C43 engine failure

[Booyakajon]

Morning Chaps,

I'd like your thoughts please:

Mrs Booyakajon purchased a lovely 9 month old C43 convertible in January 2019 as an approved used from a Mercedes dealership with 8000 miles on the clock. After the manufacturer's 3 year warranty ran out, we were not offered to extend. The car has always been serviced at Mercedes and looked after. The most recent service was March 2022. It was a really good drive!

At the end of May we were going away for the half term holiday. The car was filled with petrol earlier in the day. We set off from home on a shortish journey to our destination which was around 50 mins away.

Unfortunately about a quarter of a mile from setting off, whilst approaching the motorway roundabout, there was a big bang, lots of smoke and no power. So we pulled over to the side of the roundabout. Had a look under the bonnet - couldn't see anything, just a load of smoke! Mercedes emergency recovery were called from the car and they eventually came and recovered us back to home as no dealerships were open. We swapped cars and headed off back on holiday.

The following week, Mercedes picked up the car and took it to the dealership where it was bought and serviced and we were given a courtesy car.

They had to dismantle the engine to see what had happened. They said that the piston had gone through the engine block

and that a new engine would be £23k. The dealership were very good and felt that clearly this should not have happened on a 3.5 yr old car with 32k miles on the clock and approached Mercedes who did further investigations to ascertain the cause of the engine failure.

After 2 months of investigation, there is no specific answer. Mercedes have agreed to cover 57% of the engine and the dealership have offered to contribute £2k, meaning that Mrs Booyakajon has to pay £9k. This is Mercedes final offer and they suggested contacting the ombudsman which Mrs Booyakajon has done this week. They are looking at the case as I type.

Obviously we do not want to be £9k out of pocket for a clearly faulty engine that has been serviced appropriately and recently but is sadly 1 year out of the manufacturer's warranty. With the retrospectivescope, an extended warranty should have been purchased, but with the busyness of life this was forgotten about and also not offered. No one would expect this to happen on a low mileage 4 year old car, particularly a Mercedes that supposedly prides itself on quality products and reliability.

Advice please..........

 

[KennyN]

Understandable that you dont want to pay the £9k from the dealer however , FWIW for a new fully warrantied engine from the main dealer then £9k isn't too terrible compared to the original price.

You may save a couple of grand buying a used motor and having a garage fit it but how much warranty and piece of mind will you get with an engine of unknown history.

You only really have two realistic options , sell it minus the motor and cut your losses or get it repaired.

Strange it took them 2 months to find a hole in the side of the engine which is more of the result of failure and not the cause ?

Either way , its going to cost - unfortunately.

K

 

[Charliecloud]

If it was my car, I would be contacting a solicitor who specialises in these type of cases. Have a good look at there track record and some trust pilot reviews and then approach them to see what they think the chances are of a win.
I would also request a copy of the report that the dealership or Mercedes have that denotes the 'cause' of such a massive engine failure.

 

[fabes]

You might want to contact the solicitor to have them provide advice, and even prep, but to avoid unnecessary cost I would wait on the Ombudsman - I don't know how long they take to review cases...?
Layman view is you have a pretty strong case and MB will have to fund a lot more if not all of it as you followed their recommended (even required) maintenance route.
Ombudsman 'should' take a similar view if all the facts are as laid out above

If it helps, I had a similar issue on my first Mercedes 3 years and 3 months old which I had had for a week, (not as much of a bill, mind you) and MB paid 90% whilst the dealer settled the final 10%

Was any part of the purchase on Credit?

 

[Booyakajon]

You might want to contact the solicitor to have them provide advice, and even prep, but to avoid unnecessary cost I would wait on the Ombudsman - I don't know how long they take to review cases...?
Layman view is you have a pretty strong case and MB will have to fund a lot more if not all of it as you followed their recommended (even required) maintenance route.
Ombudsman 'should' take a similar view if all the facts are as laid out above

If it helps, I had a similar issue on my first Mercedes 3 years and 3 months old which I had had for a week, (not as much of a bill, mind you) and MB paid 90% whilst the dealer settled the final 10%

Was any part of the purchase on Credit?

