Failed MOT

[notsofast]

Im not saying MOT garaged did anything wrong just found it a bit odd, that outer CV BOOT listed as damaged and told its in fact the inner, could be an innocent mistake as garages well under pressure due to back log

I serviced car myself, to be honest only looked at outers and done a total of 2500 miles since last MOT, not common for inners to split

The wipers I did check a few days earlier and looked ok, but was left at garage for a few days for them to fit in when ever, we had frost same few days and as we all know worst thing for wipers is to turn on if stuck, so not fussed about them.

I do get a free retest before 10 days are up.

so looking at car, issue and cost, I don't mind using pattern parts as from what iv seem of MB quality of build im taking same risks just saving money, and from parts ive removed on a car with full history, m better of replacing myself just more offen, than be told its been done and not.

So choices, pair wipers £10, split CV booT £10 yes I can hear screams now about split boot

Cars now at 90,000 and seams to be a few issues around drive shafts posted.

so replace boot, get tools cone ect, remove shaft is 95% of work but keep OEM drive shaft hope CV joints OK and hope they seal, which seams 50/50 chance even when done by garage

Or temp repair order and wait for new drive shafts at £55-60 per side with 3 year warranty, I very much doubt this car will last that long before comes uneconomical to repair

Have to be realistic, car is just to get from A-B, I have no attachment for car and probably will never buy another MB, if I had not owned this car I doubt I would have believed such fundamental flaws , its at age one major fault and its scrap

Me im leaning towards split boot for MOT, order shaft and see what happens

Thanks



Tezz

About right with your views. My first Mercedes was a W124 estate which was amongst the best of cars I have ever owned. The most heavily used car in our household is a 2012 Clio estate. It cost £4000 five years ago and we have put 183,000 miles on it and it has been subject to less repairs than my CLS which I have also owned for 5 years and runs less than 1500 miles per year.
I do not use original MB parts for the CLS as they would not need replaced if they were that good whereas I do use OEM Renault parts (mostly) for the Clio for service items particularly (Timing belt, water pump, tensioner pulley, diesel filter, oil filters and OEM Elf engine oil). Never had any issues with engine, turbo, DPF, electronics, ABS etc. etc. The only non service parts have been brakes and springs. I now have a worn ball joint I will need to change before the next MOT.......

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

About right with your views. My first Mercedes was a W124 estate which was amongst the best of cars I have ever owned. The most heavily used car in our household is a 2012 Clio estate. It cost £4000 five years ago and we have put 183,000 miles on it and it has been subject to less repairs than my CLS which I have also owned for 5 years and runs less than 1500 miles per year.
I do not use original MB parts for the CLS as they would not need replaced if they were that good whereas I do use OEM Renault parts (mostly) for the Clio for service items particularly (Timing belt, water pump, tensioner pulley, diesel filter, oil filters and OEM Elf engine oil). Never had any issues with engine, turbo, DPF, electronics, ABS etc. etc. The only non service parts have been brakes and springs. I now have a worn ball joint I will need to change before the next MOT.......

You’ve done 183,000 miles in five years, in a Clio estate. My goodness me you work that car hard!

 

[Tezz]

Took for retest all passed now

Opted for cheapest way out in end, easy split boot and Pattern wipers £ 20.

Ill keep an eye on boot, if becomes issue will just pop new shaft in complete

Tezz

 

[zipdip]

Well pleased your car passed the retest,you are the fouth person I have heard that has failed a MOT on split cv boot,now I think it is wise to check these before the MOT ,and as always now with emissions being tightened up to make a MOT booking and arrive just before,with the engine hot,you were ok on emissions but maybe as you say your wipers paid the price of a frozen screen,garages are short of work people are working from home and doing far less mileage.

 

[Tezz]

so how was first year of ownership..........

First due to poor servicing, blocked pollen filter drain, flooded battery box and cabin played havoc with electrics, sorted dried out and RAC fitted new battery for free, battery kept going flat, traced to rear tailgate handle switch hanging up damaged by failed boot handle seal, easy fix once found fitted bypass micro switch button to handle cost £3, all wiper wash jets blocked, fitted £2 rear jet from china and pulled off plastic jet blocks from bonnet jets work fine without them, new rear wiper arm and blade fitted, water in boot from rear light seals, clock on dash will not sync with command, seams common issue, applied updated maps and software I found for free made no difference so just left it 2 hours out. noise and clonks from front wheels, fitted 2 new tyres problem went away. fault on drivers mirror indicator fault came on dash if they were fouled in, wiring issue. I had doubt on the quality of recent service, so changed pollen, air, fuel and oil filters, changed engine oil, break, fluid and anti freeze , as above 1 cv boot and pair wipers, you would think that's it, still to do replace heater resistor and seams now thermostat that mean striping half engine, need to fit the replacement centre vent to dash as old one glued in after a bodge by a previous owner, new 2nd hand one n boot from eBay £10.

