I was looking under the hood today because I heard some weird noise in there. Low and behold, there was a chuck of rubber spill out of the balancer. I did a search about it here in this forum, and found this is a very common problem among the v6 series engine. I am happy to find that there is no damage as of yet, so I would like to replace it asap.

I am pretty new to Mercedes repairs, but I am pretty mechanically able. Where should I buy a replacement? Since this is a common problem, would local Benz dealer provide me of one for no charge? Is there a step by step procedure about this repair, with proper torque specs for the nuts and bolts?

Your help is greatly appreciated.