Thanks for the replies.
There is a finance agreement that ends in January 2023. We were planning on paying the balloon payment then as we liked the car so much.
So as it stands we are still paying a fair monthly for a GLC 220d courtesy car and no C43

 

[Bellow]

I don't know if the scheme is still in existence and/or whether there it is still applicable in the UK post Brexit but it was linked to a EU directive that required goods sold to be 'fit for purpose for X amount of years' - irrespective of that being longer than the warranty period. It was the method than many owners of smart fortwos got their broken front springs replaced free of charge when outwith the warranty period (I was one of them).

The scheme is/was called ESKULAB and was administered directly by Daimler Chrysler UK (as it was then) - not the dealerships (but they did the actual work) - and the only discretionary element I recall was the possibility of refusal if the vehicle had covered higher than average mileage. The smart fortwo ESKULAB procedure had a SO38 code assigned (as known problem) and repair costs were covered in full. My springs broke in 2010 on a 2005 car with initial two year warranty. Might be worth enquiring further...

 

[KennyN]

There is a finance agreement that ends in January 2023

What criteria do the finance company have about repairing their vehicle , you may find it will need to be a (brand) new motor from the manufacturer which will limit your options considerably.

If it is still their vehicle then they may be calling all the shots regarding the repair.

K

 

[martyz]

Have you thought of having the fuel analysed?..strange her car gave out shortly after filling up.

 

[Booyakajon]

What criteria do the finance company have about repairing their vehicle , you may find it will need to be a (brand) new motor from the manufacturer which will limit your options considerably.

If it is still their vehicle then they may be calling all the shots regarding the repair.

K

We did contact the finance company but they were totally disinterested and offered no help or stipulation

 

[Bellow]

Have you thought of having the fuel analysed?..strange her car gave out shortly after filling up.

As part of the failure analysis, MB would have checked for mis-fuelling - Y/N?

 

[Booyakajon]

Have you thought of having the fuel analysed?..strange her car gave out shortly after filling up.

The dealership did test the fuel to check diesel hadn't been put in (it definitely hadn't!) but I don't know if they analysed the petrol. It was filled up at Costco, which was incredibly busy and if there was an issues with their fuel I would imagine it would be known about.

 

[martyz]

My thoughts were along the lines of the ethanol volume in the petrol.

Petrol heads do not put diesel in powerful petrol engines,so ruled that out.

Hope you get fully compensated for the engine,you have done all the right things.

Good Luck.

 

[fabes]

I'd still hold out some hope on the Ombudsman - can you establish how long they take to make a decision - call them so to 'manage your expectations' and options?

As per @Bellow , isn't there (still) a consumer law that requires a product to be fit for purpose for its expected / reasonable life - and for a car that its 6 years?

As its under finance, do you also not have the CC Act of 1974 to call upon - escalating it with the finance company via its complaints team?
And could plan B be to just hand the keys back.....?
You've probably got equity enough in the car to walk away and make it the finance companies problem (or at least get them interested)
Worth a discussion?

For £9k and if the Ombudsman is going to take for ever to respond, I would make a call to a specialist /consumer law solicitor (initial £250?)

 

[C240Sport97]

This engine is in many cars .. including my SL400.

concerned to read about this, even if this is the first time

I wonder whether this in a one off, or more common

maybe it's just bad luck, or there was some inherent manufacturing defect ..

IMO, as you have had the car over 3 years, I doubt the Ombudsman is going to get you a better deal

 

[KennyN]

The fact the car is out of warranty then getting 60% (in total) towards the repair cost from the manufacturer is pretty fair IMHO , it shouldn`t have happened but with any complex mechanical "thing" there is always a failure risk.

How long will it take to go down the legal route and at what cost, initially ,to yourself and is it worth the grief ?

$hit situation to be in but the two options still remain , pay £9k and get the car back with a new warrantied motor or go down the legal route and hope for the best outcome. If there are numerous documented cases of premature `43 engine failure then you may be onto a winner ,but if not it could be a bit of a drawn out affair.

