W210 Rusty door seals

[230K]

Hi all

Bought a Nov 98 E300 TD Estate last week after a long search for the right car at sensible money. It has covered 160K with a full history and i bought it privately from the guy who collected it from the factory. It has never been damaged although there are quite a few stone chips in places you would least expect a flying stone to hit.
Gave it a thorough clean today and to my horror notice rust under the door rubbers at the top of each door. (Drivers door the best,working anti clockwise round the car getting worse with the drivers side rear door the worst of all.) I only discovered it because i was chamois drying under the seals. Checked my wifes W124 estate and it is perfect in these areas and so is my soon to be sold W202 Kompressor. There is also corrosion around the tailgate handle which i discovered on every estate i looked at before buying this one. What should i do, i am really disheartened with the car now (thinking back to my days with a very rusty MK1 Escort) should i try a warranty claim or would the fact that the car has so many stone chips influence their decision?
Help

Brian
W210 E300TD T model (Rusty door seals)
W124 300TD
W202 230K Sport

Hi all

Back again, took the car to local dealer and they inspected the car and spoke to MB. Finally 5 weeks later the dealer has come back to me saying that they are going to replace 4 doors, bonnet, tailgate and front wings. Problem is they are only prepared to pay 70% of the £6600 cost leaving me to pay close to £1900. I am horrified to think that they want me to pay anything seeing that i had nothing to do with painting the car at the factory. It is most certainly not my fault that they painted the car incorrectly in the first place.
What should i do? I spoke to cutomer services and have heard nothing back.

Brian

 

[Dieselman]

Your repairs should be covered 100% as the car is under six years old.

Speak to MB customer Services again as it is the Warranty department holding out on you.


I've made three claims for bodywork and only had to pay a nominal sum for the first one. I was a bit green then and subsequently used a different dealer who is somewhat stronger to MB.
The original dealer repainted the doors whereas the subsequent one refuses to do this and insists on new metal for all corrosion claims.

As an aside I waxoyled the underside, in the boot and inside the wings on my car after the claims, but have just spent the last day with my new compressor and shutz gun applying rust preservative inside all closed sections.
I was amazed that none of the original panels have ANY rustproofing wax inside them....They do now. :bannana: :bannana:

 

[230K]

Thanks for the advice dieselman, if i have not heard back from customer services by lunch time tomorrow i will call them back.
Do you have any literature on the 6 year warranty, very hard to get hold of any documents like these.

Brian

 

[kusanku]

I've been looking at getting an E320cdi. Honest John's says door frame rust a problem on all 210s up to June 2001. Going to look at one on saturday first registered 18.09.2001. Is this likely to be a safer bet, or is it a rust-bucket waiting to happen?

Also, has anyone tried waxoyling? Would this (ironically) invalidate any anit-corrosion warranty?

Simon (potential 210 owner)