Mercedes Benz Engine Replacement
You can see some of the metal chunks in the bottom of the pan
Recently we had customer buy a new vehicle because their last one literally fell apart from lack of service. He had always wanted a Mercedes Benz so he was finally ready to make that dream come true. The car was only a few years old and he was concerned about potential Mercedes Benz Repair bills so we checked it over first and gave it a clean bill of health (it just needed a set of tires). He went back to the dealership, made the purchase, and got an Extended Warranty (something we do not recommend purchasing) just in case something major went wrong he wanted to be covered. Well something major did go wrong and it wasn’t covered. Want to know why?
If you have ever been to our shop or read any of our other posts you’ll know that we’re huge advocates of servicing your vehicle regularly. We actually cover this in great detail in another post. The way this benefits us is that if you use us for service and your car runs properly without any major issues, the chance of you returning to us in the future are greatly increased. It’s also not a huge secret that by performing K Services on time it will dramatically lower your chances of small and large unexpected issues.
Mercedes Benz Repair
So when this customer bought the car we gave him the full maintenance schedule for his vehicle. Then we explained how following this schedule will keep his
Here’s another picture. You can clearly see the large metal pieces that came out of his engine
factory and aftermarket warranties current. Last we pointed out how important this car is to him and if he didn’t want to have what happened to his old car happen to this one, he would need to service it. Well his neighbor is a “Mechanic” somewhere and told him that he doesn’t need to follow maintenance schedules because (exact quote) “Those cars use synthetic oil, that stuff lasts pretty much forever. They’re trying to rip you off”. Well…..His engine literally came apart internally about 11 months later and he wasn’t covered….
This customer is constantly driving around the Northeast. He also idles quite a bit. Between mountains, excessive idling, temperature change, road conditions, etc he would fall under a Severe Service Schedule. But even if he followed Normal Service he would still need to service the car at minimum every 13,000 miles. In this case he went almost 1 year and 34,876 miles. That’s 21,876 miles overdue. Kaboom!
As you can see from the pictures the bearings in the lower end began to come completely apart. When the warranty company came out to look at the engine the first thing they asked for were maintenance records, which the customer didn’t have. Claim bounced immediately! They didn’t even want to inspect the engine. His $3,000 warranty is now only as valuable as the paper it’s printed on and he has NO recourse.
Out with the old engine, in with the new one
This Mercedes Repair now turned into a $6,500 engine replacement bill + the cost of the warranty that he can’t use for $3,000. So he was in for $9,500 after all is said and done. The service he missed that his “Mechanic” neighbor said he didn’t need was only $125. That would have brought his vehicle right up to date and the warranty would have covered the whole repair.
In closing I want to ask this one question. If you went to the doctor and she told you that you need to lose weight and lower your blood pressure then suggested a nice clean diet and exercise. Would you tell her “No, my neighbor said I can do the same by watching Netflix and eating pizza all day”? Then why would someone in their right mind bring their expensive car to trained Technicians for advice then completely disregard the advice given to them?
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I can’t believe I did this! James told me too but I didn’t listen and I paid for it. He really is great at what he does over there. Everyone that works there is. They got me right in and tried to get me covered but it was my mistake so I had to pay. The car was done in 3 days and I got back to work. It’s been about a year since they replaced the engine and it’s still running great. I also now follow the e mails and updates James sends that tell me when I’m due back in there. Sorry I didn’t listen guys and thanks again for the great work. I love this car!
Terrence W.
East Longmeadow, MA
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