G7Wagen
Active Member
Link to the C43 Engine failure posts.. C43 engine failure | AMG Lounge
E63 AMGS Engine Seizure
- Thread starter Alboy
- Start date
ALFAitalia
MB Enthusiast
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2022
- Messages
- 6,678
- Location
- Bognor Regis
- Car
- 2009 ALFA 159 2.0 JTDM, Merc A170 (W169), Merc CLK 200K (C209) gone, 1999 Merc SLK 230K (R170) gone.
Agreed how can it possibly cost 9k to see what went wrong???
SmartAmg
MB Club Veteran
It can't, but I presume, they are hoping he'll quietly go away, throwing stupid figures at him. Hope he gets a good outcome.
It's a good strategy for the dealer because it becomes very difficult for you to do anything with the car once they have started to strip it down; it makes your bargaining position weaker. This ought to be as easy as it gets; prestige top of the range expensive car, one owner bought new so no doubts about the history, only 3.5 years old, serviced by the main dealer, only 6 months out of manufacturer warranty...........
oldguy57
MB Enthusiast
Amounts to about 50 hours work at an MB dealer. I find it hard to believe that it takes in effect over 6 working 8 hour days to strip a motor but I've never done an MB one.
Teego
MB Enthusiast
And you wouldn't need to strip the motor in one go. Drain oil and check for swarf and chunks. Drop sump and inspect lower engine. Inspect top end with camera thru spark plugs holes. Then decide next steps.
4 hours work split between you and dealer.
Also check mileage and time since last dealer service. Any extra jobs?
It’s not remotely common, but not entirely unheard of for M177 to have issues with over-tight main bearing clearances from the factory. It leads to crankshaft seizure, usually propagating from a main bearing initially, but overheat quickly spreading to big end bearing journal and then ultimately seizure. I have an old school attitude and I won’t repair an engine after a failure of this magnitude. I believe Tasos did repair one, but it wasn’t a total success iirc
Engine oil analysis might give some clue as to what has happened.
I must have miss that video, it's a good'en. I bet AMG know about this and the effected engine numbers too
fabes
MB Enthusiast
Has anyone mentioned going to the media / consumer watchdogs.
It's disappointing whe the company reacts differently once they get involved, but they at least do in most cases
Car magazines are once source of such assistance
It's disappointing whe the company reacts differently once they get involved, but they at least do in most cases
Car magazines are once source of such assistance
I guess there will be an occasional bad batch of engine out there. Or an engine builder who was drunk during assembly but these early / low mileage failures are worrying, especially as the engine is stock and dealer maintained.
Did you see this thread today:
A35 AMG loss of compression | Engine
A35 AMG written off after engine management came on due to lack of compression in one cylinder The car is only just out of warranty and has only 23500 miles. this should never have happened in a car like this, Has anyone else had a similar experience?
forums.mbclub.co.uk
philnewmerc
Active Member
Some suggestions to consider: Try a forensic engineering company for a quote for the engine investigation. Tell the dealer the car was not of sufficient quality to be saleable (no reasonable person expects a car engine to fail at 35k). If they will not investigate for a reasonable amount then you will engage a forensic investigation and charge the dealer for the bill. Remember, your 'contract' is with the company you bought the car from, not MB. You need to force the dealer to chase MB and the only way to do that is to let them no you are taking no prisoners. You might have legal cover on your car or house insurance that will entitle you to speak to a solicitor for advice: a letter from them or you quoting relevant law will be extremely useful. Good luck
philnewmerc
Active Member
What I meant was, in law, your contract is with the dealer, the dealer's contract is with MB and MB's contract is with whoever supplied the faulty component that caused your car to go bang, and so on... hence you chasing MB is a good idea but it is not one that stands legally. Legally the dealer has to honour their contract, and if in doing so they are out of pocket then they should seek recompense from MB.
Thanks for all your responses to this, very helpful. The dealer has initially found swarf and chunks of metal inside the engine oil without doing a full strip. They still want me to pay £9k to allow them to go to customer contributions to make a full case. During my conversation with the dealer I have made it very clear that nothing I have done could have caused the engine to do this (kept it topped up with oil, dealer maintained from new, no modifications), so am not sure of any circumstance that this would not be down to the manufacturer. Currently, dealer has very kindly leant me a car to drive (well done Mercedes Colindale), and are also contacting dealer contributions to see if they get Mercedes to agree to pay for the investigation which would allow me to progress to next stage and to find out what caused this, and how it gets resolved. Will keep you all updated, and thanks again for the support and ideas - keeping me going in this horrible situation!
Teego
MB Enthusiast
MB seriously need to investigate this as a quality assurance issue. Identify the faults and then trace the originator. Always remember a warranty is additional to your statutory consumer rights but may be exceeded by them.
BTW did anyone check the engine fault codes?
BTW did anyone check the engine fault codes?
