problems with my ML270CDI

[borrill]

HI to every one on this site as im a new member.
it all started back in march 2007 when we decide to part our beloved and trusted fiesta and decided to look for a ML 270CDI auto deisel whith all the luxurys and mod cons and many years of enjoyment well sort of !i know what car are like, any way on my way to work i notice a beautiful dark 2001 y reg blue ML270 , and 1 owner,parked in a local independent dealership with a good reputation that deals in mostly mercs, which ticked all boxes had every extra options going including tip, memory seats full MB history, you name it it had it,any way i took this car for a test drive and it drove briliantly,so we exchanged our vehicles and they agreed to pay half towards our gold warranty to give us peace of mind if things do go wrong ,after all they are exspensive machines , so of we went in our beloved car.
then in july our alternater and drive belt decided to pack up on us so we thought dont worry these things happen we contact the warranty company and after 2 days of arguing with them and waiting, they decided to pay for the part and only 3 hours labour at the basic rate we still had to pay 250quid towards the works, off we go again in our car enjoying every moment until last week before we headed of to our holidays up north, ETS/EPS lights came on in the dash board when my wife drove back home from work so when we turned it off to park it in garage then switch it back on it never came back on, great we said it must be ok now, but i phone our MB specialist just to check, so the next morning when my wife drove it to work on the way to the garage we heared a knocking noise from the left side of the front car which seems to appear when you pull away then go's away above 20mph off it went again to the garage and waited until the call comes from the garage, then more bad news the propshaft went !! which explains the noise, not sure about the dash board lights,can you belive it! how could this be, how could this happen to a car of this age and this millege,within a space of 2 weeks from the alternator going then the propshaft, even worse the warranty rejected the claim for a new propshaft as this componant was wear and tear and gona cost a further 600quid what are these companys for when you need them most, is this normal for this to happen to these cars of this age or is it a spot of bad luck, i really do love this car when it is working but i am really losing faith due to the problems within a space of 5 months is there anything else i should look out for, any advice or imformation would be helpful, thanks mike.
we are at the moment threating the warranty company to take them to court over this matter.
i forgot to mention the milege is 68000, and as disscused with a member on this site i phoned up MB main dealer today to check the milege and it all matches the service book records and have all the history on there data base which is all fine i did ask there advice and there enginer said that they do rarely go BUT not common as this is a wear and tear part.
also contacted warranty company again and had it out big time with them but still no luck spoke to my soliciter today and he said although i might have a good chance to get some where, it may cost more money than the actual job costs, and depends on what the warranty company covers, so what shall i do bite the bullet and pay and cancel the warranty and look else where? i dont know, the car is fixed and ready to be collected by its beloved owner, i also spoke to the car dealer today and said i had a 3 month warranty on the car, but he said he will talk to the warranty company tomorow to see if he can help, wheather he is trying to frob me off or not i dont know,

 

[marcos]

Welcome to the forum.

You don't mention the mileage but I have never heard of a prop shaft going wrong on an ML, especially of that age.
Unfortunately warranty companies tend to argue the toss over everything but if it's relatively low mileage then wear and tear does not really come into it.

Where abouts in Herts are you?

 

[reflexboy]

Hi and may I be the first to welcome you to the forum! I can't really comment about your ML as I drive a C class, but I'm sure one of the others will be along shortly to aid you

 

[borrill]

thanks for your reply the millege is 68000 on my ML270, and i live in stevenage,cheers mike

 

[BaldGuy]

Not trying to worry you but have you had the mileage verified by anyone or Mercedes... I too find it very weird that a major mechanical part could go wrong at this age and mileage of vehicle... Maybe a call to your local Benz dealer to enquire..

 

[borrill]

hi there again if you are still there, just wanted to know if you had any problems with your ML320, cheers

 

[IanA2]

Well...what to say...68K seems a reasonable mileage for a 6 year old car...I've had a 270 SE from new (05) which has done 25K without real incident....perhaps you should give more details of you "warranty" as that seems the way to go....how was the service history?....did you check back with previous owner(s).....let us know how things progress.

