Your worst diagnosis? - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

Fulcrum525 · #1 03-17-2009, 11:30 AM

What is the worst diagnosis that you have ever gotten from a mechanic/dealer.

For me it was when my harmonic balancer was acting up and makeing noise-The diagnosis to fix it?.....Change the oil.....

tangofox007 · #2 03-17-2009, 11:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fulcrum525

What is the worst diagnosis that you have ever gotten from a mechanic/dealer.

For me it was when my harmonic balancer was acting up and makeing noise-The diagnosis to fix it?.....Change the oil.....

A better solution would be to disconnecet the battery. That is guaranteed to silence a noisy balancer!!!

pawoSD · #3 03-17-2009, 11:56 AM

I've never gotten one "single" bad diagnosis....but I've had times where the inspection found a laundry list....that's always fun. Fun because then I can go fix all the stuff they found wrong myself!

dmorrison · #4 03-17-2009, 12:01 PM

Very high idle on a 70 220D. Independent shops solution was engine was shot and needed to be replaced. Asked for compression test. All cylinders really good. He still insisted the engine was shot. Asked him to button it up and drove it to the dealer (Really fun 4th gear 60MPH and not toughing the gas pedal. Real high idle) $40 part was replaced in the injection pump and drove the car another 4 years. Sold it running fine to a kid.

Dave

FlossHogg · #5 03-17-2009, 12:05 PM

Piston Slap. A very serious problem but it sounded so funny when the guy explained it and probably because it was my friends car. I would never in my life buy a GM vehicle.

Fulcrum525 · #6 03-17-2009, 12:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dmorrison

Very high idle on a 70 220D. Independent shops solution was engine was shot and needed to be replaced. Asked for compression test. All cylinders really good. He still insisted the engine was shot. Asked him to button it up and drove it to the dealer (Really fun 4th gear 60MPH and not toughing the gas pedal. Real high idle) $40 part was replaced in the injection pump and drove the car another 4 years. Sold it running fine to a kid.

Dave

That reminds me of a report that was done in CT a few months ago about crooked repair shops. They would drive into a lot with a bad relay on a ford's AC system (Bad relay is common problem I guess)

All the shops knew exactly what was wrong and charged a few dollars for the new relay....every once in a while though the hidden camera would pick up the mechanic putting in a new relay, testing the AC to confirm that the relay was the problem...and then proceed to put the old relay back in and come up with a $1,000 solution to the problem....

pawoSD · #7 03-17-2009, 12:07 PM

I take it back that I've never gotten a scary diagnosis.

I brought my SD to a local euro shop way back when I got it. ARIE NOL auto service in GR, MI....never go there!!

The passenger window glass was off track (out of the seal)....his quote: $650 to "replace" the window. So I tried fixing it myself....accidentally flexed the glass when working on it, and ended up with a door full of marbles.

Called Auto Glass Specialists....a guy came out the next morning and installed a new window in about 20 minutes, did a great job. Cost? $128....including the glass!

tobybul · #8 03-17-2009, 01:02 PM

Non-MB but frustrating...

Dodge Caravan Tranny leak. Tranny shop peaked under car and said $600 to fix leak. Went to another tranny shop, put vehicle up hoist, pointed to rear seal leak. Fixed for $90.

Dodge Caravan Misfire (I knew it was due to water in gas tank. I knew this because whenever I would put Dry-Gas it would temporarily cure it). Brought it to Dodge dealer. They insisted it was bad plugs and bad wires. I told them that it was water in tank but since they guaranteed it would fix it I let them do it for $250. Next day same thing and demanded my money back.

I just continued adding Dry-Gas until the problem went away (about $10).

Dodge Caravan Air Bag Light ON. Brought it to 2 dealers who wanted 1 hour diagnosis charge minimum. Decided to put it off. Later when I had time, I checked the fuses and noticed the ABS fuse was open. Replaced it and fixed the problem (10 minutes and $0.99).

pawoSD · #9 03-17-2009, 01:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tobybul

Non-MB but frustrating...

Dodge Caravan Tranny leak. Tranny shop peaked under car and said $600 to fix leak. Went to another tranny shop, put vehicle up hoist, pointed to rear seal leak. Fixed for $90.

Dodge Caravan Misfire (I knew it was due to water in gas tank. I knew this because whenever I would put Dry-Gas it would temporarily cure it). Brought it to Dodge dealer. They insisted it was bad plugs and bad wires. I told them that it was water in tank but since they guaranteed it would fix it I let them do it for $250. Next day same thing and demanded my money back.

I just continued adding Dry-Gas until the problem went away (about $10).

Dodge Caravan Air Bag Light ON. Brought it to 2 dealers who wanted 1 hour diagnosis charge minimum. Decided to put it off. Later when I had time, I checked the fuses and noticed the ABS fuse was open. Replaced it and fixed the problem (10 minutes and $0.99).

