The W211 shoe has dropped

[rocky raccoon]

After 8 absolutely trouble-free years, my wife's 2008 E320 has finally had a failure, and it is a doozie.

She called me for a rescue because she couldn't steer it and had a "battery" message. Luckily it happened in a Starbucks parking lot (she spends a lot of time at Starbucks).

I immediately thought "serp belt" and when I arrived and looked the belt was indeed in shreds. Her dealer (I am forbidden to maintain this car, thank God) has been providing excellent service so I really didn't expect this.

We had it towed and when the dealer inspected it, they found that the harmonic balancer had come apart, shredded the belt and the belt took the power steering pump. Total was about $1900 to repair. The harmonic balancer recall only covered up to 2001 so it was money out of her pocket.

Once more, I wished she would have been satisfied with a well-sorted W123.