So apart from my time with MOT its cost me so far about £250, will it last another year, Hmmmmm I doubt it

 

[Doodle]

About right with your views. My first Mercedes was a W124 estate which was amongst the best of cars I have ever owned. The most heavily used car in our household is a 2012 Clio estate. It cost £4000 five years ago and we have put 183,000 miles on it and it has been subject to less repairs than my CLS which I have also owned for 5 years and runs less than 1500 miles per year.

These situations are not unconnected. Cars don't like sitting around unused.

 

[Tezz]

Well pleased your car passed the retest,you are the fouth person I have heard that has failed a MOT on split cv boot,now I think it is wise to check these before the MOT ,and as always now with emissions being tightened up to make a MOT booking and arrive just before,with the engine hot,you were ok on emissions but maybe as you say your wipers paid the price of a frozen screen,garages are short of work people are working from home and doing far less mileage.

My fault on CV boot I only looked at outer, the split boot was an easy fix, the one I took of was very hard rubber compared to the soft split boot, I glued a part of the split boot together I cut of and left for an hour and I could not pull it apart only time will tell if holds up, on plus side seam parts for my car are very cheap pair of new shafts £114

 

[notsofast]

These situations are not unconnected. Cars don't like sitting around unused.

I also have a motorhome almost the same age as the CLS with almost the same mileage but gets used even less. It has needed absolutely nothing over the five years I have owned it. It was used quite a bit this year but never left the garage other than for its MOT the previous year. The lesser used vehicles are kept in the garage. The daily runner is kept outside. The only vehicle that generally needs repairs is the CLS. Parking sensors, glow plugs, suspension joints, coils springs, wing mirror led indicator, wiring within the mirror folding mechanism, No1 crankshaft shell off the top of my head. All three vehicles have all these things but only the MB has had to have them repaired. Don't get me wrong, it is the best vehicle to drive and look at but it is the least reliable without doubt.

 

[Doodle]

Again, not particularly surprising given that motorhomes are usually based on a commercial vehicle drivetrain. By comparison as complex as a lump of granite.

 

[notsofast]

Again, not particularly surprising given that motorhomes are usually based on a commercial vehicle drivetrain. By comparison as complex as a lump of granite.

Yup. The same OM642 engine in the CLS also used in a the Sprinter and Vito vans. They also suffer the same common maladies. My van however has an engine shared with Jaguar, Land Rover, Volvo, Mazda and of course the Ford Mondeo. Not as smooth or as powerful as the OM642 but I have not had to have any work so far. Not even a glow plug and most certainly not the #1 main bearing.

 

[Doodle]

My van however has an engine shared with Jaguar, Land Rover, Volvo, Mazda and of course the Ford Mondeo. Not as smooth or as powerful as the OM642 but I have not had to have any work so far. Not even a glow plug and most certainly not the #1 main bearing.

Putting a V6 in a van is unwarranted decadance . I've encountered said lump in Volvo and Mondeo guise. Sound like there's a bag of nuts and bolts in the sump, but undeniably effective.

 

[Tezz]

This is by far the worst car I have ever owned, it is so fundamentally flawed and full of crap parts, im amazed they still selling cars.

So car MOT on Monday did not drive till today, took out to do a hospital run, making a few noises then bang saw something fly from car, I stopped to pick up part and was an quarter turn of a front spring had snapped off, no hint no warning just bang, had a look on web and seams yet another known issue with this car.

Merc back n the day may have been classed as quality, now what a heap of crap, on outside it looks great, inside is great looks immaculate, bits that make it go, I think better off replacing all parts with cheap copy Patten parts they may perform better.

So it could be argued its cause its an A class or its old, but , I have owned many cars over the years and have come to recognise crap when I see it.

some of it you could put down to bad luck, but when you find a multitude of you tube vids, web sites and post all listing the very same common problems, kind of get impression I would have been better off buy a Alfa.

