Looks like Mercedes-Benz won this one, NO RECALL as of April 22, 2004 -

NHTSA Action Number : PE03058 NHTSA Recall Campaign Number : N/A
Make : MERCEDES BENZ Model: M CLASS
Manufacturer : MERCEDES-BENZ USA, LLC. Year : 2000
Component : ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING:ENGINE:GASOLINE:BELTS AND ASSOCIATED PULLEYS
Date Investigation Opened : December 17, 2003
Date Investigation Closed : April 22, 2004
Summary:
THE OFFICE OF DEFECTS INVESTIGATION (ODI) OPENED THIS PRELIMINARY EVALUATION TO INVESTIGATE ALLEGATIONS OF ENGINE CRANKSHAFT PULLEY HARMONIC BALANCER FAILURE THAT COULD RESULT IN LOSS OF POWER-STEERING ASSIST. ODI HAS RECEIVED A TOTAL OF 546 NON-DUPLICATIVE REPORTS THAT ALLEGE ENGINE CRANKSHAFT PULLEY HARMONIC BALANCER FAILURE ON ALL MERCEDES-BENZ VEHICLES USING THE SUBJECT COMPONENT. THE SUBJECT COMPONENT FAILURES ARE PROGRESSIVE IN NATURE AND ONLY A SMALL PERCENTAGE OF THE COMPLAINTS AND WARRANT CLAIMS INVOLVED A FAILURE THAT HAD PROGRESSED FAR ENOUGH TO EFFECT POWER STEERING PERFORMANCE (6 OF 55 ODI COMPLAINTS REFERENCE INCREASED STEERING EFFORT). THERE HAVE BEEN NO CRASHES OR INJURIES RELATED TO THE ALLEGED DEFECT. A SAFETY-RELATED DEFECT HAS NOT BEEN IDENTIFIED AT THIS TIME AND FURTHER USE OF AGENCY RESOURCES DOES NOT APPEAR TO BE WARRANTED. ACCORDINGLY, THIS INVESTIGATION IS CLOSED. THE CLOSING OF THIS INVESTIGATION DOES NOT CONSTITUTE A FINDING BY NHTSA THAT A SAFETY-RELATED DEFECT DOES NOT EXIST. THE AGENCY WILL TAKE FURTHER ACTION IF WARRANTED BY THE CIRCUMSTANCES.

A colleage at work has related a story about his Mitsubishi Diamante. Turns out, the V-6 in his car is fitted with a crankshaft pulley of excatly the same design. He has experienced exactly the same type of failure at about 100,000 miles. I wonder how many vehicles on the road use this design and how many other failures are out there in the general car population. Funny thing, he didn't think of it as anything but a routine issue.

That's baloney,not even a TSB.

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1999 C280 Sport, 1967 911s Porsche

grapes11 - don't understand your post.

Vince-Just referring th the Azinn post about no recall. I Thought there would be at a Service Bulletin from Mercedes on the balancers. Interesting about the Mitsubihi though. I'm sure that was Mercedes'argument, that it is a wear item

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1999 C280 Sport, 1967 911s Porsche

I noticed signs of a slight wobble in the vibration damper on my w220 s500. Not sure if it's the same as the harmonic balancer, I believe so. I took it to the dealer and they replaced it under warranty. That and a transmission leak that was causing a rough 1-2 shift and an O2 sensor that was giving a CEL.

Do you really think they would on such a small number of problems if they haven't done a thing over the years of the some 4.1 million Ford F-series trucks being driven on our roads with unsafe door latches?? The doors are known to fly open in an accident and even with a seatbelt on, can strangle an occupant.
Ford has done crash tests without doors on and some with them welded shut so to pass the tests.
And NHTSA has done nothing to alert the F-series owners of the unsafe vehicle they drive.

Just my two cents about 'big brother' helping us.

Tobias MB
190/5.8

Related to that NHTSA is working to improve roof strengths:

Special Report: NHTSA grids for Crushed Roof Showdown with Big Three.
http://www.detnews.com/specialreports/2004/crushedroofs/index.htm

Reminds me of about 30 years ago, when in 1970 DOT initiated a program to strengthen the crash structure of vehicles and asked manufacturers to participate. Since MB had completed much work in that area, and wanted to remain competitive, they participated in that program and built 31 ESV (Experimental Safety Vehicle) test vehicles, all of which were crashed. As far as I know ESV24 was based on the W116 in 1973, which to this day is one of my daily drivers. ESV22 in 1972 met all the safety criteria already, but was about 10% heavier than ESV24.


my 73 450SE


ESV 24

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W163.154, M112.942, 722.662, ZF.970.402

I replaced the HB of my 98 ML320 at about 68k miles as "preventive" maintenance after reading all the horror stories. The service manager seemed to be aware that this is a common problem. The cost is about $300 including labor. No big deal given the damage it can do. I am waiting for a class action lawsuit to get my money back...

I also need to get reimbursed for a power steering leak failure: $1200. There should be a class action lawsuit for that defect too.

TJ

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TJ

1998 ML 320
2002 Jag X-type

Forget about class action on the harmonic balancer....everyone wants to cry and complaint but you'd be amazed at how many people actually filed formal compaints on this issue. I am very disappointed.

The only comfort I have is that MB lost a lot of customers and reputation. I'll bet had they handled the customer compaints ina responsible way, they'd

1. have more ongoing customers
2. spent less money to satisfy and keep customers than complying with NHTSA data request and legal fees

How can they say no HB problem when every ML in Japan was recalled and fixed?


Given there was a recall on the p/s, I would suspect class action activity is highly improbable.

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Jim

I am amazed at the lack of initiative on part of these crybabies. Why dont they sue in small claims court or other if large enough? I theatened to do so, and got a fair settlement way back on front subassebly . Try it you may like it! Abe G

George Murphy(MB club tech adviser) , stated to me that this was a problem, C class also.


Marc

Sounds like the HB issue is prevelent with the V-6s. I checked my HB on my '97 E320 - didn't seem to be any issues.

Has anyone seen this problem on the Straight 6s??????

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'97 E320 Black Opal
'86 300E Smoke Silver / Burgundy (retired at 198K)
'63 Austin Healey 3000 Mk II (BJ7) (reluctantly retired)

... when my wife was driving with our child in the back.
It totally failed at highway speed and nearly caused an accident.
The car was hard to control and was on the verge of stalling.
Thankfully she made it home, and the damage was not bad.
It only scored the timing chain cover and shredded the belt.
It's a travistey that Mercedes does not step up and accept reponsibility.

repeat suggestion: Why do you mercedes customers take this crap from dealers? Go to small claims court get summons, then have them talk to you!Been there done that Abe G