stealership 'C' Service- what do they do?
 

anyone know what is carried out (or what used to be) when a car is in for the 'C' service at a MB dealership? I'm looking through the old service records for my used car and see that it had one at 157k.

can't find anything about the 'C' service on here or Mb's website.

The "C" service would be on the newer cars, like the R230 SL and the new E class W211 chassis. I'd have to find my service sheet for one of these cars, what may be easier, assuming this is actually on one of these cars, is to look in the maintenance manual that came with the car. On the 98's on up to these models, it was A and B service only, no "C".
What model do you have that you are wondering about?

Gilly

the car is a '91 300E, and the service was performed summer '99 @157k.

I'm just wondering what the 'C' service covered...

On a 91, there were no letter-designation services from Mercedes. They were still done on mileage intervals, such as 7500 miles, 15,000 miles, 30,000 miles, etc. The intervals were every 7500 miles. A 7500 service is basically an oil change, but the other services, the 15000, 30000, 45000, 60,000 etc are more involved. There should be a 7500 service (oil change) between these services, such as 22,500, 37,500, 52,500, etc.
They had NO letter designations back then, not until 1998 or so when FSS came out.

If you have a receipt for a service from a dealership that is referred to as a "C" service, then this is something the dealership dreamt up on their own, not authorized by Mercedes (not that it matters that much, as long as the work was performed that was due at that interval, which I have no way of knowing). Call the dealer and ask them what a "C" service is on that car.

Gilly

the actuall service in question was performed in '99, so maybe they applied a newer car 'C' service to my car? Or perhaps they made it up like you say...
I did call the dealership and they weren't all that helpful, they told me about recent work though and said it had the 90K service at 190K, but over the phone the guy I spoke to didn't know (or couldn't be bothered) to go into detail what the 90k service entailed. i presume this would be a fairly major service?

No, there was no "C" service in 99 yet, only A and B service. As I said, they didn't go beyond A and B until just recently, 2003 SL and E class cars (the new body styles).
The 90,000 would be the same as a 30,000. The 30,000 is pretty involved. There is a little more to do on the 60,000 compared to a 30,000.
But on the service at 90,000, you'd be looking at spark plugs, transmission fluid and filter, oil change, that'd be the major replacement items. The brake fluid is due to be flushed every 2 years and the coolant every 3 years. It's based on time, so I can't say if they would have done those or not.
Lots of stuff is supposed to be checked, but the owner needs to say yes or no on if some of this stuff gets done or not. For example the service would include CHECKING the brake pads and rotors, but if they are found to be worn out, they would need to ask the owner if they actually can proceed with the extra work.
The engine air filter and fuel filter get replaced every 60,000, so wouldn't be done on a 90,000 service.
There's lots of little items that get attended to on the service, I hate to gloss over things too much like this. Some examples are lubing the door hinges and latches, checking all the lights, rotate tires, check tire pressures including the spare tire, lube the sunroof, clean the tape deck and antenna, lots of stuff like this. It's really up to the tech to make sure everything gets done, need a good tech to do the work, someone who cares about the work.

Gilly

Hi chazola, I take exception to your "stealership" reference. It's a shame that the dealer can't provide you with details of a maintenance service that was performed almost five years ago. I realize that dealerships leave a lot to be desired, but please be considerate of all the dealer tech's who contribute to this Forum.

I agree, percentage-wise, I feel there are about the same balance of good vs bad service shops when comparing dealerships and non-dealership service facilities. It seems the dealers get the worse rap for faulty service work though, possibly because the expectations are set that much higher for a dealer service shop. People get burned by an indie and they think "yeah, well, maybe I shoulda went to the dealership", but go to a dealership and get burned and it's "WTF!!!".

Gilly

ILUVMILS-

sorry you took offence at my calling dealerships 'stealerships'.
It's actually a term I picked-up off this forum, and when I saw my local dealership's price for an oil change, I kinda liked the idea of that term!

I'm in no way having a go at the techs who no doubt work just as hard as any other mechanics out there, on very expensive and complicated vehicles; rather the snobbish attitude you often find at the sales & 'front-end' of these places.
I know it's not the techs who set the prices.
The parts guy at my local dealership was rather stand-offish and snobby when i first went there, now i've been back a few times it's a lot friendlier.

On the details of the past service for my particular car, the service i was after details for was only around 6 months ago, so that's why I was a bit suprised they couldn't give me more detail.

Anyway, thanks for your help and comments, I may actually try and contact the previous owner of the car to see if i can find out more about the history, that way i can plan my service intervals better.

In the meantime, I plan on applying for my 250Km badge!