What's up? I just subscribed to this forum after being directed here from a different forum. I too have had the harmonic balancer issue. My occurred during a long road trip about a week and a half ago. I was on the interstate in the rain, and heard a sound coming from the engine. It sounded like the headers had come disconnected from the rest of the exhaust. After that the power steering started going out. I pulled off the interstate, made it to the nearest gas station and then my engine started smoking as I was looking up a repair shop. Right after I cut the car off and popped the hood, a mechanic who happened to be stopped at the same gas station came over and looked at my car. He told me that the harmonic balancer was shot and the car would have to be towed to the nearest MB dealership. This dealership happened to be about an hour or so away. I had the car towed to that dealership, and since this happened on the Friday evening of Memorial Day weekend, they were not going to get to the car until Tuesday. MB had my car for over a week. The harmonic balancer had to be replaced, part of the exhaust (I think the headers), and the oil pan. When I finally got a call from the MB service department, they told me what they fixed and then I started to give him the information to file the insurance claim with All-State (My ML has 57000 miles and is under extended warranty through my insurance). He continued to tell me that MB was going to cover all costs associated with this issue. They are even reimbursing me for the towing costs. When I asked if MB knew about this issue, he timidly responded yes. Needless to say, it was a huge ordeal, and I cannot understand how MB can know about this and just wait for a problem to occur. The mechanic at the gas station who first diagnosed my problem said if I had kept going, the engine could have caught fire. I am very glad to be done with it.

-Brett