Letter #1 (sent)

Our 2005 E320 CDI is in for repair at your dealership. Bill Blume is our service manager. My wife and I purchased the E320 in July. Our first encounter with your service department was when a glowplug went out. This was after our sales person (Byers) had told us that glow plugs had been replaced prior to our purchasing the vehicle. In fact, only one plug had been. We were charged diagnostic time plus parts. Bill offered to pick up the installation cost. Our next service item was a water pump the first week of November. We had the repair done locally as the car was leaking about a gallon of coolant every 10 miles. Last week I dropped off the car on Tuesday at Sears stating that it started very poorly cold and that it needed to be left outside overnight in order for it to show symptoms. I also stated that it displayed no fault codes (being a former mechanic, I have access to scanning software). Bill stated that it was the custom of the service department to perform about an hour's worth of diagnostics without additional customer approval. The car was diagnosed yesterday. I received a call from Bill stating that diagnostic time was 8 hours, the part would run $800 and that installation would beanother 3 hours of labor. He mentioned that he would talk with Bruce Bigalke about the charges today. Building a relationship of trust with customers is a nessential part of good business. Our first experiencewith Sears left us rather suspicious because we were told that the glow plugs had been replaced, when, in fact, just one of them had. We are unhappy with the amount of trouble we have had with this car thus far. We are unwilling to pay for hours of unauthorized diagnostic time. I plan to speak with Bill tomorrow, however, I want to be sure that we are being treated fairly and are being dealt with honestly. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Letter #2 (In progress)

I appreciate the care and attention you are giving to my vehicle. I
appreciate the assurances I have received from you that my vehicle will be
fixed. However, it was rather disconcerting to discover that the part and
service for which you were originally going to bill me were covered in the
Mercedes TSB below. As I stated in my earlier email, I want to be sure
that we are being treated fairly and are being dealt with honestly. Thank
you for your time.
Ross Winberg
P-B-07.16/80 NOV07 - 211.022/026 fuel loss
at the pressure regulator valve (PRV) and/or poor engine running characteristics
(shakes, knocks, surges, changes to limp mode, poor output, poor fuel economy,
combustion noise) this may be caused by a malfunction at the PRV due to improper
installation. The entire rail will be replaced; PRVs cannot be replaced
individually due to possible imprecise installation processes in the
workshop.

Dishonesty

OK, now I'm really pissed. The dealer was going to charge me for replacing the rail when it was under a TSB (technical service bulletin) from Mercedes.

P-B-07.16/80 NOV07 - 211.022/026 fuel loss at the pressure regulator valve (PRV) and/or poor engine running characteristics (shakes, knocks, surges, changes to limp mode, poor output, poor fuel economy, combustion noise) this may be caused by a malfunction at the PRV due to improper installation. The entire rail will be replaced; PRVs cannot be replaced individually due to possible imprecise installation processes in the workshop.

CDI Troubles

My CDI has issues. On cold start (anytime under 20F or so), it turns over for 5 seconds and then kills. After that it turn over for a second and kills. It will not start. To get it to start, I need to glow it 15-20 times in succession and then it starts very roughly. I dropped off the car with a discussion that they would put about an hour of diagnostics into the car. I received a call two days later that they had 8 hours of diagnostic time into the car and still had not figured out the problem. They thought it was a bad presure valve in the fuel rail ($800 part!).

I sent an email to the owner (a childhood and college friend of my dad's) about their business practices in the context of the previous glow plug issue and unapproved diagnostic work being performed. After this, I received a promise that I would not pay for anything that did not fix the car and that they would strive to be fair, but could not guarantee that the car would be repaired without cost to me. This was good enough for me. Two weeks and running. They are still trying to figure out the problem as the fuel rail did not fix the problem.

Instructions for Changing your Glow Plugs

Here are instructions for 1998-1999 diesels.

My E320 CDI

I purchased my 2005 CDI from Sears Imported Autos in July of 2007. It had just over 80,000 miles on it. It was a lease return vehicle from Iowa. I had a bugger of a time getting service records for it as MB considers this as privacy-protected!? We needed something larger that was a diesel. I get 30mpg in mixed Hwy/Cty driving and 40mpg when strictly on the interstate. Thusfar, the dealership paid the labor to replace the glowplugs as their salesman told me that they replaced the glowplugs before I bought the vehicle. In fact, they had only replaced one. A bad #6 plug manifested itself as an itermittant glow plug circuit fault. I purchased OBDII code scanning software and an OBDII plug for $122. Two weekends ago, the water pump started leaking and that was a $500 job at my local independent mechanic. FYI, the cheapest part price was from MBZ. I will try to keep this BLOG updated with relevant inforation for all to make use of.