HumberMart
Active Member
The 3 year old, 46K miles, S350CDI BlueEfficiency we took delivery of 2 weeks ago, has been back in the dealers more time than we've had it so far.
On 3 separate occasions (out of about 6 days of use), it seemingly went into some sort of limp mode, although no warning lights came on.
The first time, about two miles from home after a cold start, it failed to accelerate when leaving the 30 mph limit and trying to power up a slight hill to 60 mph. It just seemed to stick at 30 mph (+/- a couple of mph), and wouldn't go any faster. Still running smoothly though.
At a convenient layby, switched off, removed key, restarted etc. and continued the journey as normal.
The next day it was in the dealers, and they found a stored fault code regarding the EGR Valve (one would assumed that any old fault codes prior to delivery 3 days previously had been investigated/cleared as part of a PDI). So they cleaned all the EGR stuff, and expected all to be well.
However over the next 4 days, it happened twice again. Same circumstances, when trying to move out of a 30 limit onto open road, a few miles from home. On the third occasion, I experimented a little before switching it off/on again, and found that the car was basically stuck in 6th gear, and wouldn't kick-down, no way, not in sport, or even manual, no matter how much use of the paddles, in fact it was almost as if the manual mode had been disabled. I realised that it would changed between 6th and 7th if I coasted down hill, but not get lower than 6th. I did once get it into 5th by putting it in neutral, but then it soon settled back into 6th only.
All seems like limp mode, say the dealer, but why no warning lamps?
On the third occasion, the stop and start did not fully reset things on first attempt, and it would still not kick down, but it did build up through the gears in a jerky fashion. A second restart did the trick.
So now worried I'm buying a lemon. I read of course about DPF issues, and just now about inlet port valve motors, manifold and flapper issues etc with the 3.0 V6, and how the Approved Used MB Warranty seems to avoid paying for some of these issues, esp the valve motor due to oil leaks from the turbo.
Anyone had similar issues, with no warning lights?
Cheers
On 3 separate occasions (out of about 6 days of use), it seemingly went into some sort of limp mode, although no warning lights came on.
The first time, about two miles from home after a cold start, it failed to accelerate when leaving the 30 mph limit and trying to power up a slight hill to 60 mph. It just seemed to stick at 30 mph (+/- a couple of mph), and wouldn't go any faster. Still running smoothly though.
At a convenient layby, switched off, removed key, restarted etc. and continued the journey as normal.
The next day it was in the dealers, and they found a stored fault code regarding the EGR Valve (one would assumed that any old fault codes prior to delivery 3 days previously had been investigated/cleared as part of a PDI). So they cleaned all the EGR stuff, and expected all to be well.
However over the next 4 days, it happened twice again. Same circumstances, when trying to move out of a 30 limit onto open road, a few miles from home. On the third occasion, I experimented a little before switching it off/on again, and found that the car was basically stuck in 6th gear, and wouldn't kick-down, no way, not in sport, or even manual, no matter how much use of the paddles, in fact it was almost as if the manual mode had been disabled. I realised that it would changed between 6th and 7th if I coasted down hill, but not get lower than 6th. I did once get it into 5th by putting it in neutral, but then it soon settled back into 6th only.
All seems like limp mode, say the dealer, but why no warning lamps?
On the third occasion, the stop and start did not fully reset things on first attempt, and it would still not kick down, but it did build up through the gears in a jerky fashion. A second restart did the trick.
So now worried I'm buying a lemon. I read of course about DPF issues, and just now about inlet port valve motors, manifold and flapper issues etc with the 3.0 V6, and how the Approved Used MB Warranty seems to avoid paying for some of these issues, esp the valve motor due to oil leaks from the turbo.
Anyone had similar issues, with no warning lights?
Cheers
