- Joined
- May 25, 2012
- Messages
- 492
- Location
- North West
- Car
- 2018 E220d S213 ||| 2012 E500 4.7 V8 Bi-Turbo Cabrio ||| 2021 Mercedes Sprinter Hymer Camper Van
About 12 months ago I was convinced that my E500 had the dreaded top end rattle on cold start up. I took it to the dealer who reckoned it was OK - sort of ‘they all do that sir’.
Still not convinced I queried it again at the next service in July and went armed with video recording of the noise. This time they kept the car in so they could cold start it the following day. They agreed with me that it was noisy and sent a recording to Mercedes in Germany for analysis.
The top end rattle issues with the early M278 lumps are well documented and there is an official fix - revised cam chain tensioner and oil relief valves. The engine in my car fell into the number range of the effected engines and I had a tier 1 extended MB warranty on the car… so all good.
Car booked in for repair works and I went off on holiday for a few weeks.
It took about 5 weeks for the dealer to get the parts and tools needed to rebuild but eventually, in late August it was ready.
I went to pick it up at the allotted but they were still working on it. After an hour so of waiting the service tech said they were having ‘issues’ with it and loaned me a 1 month old CLS450 to ‘hang on to till they get my car sorted’.
OK, I thought, new CLS to play with for a while, not a problem! My E500 is an occasional use car so it not being around wasn’t really a issue. So the CLS became our daily driver for a few weeks. Nice car - I really got to like it.
I dropped the CLS back to them in early Sept as I was away for two weeks and didn’t want to leave it on my drive. Besides, my E500 would be back by the time I got home…
On my return the E500 still wasn’t ready - for some reason they were now doing a full top end overhaul, new valves etc … at this point I’m thinking that they must have broken it somehow by rebuilding it incorrectly.
To keep me sweet they loaned my a brand new GLS, for a couple of weeks followed by another GLS two weeks later. I had return the 2nd GLS as it had a occasional lack of power fault and horrendous fuel consumption. It only had 400 miles on the clock.
They then let me a C220d which was a cracking car - over 60 mpg easily. I put over 3500 miles on that car.
Still they were rebuilding the E500, waiting for parts etc … but eventually in late Nov it was ready.
I went to collect it and asked for a full parts list of everything that had gone into the rebuild. Turns out after a couple of strip downs and rebuild attempts they just couldn’t get the engine to run properly.
So … they fitted a brand new engine !!
On the supplied paperwork the engine alone is about £16,500, plus a few ancillary fitting parts, plus the original parts for the abortive repairs, plus I don’t how many hours labour.
Quite a warranty claim - somewhere in the region of £25,000 all in I would guess, considerably more the car is worth.
I also got to drive about 5000 miles in various new Mercs for a few months at no cost to myself apart from fuel.
While it was in I also had a new driveshaft fitted under a separate claim which was £1200.
Not a bad result for my £499 annual warranty cost.
So all was now sorted ? Not quite …….
About 100 miles in the EML light came on. Took it back, they ran the codes and showed up ‘faulty lambda sensor‘. Sensor ordered and fitted (under warranty) but the fault returned again after about 50 miles.
Car went back in for two weeks while they tried to figure… to cut a long stay short, it turns out that when the new engine was shipped it was supplied with a part wiring loom. During transit or fitting somehow one wire in the spaghetti of wires got damaged. It was that wire that was throwing up the sensor fault code circuit.
Car returned to me a coupe of weeks ago 100% sorted. It was also beautifully valeted, inside and out .. and under the bonnet!
I now have a nearly eight year old car, which only has 25,000 miles on the clock with a brand new engine in it.
I can’t decide whether its more powerful than it was before, it does seem to be, but its certainly silky smooth and stupidly quick.
Got to say, the dealership were brilliant, I’m not sure why the original lump couldn’t be rebuilt but the end result and the courtesy cars made up for it!
Likely will extend the warranty again when it comes for renewal.....
Still not convinced I queried it again at the next service in July and went armed with video recording of the noise. This time they kept the car in so they could cold start it the following day. They agreed with me that it was noisy and sent a recording to Mercedes in Germany for analysis.
The top end rattle issues with the early M278 lumps are well documented and there is an official fix - revised cam chain tensioner and oil relief valves. The engine in my car fell into the number range of the effected engines and I had a tier 1 extended MB warranty on the car… so all good.
Car booked in for repair works and I went off on holiday for a few weeks.
It took about 5 weeks for the dealer to get the parts and tools needed to rebuild but eventually, in late August it was ready.
I went to pick it up at the allotted but they were still working on it. After an hour so of waiting the service tech said they were having ‘issues’ with it and loaned me a 1 month old CLS450 to ‘hang on to till they get my car sorted’.
OK, I thought, new CLS to play with for a while, not a problem! My E500 is an occasional use car so it not being around wasn’t really a issue. So the CLS became our daily driver for a few weeks. Nice car - I really got to like it.
I dropped the CLS back to them in early Sept as I was away for two weeks and didn’t want to leave it on my drive. Besides, my E500 would be back by the time I got home…
On my return the E500 still wasn’t ready - for some reason they were now doing a full top end overhaul, new valves etc … at this point I’m thinking that they must have broken it somehow by rebuilding it incorrectly.
To keep me sweet they loaned my a brand new GLS, for a couple of weeks followed by another GLS two weeks later. I had return the 2nd GLS as it had a occasional lack of power fault and horrendous fuel consumption. It only had 400 miles on the clock.
They then let me a C220d which was a cracking car - over 60 mpg easily. I put over 3500 miles on that car.
Still they were rebuilding the E500, waiting for parts etc … but eventually in late Nov it was ready.
I went to collect it and asked for a full parts list of everything that had gone into the rebuild. Turns out after a couple of strip downs and rebuild attempts they just couldn’t get the engine to run properly.
So … they fitted a brand new engine !!
On the supplied paperwork the engine alone is about £16,500, plus a few ancillary fitting parts, plus the original parts for the abortive repairs, plus I don’t how many hours labour.
Quite a warranty claim - somewhere in the region of £25,000 all in I would guess, considerably more the car is worth.
I also got to drive about 5000 miles in various new Mercs for a few months at no cost to myself apart from fuel.
While it was in I also had a new driveshaft fitted under a separate claim which was £1200.
Not a bad result for my £499 annual warranty cost.
So all was now sorted ? Not quite …….
About 100 miles in the EML light came on. Took it back, they ran the codes and showed up ‘faulty lambda sensor‘. Sensor ordered and fitted (under warranty) but the fault returned again after about 50 miles.
Car went back in for two weeks while they tried to figure… to cut a long stay short, it turns out that when the new engine was shipped it was supplied with a part wiring loom. During transit or fitting somehow one wire in the spaghetti of wires got damaged. It was that wire that was throwing up the sensor fault code circuit.
Car returned to me a coupe of weeks ago 100% sorted. It was also beautifully valeted, inside and out .. and under the bonnet!
I now have a nearly eight year old car, which only has 25,000 miles on the clock with a brand new engine in it.
I can’t decide whether its more powerful than it was before, it does seem to be, but its certainly silky smooth and stupidly quick.
Got to say, the dealership were brilliant, I’m not sure why the original lump couldn’t be rebuilt but the end result and the courtesy cars made up for it!
Likely will extend the warranty again when it comes for renewal.....
Well as good as 