Whatever route you choose , good luck

On a side note : you are still no further forward as to the cause of the failure , the big hole in the crankcase is the end result not the cause.

K

 

[vijilants]

If you don't get any luck via your dealership,I suggest that find the name of the CEO of Mercedes and write him a polite letter explaing what has happened and appeal to him.

I've done it before in the past with Mercedes when I have had issues on previous vehicles when the dealership were refusing to honour issues related to build quality and it worked on every occasion.

On the engine throwing a rod side of things, it is not the first time I have heard of this. When I was looking to purchase my C43 someone did mention it to me.

When the warranty expired did you not contact Mercedes to extend the warranty ? With twin turbos and all wheel drive, I would always recommend having either having the Mercedes warranty or an aftermarket warranty on these vehicles.

 

[Booyakajon]

Thanks all.

Mercedes UK suggested contacting the motor ombudsman, which we have and they are gathering information. They have said this process may take 6 months!

They also suggested the sale of goods act would be the route to go down and will be looking towards the dealer.

In the meantime, the dealership is asking us to pay the £9k so they can fix the car asap as its taking up one of their ramps!

I think the Mercedes CEO letter would be a good idea.

Sadly we did not think/remember to extend the warranty on the 43 due to busy lives etc. and we didn't receive any reminder. I do have an extended warranty on my 63 though

Thanks

 

[Fady]

Thanks all.

Mercedes UK suggested contacting the motor ombudsman, which we have and they are gathering information. They have said this process may take 6 months!

They also suggested the sale of goods act would be the route to go down and will be looking towards the dealer.

In the meantime, the dealership is asking us to pay the £9k so they can fix the car asap as its taking up one of their ramps!

I think the Mercedes CEO letter would be a good idea.

Sadly we did not think/remember to extend the warranty on the 43 due to busy lives etc. and we didn't receive any reminder. I do have an extended warranty on my 63 though

Thanks

Well I've never had anything but the initially supplied warranty on any car that I have owned. Yes something may go wrong with the car after that period, but there must be extremely long odds on finding yourself in the predicament you are now in and I can only empathise.

Unlike some other posters earlier in the thread, I personally would be prepared to go to war as much as matter of principle. You shouldn't expect to be fitting a new engine to car of that age and mileage, as is the case, that has been properly serviced and with no signs of negligence or abuse.

Best of luck in getting it favourably resolved.

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Sorry to read about this.

Which month/year was it registered, and when was it serviced (dealer, date and mileage)?

If it is 3.5 years old and servicing is in the button, then I would suggest that your case is strong under consumer law.

Mercedes volunteer small contributions quickly but these days jump straight to “if you’re not happy contact the ombudsman”.

They know that most won’t, and most won’t be able to afford or justify the cost/risk or going legal in most cases.

However given the value of your repair then the cost may be worth waiting for ombudsman and/or cost/risk of going legal.

Even with their own legal team ready and waiting, it wouldn’t take long to burn £9k defending this one.

My hun h is that if your solicitor sent a letter then you might get a 90% offer very quickly, and might get to 100%.

However it’s concluded them any settlement will almost certainly be a goodwill gesture, to avoid accepting liability.

 

[ALFAitalia]

As an ex salesman at a main dealer you would win that in a court without any doubt as long as the history is up together. I know having been on the receiving end of such judgements. The magistrates are on the side of the punter from the start even if they are in the wrong....and in my opinion your are in the right. We had a customer put a rod through the block (it won't be a piston as said in first post) after never been back into a dealer or having had any servicing at all in 30 months andb having done nearly 30,000 miles.....we had lost and were out of the door with a large bill within 30 minutes....I was furious. The three in the bench had made up their mind that the little hard working man was not going to lose to the evil main dealer before the case had started. We stopped taking customers to small claims for defaulting on sales for the same reason....even though we had a water tight contact they would find in favour of the customer.....we even had one magistrate say they "you sold it before...you will sell it again" after a customer walked away from a custom specced special order. We took a year to move it at a loss. Magistrates are not judges will find in favour of the private individuals most times....regardless of right or wrong...I hate them.....but this will help in your case. The sale of goods act and fitness for purpose should be used.