Maybe that's why the parts are so easily and cheaply available for my car as they all break so offen t worth remanufacturing them ?

Yes they look good, would I buy another, never

 

[markjay]

I bought Mrs MJ a Renault Senic II that was 3 years old at the time and had 8,000 miles on the clock.

We sold it 5 years later with 14,000 miles on the clock, and had no end of electrical problems during our ownership, including some pretty expensive ones.

We won't be buying a Renault in a hurry again... the Renault was replaced by a Kia that provided us with 5 years of exemplary fault-free service, now replaced by a Suzuki which we hope will do the same.

In the past 25 years and 8 cars (jointly) I can only remember two MOT failures, both on the W203 - a blown bulb, and cracking on a ball joint dust cap.

 

[Tezz]

My mistake was assuming the Merc badge stood for quality, I now know better, my fault if it had not been a Merc I would have looked into it a bit deeper, but figured with 80,000 miles, fairly comprehensive history and fact it looked great inside and out was a good indication of what I was buying, how many people do a web search to see if what makes a car run is crap?

I mean if they cant even get the most basics of issues correct that s keeping water on outside of car what hope is there for rest of it ?

 

[Tezz]

I bought Mrs MJ a Renault Senic II that was 3 years old at the time and had 8,000 miles on the clock.

We sold it 5 years later with 14,000 miles on the clock, and had no end of electrical problems during our ownership, including some pretty expensive ones.

We won't be buying a Renault in a hurry again... the Renault was replaced by a Kia that provided us with 5 years of exemplary fault-free service, now replaced by a Suzuki which we hope will do the same.

In the past 25 years and 8 cars (jointly) I can only remember two MOT failures, both on the W203 - a blown bulb, and cracking on a ball joint dust cap.

Im told my car has a Renault engine, maybe that would explain why every part you need to service or repair is at the back of engine, how hard would it be to put them at the front ?

So looks like I now need to find a pair of springs, odd thing is it seamed to drive better once bit fell off lol

 

[notsofast]

Broken springs are a regular thing for many cars. My CLS broke the front nearside spring with its first owner. Touch wood, I have not had that failure yet. I do recall also changing the front springs on my W124 too. On the subject of A-Class models, my wife used to run a 1998 A160 and it indeed was the least reliable car we ever owned in more than 40 cars over the years. The final nail in its coffin was the output drive bearing on the gearbox becoming noisy. The job entailed removing the front sub frame c/w engine, gearbox and suspension from the car, then removing the engine and gearbox from the sub frame. The main dealer actually had the bearings in stock so it could not have been that much of a rare problem! Within another few thousand miles, the syncro rings started playing up. It had a litany of other failures including destroying a tyre when the front spring broke and skewered the sidewall. It was the only car that ever left her (or me) in need of vehicle recovery. The car was rarely not in need of some repair or other. Some minor but many quite serious. It looked great and drove well when it was working but that was a fairly rare occurrence. I felt bad about selling it on.

 

[notsofast]

Im told my car has a Renault engine, maybe that would explain why every part you need to service or repair is at the back of engine, how hard would it be to put them at the front ?

So looks like I now need to find a pair of springs, odd thing is it seamed to drive better once bit fell off lol

My Clio is not accessible around the engine either. The oil filter is at the front of the engine but still very difficult to get at with my shovel hands. Fuel filter is behind the wheel arch liner. Headlight bulbs are an absolute pig. I fitted Osram taxi bulbs (guaranteed for 4 years) to avoid having so much skin loss to the back of my hand again. The CLS bulbs are childs play in comparison.

 

[Tezz]

Thankfully parts are cheap £25 for a new pair of springs, im sure I have a set of spring compressors some where, I don't see point of bying Merc Parts

 

[Tezz]

Just waiting for springs to arrive, they are supposed to be a matched pair made in germany so will change both at same time, ill let you know how it rides, £25 inc delivery, even before break the car bottomed out all the time (common problem on A class) so will be interesting to see how after market Patten parts hold up, and at £25 with warranty no big issue if crap and have to look again

Tezz

 

[Philc57]

My first bmw 3 series estate i had for 9 years, replaced waterpump twice and rear springs twice, which I didn't think was bad .
My 2nd 3 series lasted 4 years, got rid of. Complete rubbish