Aren't dodge caravans awesome?

My dad brought his to the dealer about 8 times for the cooling fan variable resistor failure that plagues them....it overheats and fries, then the fans don't come on at all, and in standing traffic it begins to overheat unless you put the heater on max heat/blower....finally we swapped the fan assembly thinking that old fans might be drawing too much current....didn't fix the problem. So my final solution was to disable (unplug) one of the two fans. Its been 2 years problem free. Instead of running two fans on low-mid speed....it just runs the one fan a little faster....and doesn't overload the resistor control since its half the juice going through it. Classic case of poor/bare minimum design.

BodhiBenz1987 · #10 03-17-2009, 01:12 PM

I'll quote the dealer exactly: "This car to fix would far exceed its value, reccomend retiring car"

That was my 87 300D in 2002, over 60,000 miles ago. The car was throwing oil and needed some front suspension components. What the dealer failed to notice was that a bolt had backed out of the crank case and was lying on the cross member. My dad took it to his indy, who noticed the bolt right away and replaced it, then did a front end rebuild (plus other bits and pieces) for $2,000. I hate to think what the dealer wanted to charge (they didn't even put down a number), if it "far exceeded" the value of the car seven years ago at 188,000 miles.

LNGfish · #11 03-17-2009, 01:14 PM

I took my car to a Boutique car repair center. They had marble floors, no kidding. I felt so far out of place there. The service manager wore a wool sweater that looked like some fancy socks.

The waiting room was so pretty with all these fancy tires all standing up like toy soldiers. Allot of yummpies were coming in with stuff like flat tires. One Flat in hand the fellow said come back in 2 hours and we can fix your flat for $28. ouch. Weird he couldn't do it right then. He was sort of real busy staying clean I guess to fix a simple flat tire.

All the mechanics that I could see through the big glass window were busy at their tasks but not making allot of headway. Saw a power steering pump come off a car more than once.

I waited a long time for him to put car on lift since I had a vibration on take off and he needed to have it up on lift to use his Stethescope. He was Italian or Spanish, some weird English. I was doubting if it was worth the wait but I stayed. Free coffee of course.

He poked it around and was sure the sound was the Torque Converter. He said it may last a day or 10 years. This sounded silly so I left. I never got a quote. His chief mechanic agreed, seen this all the time, he said.

Next day I removed the Exhaust Resonators. Insides were rattling in resonators.

Problem solved.

pawoSD · #12 03-17-2009, 01:15 PM

Our dealer said that when we brought them my SD.....way way back....they've since learned that we intend to keep these for eternity.

lutzTD · #13 03-17-2009, 01:17 PM

not a mercedes, but a guy I worked with had a very nice dodge daytona. he was having trouble with low power and surging, and it would stall at stop lights. went to the dealer a couple times at 2-3 hundred a pop and still the same issue. he sold it to me. I took it home, turned the key 3 times and it flashed bad map sensor code and bad ox sensor code. replaced the map since it was upstream and problem solved. I offered to sell it back to him with just the extra $50 for the sensor but he said no, deals a deal. I sold the car to my brother for 1050 and he drove it 3 years. Had the dealer work on it again and it caught on fire on the highway. insurance settled for $3800 so he gave me $1400 of that......

winmutt · #14 03-17-2009, 01:53 PM

Some lady on here was once told they needed new spark plugs by the local quickie lube. She replied something along the lines of "I may not no much about cars but my diesel doesn't have those".

ah-kay · #15 03-17-2009, 01:57 PM

"Your worst diagnosis?"

I thought this post is your 'dim wit worst' diagnostics, not the dealer's/garage's diagnostics. I rarely take my cars to the dealer as they all have big boat payments and would like to fleece you if they could get away with it. I am not saying there are no honest dealers/mechanics but they are few in far between.

Case in point: Bought my 83 300D with a knocking sound, 1 owner car. The owner said the dealer wanted $8000 for a new engine. It was too expensive and they decided to part with this family treasure. I bought it for $700, not knowing anything about diesel as I was a newbie then. I asked around and my brother-in-law said it could be an injector over-dispensing fuel. I loosen the injector one at a time and found the noise went away at cyl 3. Swapped #3 injector with #2 and the noise went to #2. Swapped out with an used injector from a junk yard for $2 and the knocking sound went away. I have been driving it for the last 1 1/2 year and 20K miles.

My worst diagnostic: Same car. Engine will not shut off. Changed out the vacuum pump with a used one from a junk yard again, pain in the butt job. Same problem. Eventually I found out the vacuum line to the climate control is leaking vacuum. Plugged the line and everything fine. I don't bother to replace the vacuum switch. Sold my original vacuum pump on eBay for a slight profit.