what kind of car is it?

Also, could you elaborate a little more on the vibration. There are many things that can cause it, flat spots on the tires and balancing problems just to name a few. Does it increase in intensity with speed? How bad is it? Is there just a certain speed range that it occurrs in?

89 300se
with 164k miles
The vibration comes on at about 40mph and is really bad at 80mph.
the whole car shakes at 80mph.

It goes away at 55 but is always there just not as bad as 40mph.




Bedros

Kind of weird that it is bad at 40, but goes away at 55.

I would check your tire balance anyway, and get them balanced at a shop that uses the Hunter GSP 9700 balance machine. The MB dealer and some independents use this machine. Access the website, www.gsp9700.com and enter your zip code to find shops that use this machine. Trust me, it's worth it. This machine can figure out if your tires or unbalanced, or if they can't be balanced if you have a wheel force vibration problem. Your problem might thus be solved with new tires or a proper balance. This site also gives a great lesson on the sources of vibration. Read it. You'll learn a lot.

I'd get your suspension checked out, in particular tie rod ends, which can cause a vibration like you're describing.

Check your brake rotors for out-of-roundness. This can also cause vibration. Some people have criticized this idea, but it's clearly listed as a cause of vibration on the website for this Hunter wheel balance machine, and it eliminated a vibration on my Infiniti G20.

It may also be your driveshaft that's vibrating, so check the conditin of your flex plate.

Also, is your mechanic a Mercedes mechanic? If not, go somewhere else. Immediately.

How long from when he inspected the car to the time he changed the head gasket???

HIGH MILEAGE
 

Wow, what kind of $ did you pay for a 125.024 300SE with that kind of mileage? I would look into a new mech and it doesn't hurt to dispute a claim w/ your credit card company. Good luck

It needs a head gasget and is leaking from the tranny to the rear main seal and many other things leak like the power steering pump the tranny cooler lines needs muffler hangers the fuel pump leaks plus the vibration is there and he charged me 1000. to do the ball joints, service the transmission, and he claimed it was the front of the engine that was leaking and it is not according to the way the oil is leaking from it. I feel like either he is not taking care of me or does not know what he is doing. Let me add that he is the fast saleman type that tries to talk like a true gentleman while trying to impose the carges on you. He acts so classy that i dont want to dipute it but i feel like i got screwed deep down inside. Why should i buy a car like this after taking to him and him telling me he will run all the tests and check everything.


Bedros

Not to be rude, but three people have asked a lot of questions that you haven't answered, yet.

It's kind of hard to read your post because it ignores so many rules of grammar.

Try using the comma, period, and maybe a semicolon or two. You've redefined the term run-on sentence.

Suginami,get alife.We have a person asking for help and advice and your input is dumping on his grammer.Those who can do,Do those that cannott chide.Now to play devils advocate.You had a mechanic look over this car.This person was just a human,With all the frailtys that entails.I feel he did the best he could.After all few of us are Nostadomas.There is allmost no one that can check out a car without missing something.I suggest you sell the car,before you are in deeper and buy something like a honda.Good luck Michael

suginami no getting around it you were rude
:confused:

bdemir you need to get a new mechanic to take a look at this car, if you still want it. Do not keep giving money to this guy. Where are you located? Take your car to someone who has a clue. The vibration problem could be a lot of things like tire balancing if the steering is shaking. It could be anything!
Oh and at 164k miles surely you weren't expecting a car in above average condition. These benz cars are a sure fire way to go bankrupt if they have not been taking care of by their previous owners. A lot of owners ignore repair suggestions and when they can't ignore things any longer they patch it up the best they can and sell the car privately.
If you take it to a new mechanic that specializes in benz do not be suprised to get a long list of problems...sorry.

first of all, get a second opinion at a place that specializes in MB's. and then if the diags are confirmed consider the following:

-you should probably address the head gasket leak first.
-the tranny cooler lines will leak if they don't have the right seals in place which is common specially if the tranny has been serviced. most of it will wind up under the engine in the bellhousing area which could be what you are seeing. telltale is the color and consistency of the fluid. if it's red you know what it is. my tranny leaked at the two cooler pipe fittings and my mechanic replaced the seals for free (but then he had already done the head gasket job for me).
-the rear main seal sounds like it can wait if that's really what it is. you can keep adding oil until the leak gets really bad. you can add oil stop leak additives that will expand the seal, just check that it doesn't have toluene because that only makes it worse after a while.

vibration:

-do the wheel balancing as someone suggested.

and after all this, so you're out a couple of thousand bucks. it's still a benz and it could last you another 100K miles with the proper care and attention. that second opinion will help you decide what to do...

I know this guy is asking for advice because I read his first post, and took the time to try to help him out. My response was one of the first.

After looking over my comment about his grammar - I'll admit I probably should have considered if the person speaks English as a second language or not. I taught English and ESL at a high school right out of college before I went to Japan. I know how hard it is to learn English for non-native speakers. I also know how hard it is to learn a foreign language, as it took me 4 years in college and 4 years living in Japan to learn Japanese. I know what it's like to struggle with correct grammar and making mistakes. But I learned and do pretty good, but not perfect.

You may have noticed the I've made hundreds of posts and not once corrected anyone's English, punctuation, grammar, or spelling. Not once. We all make some mistakes, including me, and it doesn't matter that much.

Just look over the last post. It's hard to read, and I've taught English, and corrected papers, compositions for a living. He's asking for some help, and there's nothing wrong with that. He also got some good tips from two or three people, with some questions asked that he completely ignored. It would also just be easier to read if you could tell where one sentence ends and one begins.

If this person was raised in the states and went through our school system, it says a lot about the quality of our education.

I had a lot of trouble reading that too... puncuation helps!

Appropriate capitalization helps, too, including names of languages.

Yeah, you're right. Ooooops! Jokes on me.

I'm going to go back and capitalize the 'e' in English.