Talked to my MB Service Department today and only half the parts ordered were sent so we will have to wait another day to get the car back.

The 1.8L engine in the C230K employs a crankshaft pulley (harmonic balancer) that looks like a "Hockey Puck" according to the service writer and is made from hard rubber. It has a groove for the serpentine belt to run around it. The service writer indicated that the belt came off of the pulley, got wrapped around it and damaged the pulley along with several other sensors in the engine compartment.

What makes me more concerned is that this failure has occurred with less than 20,000 miles on the odometer and the dealer indicates that they have had several other occurrences like mine. I have lost confidence in this vehicle and overall in Mercedes. You would think they would have learned from the balancers employed on their V-6 engines but instead have come out with even a cheaper design for their 1.8 L four cylinder.

Seems to me that they could spend a little more on quality parts that would be more than offset by the savings in warranty repairs.