2008 E350 is W211 chassis and W211 was listed in S-B-03.30/08i !?
Thanks,

Your inference that individuals who did not buy their vehicle at a dealer nor paid a dealer 2 prices to service it are somehow to blame or deserve what they get is baffling. These are MB products manufactured for a use and these vehicles are proven defective. Where someone bought it or serviced it should have nothing to do with one's expectation to have it properly taken care of since the failure is an extraordinary catastrophic event that is becoming more commonplace with these models. I certainly hope you don't have to deal with the repair regardless if you have a warranty or not.

Furthermore, a DTB isn't a public notification. So, CLV's claim is valid. They have tried to cover it up and are still stonewalling individuals about it. When I first learned of the issue, MB of Knoxville and MB of Huntsville both acted as if they did not know what I was talking about. Only MB of Nashville immediately came clean about the issue and openly talked about it.

An extraordinary catastrophic event??? What's so catastrophic about a check engine light? You make it sound like losing three engines at 37,000 feet! Also, IMHO this is becoming much less common. There was a time when my shop almost always had a balance-shaft job in progress. These days we get maybe one or two a month, and MB has paid for all of them. So much for your conspiracy theory.

Lastly, where someone buys and services a vehicle makes all the difference in the world when it comes to goodwill consideration. You may not agree with it, but that's the way it is. Goodwill assistance is offered to regular customers as a reward for their loyalty.

It most certainly is. Everyone has access to them at http://www.startekinfo.com

__________________
Kent Christensen
Albuquerque
'07 GL320CDI, '10 CL550. '01 Porsche Boxster
Two BMW motorcycles

Maybe for members who are aware of the service. If you recall, on post 12, I posted a copy of this. It's public in the sense, we as members made it that way by informing other members here about it. But no letters were sent notifying owners of the potential problem and to this date, we STILL have dealers downplaying the issue in spite of these TSB's and DTB's. So yes, everyone has access to them at the site you mention AND here as well. But, if these owners are not told nor have someone inform them of the issue or where to get information about it, then they won't know until they get the dreaded codes. The fact that this 'can' be found on a 'public' site does not absolve MB of any responsibility in this matter nor does it make anyone feel better if they have the issue.

It IS a catastrophic failure. Downplay it if you will, but since you brought it up, I'll give you my 2¢.

If this is the way you choose to treat an owner of your product. Fine. I would expect no less from MB service since I've got much experience dealing with you guys. But you must remember, purchasers of used vehicles today may become a new vehicle purchaser tomorrow. But, you're not thinking about that, obviously.

MB would be advised to own up to the fact they screwed up and goodwill these repairs. You can defend them all you want but if you continue to screw around with MB owners by shunning responsibility, MB will continue to fall to the bottom of the list in customer satisfaction.

So, for final questions: Is this, in your opinion, normal for a MB engine to fail in this manner? Is it acceptable for 2 per month to come into your shop, especially considering there are 320 plus dealers across the country? By your own admission, you had more at one time. Wow!

The balance issue is just another problem that MB has just tried to ignore & hopes that it will go away!

They have always done that & made their dealers follow their lead.

Having to spend $3000-4000 on a less than 5 year old car for a major engine repair is just SAD!

Looks & sounds like another CLASS action law suit to me!

__________________
MERCEDES Benz Master Guild Technician (6 TIMES)
ASE Master Technician
Mercedes Benz Star Technician (2 times)
44 years foreign automotive repair
27 Years M.B. Shop foreman (dealer)
MB technical information Specialist (15 years)
190E 2.3 16V ITS SCCA race car (sold)
1986 190E 2.3 16V 2.5 (sold)
Retired Moderator

Makes one chuckle when hearing the new Mercedes commercial 'The Best Or Nothing' slogan which has replaced the old 'The Mercedes Experience, Unlike Any Other'....................................... what a bunch of crap! My .02

Again, it's going to help a lot if you regularly patronize your dealer.

Guys they've never seen before coming in off the street wanting something free don't make much impression.

In addition, we need to tone down the "panic" a bit, as none of us knows the extent of this problem and should realize it's only going to be the earliest production M272/3 engines and that's NOT the majority of them.

Also good to remember is that when you buy a Mercedes or BMW you're not buying a car with a 50-year-old design iron engine, but rather a car with cutting edge technology. Expectations should be different.

