03 C180k Sports coupe

[johnmackrell]

Has anyone else had these problems?

Car 03 C180k Sports Coupe SE Manual ? owned from new

1: Every time windscreen washer bottle is empty the dashboard says "warning check coolant level" and then says that the washer bottle is empty. It?s been into the garage three times, but keeps coming back.

2: At 22000 miles (second service) I asked the garage to investigate why my N/S front tyre is now virtually bald on the outside edge and plenty of tread across the rest, the MB garage tell me there?s a problem with N/S front wheel alignment and refuse to cover it under warranty. Even though the car has been driven carefully and never been close to a kerb, a fact that?s borne out by the fact that wheels and tyres are unmarked. They now want to do a full wheel alignment and want me to pay for two hours labour.

As a former company car driver who?s driven (hard) over 750,000 million miles in 6 lower quality cars and never needed tracking or wheel alignment, I cant believe that a ?quality? car should need this doing after less than 2 years.

3: Flat spot in the rev range between 2500 and 3000 rpm, noticeable in 3rd gear and higher, shows up when going up hill. Garage just resets engine mangement and hopes it goes away.

Apart from this the car is great.

Am I just being picky ?

 

[bjv]

Has anyone else had these problems?

Car 03 C180k Sports Coupe SE Manual ? owned from new

1: Every time windscreen washer bottle is empty the dashboard says "warning check coolant level" and then says that the washer bottle is empty. It?s been into the garage three times, but keeps coming back.

2: At 22000 miles (second service) I asked the garage to investigate why my N/S front tyre is now virtually bald on the outside edge and plenty of tread across the rest, the MB garage tell me there?s a problem with N/S front wheel alignment and refuse to cover it under warranty. Even though the car has been driven carefully and never been close to a kerb, a fact that?s borne out by the fact that wheels and tyres are unmarked. They now want to do a full wheel alignment and want me to pay for two hours labour.

As a former company car driver who?s driven (hard) over 750,000 million miles in 6 lower quality cars and never needed tracking or wheel alignment, I cant believe that a ?quality? car should need this doing after less than 2 years.

3: Flat spot in the rev range between 2500 and 3000 rpm, noticeable in 3rd gear and higher, shows up when going up hill. Garage just resets engine mangement and hopes it goes away.

Apart from this the car is great.

Am I just being picky ?

John I do not know your problem sorry because I have not yet but think get one but I do not know 03 C180k Sports Coupe with 143 HP is enough ?

 

[kit820]

The steering issue has been much talked about throughout the various forums on this website. Unfortunately, mine suffers the same.

I am a bit annoyed by the fact that your warranty did not cover for the costs of wheel alignment as surely being a reasonably new car with only 22k, unless you have modified the vehicle or through accident damage/poor repair, any wheel misalignment could only be down to either mechanical fault, design fault or even error in its assembly. In those circumstances, why should the owner by liable? Can you bring the issue up with MB UK?

 

[johnmackrell]

Kit

The car is as it was the day it was delivered (apart from rear tyres of course.)

The garage is on its last chance, the service guy promised to call me back, and then seems to be avoiding my calls, so I recently escalated to the service manager who was very helpful, but quoted that ?because there are so many factors that can affect the tracking it is considered an adjustment and therefore is exclude from MB warranty? ie MB wont pay the dealer for it !!! he then promised to get in touch with MB and call me back, guess what that was over a week ago?

I?m going to ask him to put everything in writing and then follow up to MB UK that in my consideration the tracking has either bee misaligned since new (quality issue) or if it needs adjustment wanders in less than 22k then its not fit for purpose.

Lets see what happens.

 

[johnmackrell]

BJV

The 180K is a good all round engine, it has plenty of torque at low revs due to the Kompressorand and I get c38 mpg

 

[jon_harley]

The garage is on its last chance, the service guy promised to call me back, and then seems to be avoiding my calls, so I recently escalated to the service manager who was very helpful, but quoted that ?because there are so many factors that can affect the tracking it is considered an adjustment and therefore is exclude from MB warranty? ie MB wont pay the dealer for it !!!

In my experience it's normal for tracking not to be covered by warranty because so many things can throw it out: kerbs, potholes etc. It's normally a wear-and-tear issue.

I?m going to ask him to put everything in writing and then follow up to MB UK that in my consideration the tracking has either bee misaligned since new (quality issue) or if it needs adjustment wanders in less than 22k then its not fit for purpose.

If the tracking was out from new you'd surely have noticed before 22k miles. Most likely you went over a pothole without even noticing.