Tracing a Service History

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Simonish

Member
Joined
Nov 5, 2005
Messages
45
Location
Leigh, Lancashire
Car
C Class Coupe
Hello to all
Is there any way tracing a cars service history from the reg document if the service books are missing? Just planning on buying an ML320 only 55k miles on an x plate but can't find the service books :confused: Am wondering if this can be traced through an MB stealer or through another method - help would be appreciated, thanks

Simon
 
MB can call up its history on their system. I bet they charge though!
 
When I bought my 124 estate from a breakers yard recently , the reg document showed it had been a one owner vehicle but the service book was missing .

I contacted the previous owner who told me the book had been left in the car and that it had been serviced from new by the supplying dealer - Vardys in Glasgow.

I was in anyway buying parts and enquired at the service desk : it turned out the staff all knew the car very well - one of the girls even remarked about the 'fantastic mileage' it had done (there was me thinking the 170,000 miles on the clock was nothing remarkable) - and confirmed it had been fully serviced up to date .

To cut a long story short , they printed out the history from their computer and this confirmed the true mileage of 423,000 miles ! For some reason the clock had been 'zeroed' (possibly replaced) in 2004 but this was all documented , as well as the new engine fitted at 370,000 miles (so that's how long Merc engines last before they wear out!)

There was no charge for this service and the print out was waiting for me the next time I called in ,
 
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Many on here use MB dealers more than me but I thought that the service records were (until recently perhaps) individual to each dealership rather than centralized?

Oh and specific to the ML you are looking at see if it has had replacement catalytic converters as it is a common and expensive fault...
 
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Cheers and yes you are right ref the service records

Simon
 
And there was cynical me thinking that the usual reason for missing service books is that someone at some point was trying to hide something.
 
R2D2 said:
MB can call up its history on their system.

Yes I know, and I think most makes can e.g. Audi, VW (if the car has been serviced in the dealer network).

However, Mobilolife required me to present my service history to them (corrosion claim) which kinda suggests that the onus is on the owner to prove the service history in order to make a claim :crazy:
 
When I approached the previous servicing dealer for my car to obtain copies of previous work carried out they refused!!! I am gonna try to approach DC to see if they can help.
 
In which case, the answer from DC will probably be no.

When we were looking for the SL, after a series of complete dogs we found an immaculate example. The only problem was that the service history was missing, which we found out was because the car had been repossessed by the finance company. I phoned up DC to see if they could supply, but they said that only the servicing dealer would have the records, and they couldn't help.

Hence, over a year later the car is still for sale, as clearly nobody is willing to part with £12k for a mid 90's SL with no service history. It had already been dropped from nearly £15k when we went to view it.
 
That's crazy that the car is still for sale a year later. It's probably lost another 1-2k in depreciation. If I were interested in such a car I'd get someone like John Haynes to inspect it and if it came up good make an offer.
 

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