 

[borrill]

hi there thanks for your reply, i will look into this tomorrow, but we do have a full stamped service book from a MB dealers up until now, with the millege recorded. mike

 

[borrill]

thanks for your reply ,the car has 1 owner from new even have his address.mike

 

[IanA2]

thanks for your reply ,the car has 1 owner from new even have his address.mike

Have you spoken to him.....?

 

[Mercedes cozy]

Welcome to the forum.

Sorry to hear about your troubles, but somethere here is not adding up.

I'm also a ML270CDI owner, I had it for a year now and I've had no problems like what you have had. No mechanical failure.

If I was you I would phone your local MB main dealer and ask them where this ML was and when serviced last and what work they carried out on it.
They will tell you there and then.

1) You wil soon know if it has been clocked.
2) You will know if the ML has had any propshaft work prevously.
3) You will know if there is any guarantee on any prevoius work.
4) They will verify all MB stamps on their computer.

If the ML has been clocked then I would take action.

Tell the warantee that you will getting an engineers report and verify that it is or isn't wear and tear. Never known anyone to have this problem at that milage.

Good luck in getting it sorted.

 

[crockers]

So you have only had this car 4 months? What does the selling dealer say? They usually give a 6 months warranty themselves? Or at least a 3 months one? Have you spoken to him? He sold you the warranty so was acting as an agent for the warranty company (he gets a commission from them) - therefore he is also part of the contract....

But I too would get the MB dealers to verify the mileage and service history...

Oh and by the way - welcome - sorry you have had such bad luck

 

[jamesk]

Welcome They are a nice lot here...

Assuming your car hasn't been clocked it is frankly impossible in real terms that a propshaft could fail through normal "wear and tear" at that mileage.

As others have said, check the facts of your car with MB and then tackle the selling dealer and warranty company.

 

[BTB 500]

Assuming your car hasn't been clocked it is frankly impossible in real terms that a propshaft could fail through normal "wear and tear" at that mileage.

A lot of towing something heavy, maybe?

 

[prprandall51]

Get along to www.honestjohn.co.uk to confirm your legal rights.

I am pretty sure that the selling dealer is obliged by law to honour a six month warranty on the vehicle - there should be no argument (fobbing off) about "fair wear and tear", the vehicle was not fit for purpose.


Good luck!

Philip

 

[dougal74]

Sorry to hear this and although the ML has lots and lots of faults I personally haven't heard of this one. Is it a prop coupling or the whole shaft that has failed? As other people have said check the history to see if it all stacks up. If the traction/braking system lights flashed up this could be related to the prop shaft as the stability system brakes the wheel that it thinks is causing a problem (hence why they eat discs and pads) and this might cause damaging imbalance to a prop or the complete reverse could be true that the warning lights were merely a symptom of the prop shaft problem.

I had a 2000 W ML430 and mine started to get v.v.expensive (i.e. £2k on bills) at around 50-60k miles and I wouldn't go near a petrol one again. I have heard of better things from other forum members about the diesel but I personally would consider another ML unless it was a much later car '02/'03 on. Good luck with yours I hope it gets sorted for you by the selling dealer/warranty co.

 

[jaymanek]

the alternator is a common fault, they seize and take the belt with them...

whats actually wrong with the propshaft? they dont just break!?

 

[borrill]

thanks for your reply, thats a good point that is something i did forget to mention, there is a twin tow bar on the back which could mean that the owner before me may have been towing a boat, as one of my friends mentioned the other day when inspecting he said that normally twin tow bars are normally used for boats as there is water rust marks underneath tow bar, could this be the answer to this propshaft problem? mike.

 

[borrill]

hi there mate, the propsaft seems to be completely worn in as told by my MB specialist said ,including bearings and all sorts but cant explain how this happened, nice cars by the way, mike

 

[borrill]

cheers mate for the reply i think its the prop coupling, it took 3 hours labour to do and £389+vat for the part total £650