In addition, NO car manufacturer caters much to second + owners of its cars. Unless you share in the risk by purchasing insurance (like a CPO warranty) from them, what you've bought is "as is," no warranty implied.

PS: The New York Times Automobiles section regularly publishes TSBs--anyone know if they published this one?

PPS: Mercedes Customer Service? http://www.autoloandaily.com/mercedes-benz-jd-power-2011-customer-service-champion-2746

__________________
Kent Christensen
Albuquerque
'07 GL320CDI, '10 CL550. '01 Porsche Boxster
Two BMW motorcycles

Includes 2005-2008 (early) model M272 & M273 engines,
Get the oil changed more often if you own one of those engines!

The manufacturer of the balance shaft did not properly harden "SOME" of that production run. Possibly 1/4 MILLION engines affected worldwide

Took 3 years to figure that out?
Also took 3-4 years to figure out the wiring mess back in the 90's as well.

__________________
MERCEDES Benz Master Guild Technician (6 TIMES)
ASE Master Technician
Mercedes Benz Star Technician (2 times)
44 years foreign automotive repair
27 Years M.B. Shop foreman (dealer)
MB technical information Specialist (15 years)
190E 2.3 16V ITS SCCA race car (sold)
1986 190E 2.3 16V 2.5 (sold)
Retired Moderator

Update: after two weeks in the shop, I got the car back with a long list of parts gotten replaced! good news is that the repairs were covered under warranty and the car has been running fine since ...

I agree it helps to patronize a dealer but you must remember that second owners are just as capable of creating bad press for the manufacturer as a new car owner. Public perception is the key to continued patronage of new car buyers. If I own a second hand M Class, E Class or any other model with this issue and a potential customer learns that MB stiffed me for a goodwill repair, they will run, not walk away from that product. This is no different from the damage MB suffered when they made the early '80's 380 models with the single row timing chain prone to breakage. Or the 350 SDL or SD diesels that died from some unknown defect that resulted in early engine failure and bent rods. The best PR MB can do is to ensure that each and every model that appears with this issue is compensated 100%.

And there are owners appearing with 2008 models exhibiting this problem, a model year that was initially not supposed to be affected. Recently, an owner of a 2008 E 350 appeared with the dreaded issue, so we don't know how long it will take to discover actually how many of these dogs exist.

MB “owned up” several years ago. If some dealers have decided to play dumb don’t blame the manufacturer. Almost all MB dealers are independently owned/operated. I can’t speak for all dealers, but why would they want to chase clients away? In my region the dealers will go to bat for the client in order to make them happy and keep their business. After all, if the client has a problem with MB but loves their dealership, everybody wins!

Normal? Not exactly. But then again, the M272/273 were only in production for a short time when the balance shaft/sprocket issue surfaced. Sometimes new products experience problems. That’s the way it is in the car business. MB identified the problem and took steps to rectify it.





I work for a high volume dealership. We write about 2,000 repair orders every month. One or two balance shaft jobs doesn’t exactly spell doom for MB.

Finally, since post-warranty/goodwill consideration is at the discretion of the Service Manager, he must sign off before any out-of-warranty job can be started. I’ve yet to see MB deny a claim concerning the balance shaft issue.

Hey - new here and have a 2006 R350 CPO with an extra year of purchased warranty through Feb 2011. Car has 60K miles on it and we have not had the balance shaft issue but are concerned, I checked the engine number and it is in the "bad range" .. .two questions:

1. Is this for sure going to happen at some point in the future? Are the odds very likely this will go out or is it something that may never occur (up to 90K miles or so)?

2. Summer trip - should I be concerned about take the R on a multi-week driving vacation this summer?

Thank
Adam

Hey guys, just letting you know that my parents took the car to our local MB dealership and WOW, they covered EVERYTHING. From parts to labor to the diagnostic fee. After reading this thread and benzworlds thread, i thought there was no hope at all and tried to convince my dad to go to an independent shop to save some money. He wanted to just get it diagnosed first then take it to a shop after. Well, after the dealership checked it, they proceeded to tell my dad that everything would be covered. We didnt even get the car serviced or mainted through the 5 years we've owned the car (we own a small auto-shop and serviced it ourselves) im just letting yall know, not all hope is lost.

edit*
our warranty ended about 1 1/2 years ago