W169 Door Rust - Wobbly Weld Seal

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GLK

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My A200 is a pre-facelift 169 coupe, so suffers from the known wobbly weld rust problem.
Tried to get Mercedes to take care of that under their 30-yr rust warranty, but no luck, despite the full MBSH, and it's being on Service Care plan.

So, what are my options - how to remedy this?, preferably without selling my kidney - I kinda grown attached to it ... :dk:

This is on the inside at the bottom, and in couple of places the seal (aka wobbly rusty weld) is completely detached, although still holding.
 
Have you tried taking this up with MBUK at Milton Keynes? Plenty of other owners have had this rectified on goodwill basis as it was such a well-known and acknowledged defect.
 
Have you tried taking this up with MBUK at Milton Keynes? Plenty of other owners have had this rectified on goodwill basis as it was such a well-known and acknowledged defect.

Not in person, but I have had my local MB submit the details to HQ, and got it rejected ...
 
So, whom shall I write to? Don't want to do it over the phone or email anymore.

Also, are there any official correspondence / acknowledgements from MB regarding this problem? The chap, who called to inform me of their rejection, didn't even know the rust was on the inside ...
 
I got all five doors of mine replaced when the car was between four and five years old. All I did was call on my Mercedes dealer in Coldstream and they referred me to a bodyshop in Newcastle who were accredited by Mercedes. They inspected the car, prepared a report to MB who authorised the work. Job done with no fuss. Got a nice C Class estate courtesy car for two weeks as well. The only issue was whether the repair would have cost more than the book value of the car: in which case, they told me, I would have received a cheque to that amount.
 
Yes, I went through exactly the same process: went to my local MB (Northampton), they referred me to Castle Coach - their authorised bodyshop, who took a ton of pics, measured the paint thickness, etc, etc and sent report to MB. Three weeks later I was told that "Mercedes will not be contributing to the repair" ... And I only got two doors LOL :wallbash:
 
Yes, I went through exactly the same process: went to my local MB (Northampton), they referred me to Castle Coach - their authorised bodyshop, who took a ton of pics, measured the paint thickness, etc, etc and sent report to MB. Three weeks later I was told that "Mercedes will not be contributing to the repair" ... And I only got two doors LOL :wallbash:

Sorry to hear that. :(
 
So, not willing to get too upset about it, and equally am not ready to spend any significant amount of money rectifying it, what are my options?

Does simply removing the wobly seal (it's loose in one or two places), cleaning/treating the rust, and glueing the seal back with high quality epoxy sounds completely bonkers?
 
Send Mercedes a letter before action, that might make them reconsider their obligations.
 
Send Mercedes a letter before action, that might make them reconsider their obligations.

Thanks Nick, but I don't believe they will. Pretty sure any consideration given to the case, was along the lines "can we get out of it?" rather than "is there a genuine rust problem?" - they know full well there is.

If their legal team concluded that, they can get out of it, then it would take time, money and effort to change the outcome - not going to waste either one of these, never mind all three.

It's a minor problem and I can probably fix it myself.

Life's too short to be upset or obsessed :bannana:
 
Hi GLK

I went through the exact same official process of photo's and paint thickness measurement etc. etc.

I think we spoke briefly about this on my other CVT thread, I take it that you know most (if not all) of this was down to manufacturing error on behalf of MB?...which they have openly admitted too...and it's that which winds me up the most!...There was quite a big exposure in the German motoring press about it at the time...

Unfortunately as these cars get older MB seem less and less inclined to offer any kind of deal - as you know they offered me a 50/50 'good will' deal and they gave the feeble excuse of 'time and mileage' as the mitigating factor for not offering to replace all doors under warranty - on a car that (at the time) was just seven years old and had barely covered 40000 miles...As the cars age this becomes a very convenient excuse for them.

In case your interested: http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/bodywork/153178-rust-diy-dealer.html

My experience with MB Milton Keynes was varied - some customer services personnel appeared to be sympathetic whilst others were just borderline rude...

I have heard of others that have taken the small claims court route with MB and won their case...but (as I suspect with you) I just ran out of the energy to keep it up...it became a sort of all consuming depressing obsession and in the end I had to let it go...there are more important things to do in life :)

You know the car looks no worse three years on and I still haven't swopped those doors over! :)
 
As for a DIY repair - I think it's entirly possible, and I think plenty of people do, but the general advice I got was that you will never completely eradicate the rust, and over time it will always creep back, how long this will take I have no idea - depends on the repair I guess. That's why I opted to source replacement doors.
 
Thanks for the link - great stuff!

Yes, we spoke on your CVT thread, and you're absolutely right - I decided not to waste any time and effort fighting MB on this. I'll look through various options, but am inclined to just DIY and be done with it - if the rust comes back in a few years' time, the seals will still be better than they're now, so I'm fine with it.

I might be tempted by facelift doors, particularly if they come with folding mirrors :thumb: ... will see ...
 

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