wow, i just got the dreaded CEL about 2 weeks ago. have some oil leaking on my garage floor. this is actually my moms car and was serviced not through MB. after reading numerous forums and this one being the most informative, its not looking good =( i will stay subscribed. good info guys keep it up.

actually the codes autozone gave me are p0016 and p0017. not 1200 and 1208 like you guys are getting. is it because their scanners are not "technical" enough or can i do something now and prevent the failure. thanks guys

As per MB WIS. P0016=1208, and P0017=1200. Sorry.:)

06 ML350 Balance Shaft Failure
 

There are a large amount of different make/models that have the balance shaft problem. I have a 06 ML350 w/55,000 miles that had the balance shaft replaced in Aug. 2010. We received a small amount of "goodwill assistance" through Mercedes for the repair because 1.they said we purchased the car new and 2. had all the regular maint. done through an authorized center.

Mercedes has known about this problem since 2007 and has failed to notify any owners of the problem. Probably because the repair is so expensive ranging from $4,000-$8,000 and with most, the problem doesn't show up until after the warranty has expired. So it's a win-win situation for Mercedes. I don't feel all warm and fuzzy inside because Mercedes offered to put a little "goodwill cash" towards a repair that cost me thousands that they should have covered in full. And their 2 "rules" for qualifying for "goodwill assistance" for the repair has nothing to do with the repair. It's not preventable. If your vehicles falls between the serial numbers, your balance shaft will fail.

I've organized a group on facebook specifically for the balance shaft to try to get information to people and also get a number of vehicles affected. If your vehicle has been diagnosed, please join at:
http://www.facebook.com/groups/edit.php?gid=113581522026194#!/group.php?gid=113581522026194

Baloney. They published a DTB.

This is what warranties are for. If it didn't fail in 4 years/50K miles (or 5 years/100K miles if CPO) you got what you contracted for. You are perfectly free to purchase as much extended warranty as you want.

The DTB contains the range of engine serial numbers affected. I suspect this is worldwide production, so if you count the engines and call it the number of cars, it may not be strictly USA cars.

i don't know, man. that's a kind of 'i told you so' logic that really skirts the underlying issue that MB built a defective engine. you are correct that people who bought extended are far more likely to be spared the huge expense of repairing a defective balance shaft, but i have studied this problem a bit and it looks to me like MB should have been more proactive in repairing these engines. if MB knew what serial number ranges had the soft gears, they should have recalled them. they didn't, probably because it would have cost them a lot of money, and they figured they could 'get away with it'. it's an unfortunate reality that the failures have a high likelihood just after the warranty period, in the 60-80K miles range. who buys a vehicle with the expectation that it will need a partial engine rebuild at 60K miles? this is simply not within the 'normal' parameters of new car ownership, warranty issues aside.

as it is now there is a class action lawsuit over this problem and the case seems to be a strong one, but i have no legal training so i am not exactly qualified to say if it's win-able or not.

Yes, but as with all class action lawsuits the lawyers get 50-60% of the $$$ OR more.

it's relevant to the discussion but not relevant to the way that MB has managed the issue. what i know about this issue makes me firmly believe MB has done a significant disservice to their customers over this M272 engine failure. it's not like these vehicles were being subjected to reckless use or haphazard maintenance. most of the engines that fail have been dealer serviced since new because they are failing right out of warranty.

putting myself in the shoes of the hapless owner, if i had this issue with a vehicle out of warranty, and MB refused to repair it, i'd sooner have 50% of the repairs paid for than none. it's all well and good for the independent service facilities to laugh about this issue (while they reap the benefits - i have seen this) but that doesn't help the customer who bought the vehicle in good faith. i am guessing MB took a calculated risk and decided not to remediate the engine issue proactively, at the expense of their customer's pocketbooks.

I've got an R-Class in the shop right now that only threw the 1200 code ( we usually find 1200 and 1208). We didn't find any teeth from the balance shaft gear in the pan (which is usually the case) either, so I was a little suspicious right from the start. To make a long story short, the gear was definitely showing signs of wear, but the timing chain was stretched a few degrees. The chain was the root cause of the problem, but the gear was about to let go. BTW, MB picked up the entire tab. ;)

good to hear that. there seems to be a lot of discretion involved in these repairs, where some get covered even if a few thousand out of warranty, and some owners are SOL.

Pays off for sure if you bought the car from the dealer and had it regularly serviced there. Cheapskates seldom win.

Mercedes knew about the balance shaft issue since 2007 and failed to notify owners...
 

Mercedes has known about this problem since 2007 when they issued the DTB! That was way before all of the warranties expired. They knew with all of these vehicles the balance shaft would eventually fail and did not notify owners of the problem. Mercedes did and are still hiding it from current owners because they don't want to pay for their poorly made vehicles. That's pretty shady.

Mercedes knew that my balance shaft was breaking way before my warranty ran out. Just because the code didn't show up until after my warranty expired doesn't mean it didn't break when I still had a warranty. The balance shaft doesn't break spontaneously, it's over time (when I still had a warranty) and Mercedes knows that in the majority of these vehicles the code won't show up until after the warranty is expired. Failure to notify owners and misrepresent their product for monetary gain is not a company that can be trusted and is like fraud. They should have notified all of us in 2007 when they knew our balance shaft was currently slowly breaking apart and eventually the CEL would come on and we would need it replaced. Mercedes knew about the problem and they didn’t notify anyone because they didn’t and still don’t want to pay for the repair. You would think with the name Mercedes they would stand behind their product. But then again you would think with the name Mercedes they would make reliable quality vehicles. Maybe the name Mercedes doesn’t have the same meaning of quality as it did 10 years ago.

I have a feeling that Mercedes will soon regret the decision they made not to notify owners of the balance shaft issue. Anyway, I’m buying a new Jeep Grand Overland. I had a Jeep about 8 years ago and not only does Jeep stand behind their product but blows my ML away with the power of the Hemi! Oh, and I don’t have to buy an extended warranty. Jeep is in the “quality” group of automakers that stand behind their engine to 100,000 miles!

Its not always out of warranty when they go- my first one was a 2007 GL450, gear failed at 17,000 miles in November of 2007. I can't seem to find any rhyme or reason as to why some fail and others don't. We have an 2006 ML in right now.. 160,000 miles, shaft was still original.

Mine threw a code just before 4-year warranty expiration at 4x,000 miles. Seems like Mercedes ought to offer extended coverage on this issue. BMW did this for ignition coils on the E46M3, extending coverage to like 7 years/80k miles. Earns a lot of customer goodwill.

I just got my CPO 2008 E350 with 33K mile in Feb 2011, It ran fine but had the CEL on and off by itself, I took it back to dealer and they told me that the balance shaft needed to be replaced (under warranty). My engine serial# is "272964 30 784919" which is greater than "2729..30 468993" listed in S-B-03.30/08i, is It possible?
Thanks,

The engine end number on that bulletin doesn't apply to the W204 chassis.
So yes, early W204's can have that same malady.

Guess I need glasses. Thought you had a C-class, haven't heard of balance shaft issues with that high of an engine number.