Cat woe's

[Smucker]

I have a tale to tell.

Driving back from Heathrow yesterday, I felt the car was underpowered; it also sounded like it was on 4 or 5 cylinders, phoned my local dealer who said I should pop in and they would ?plug it in? to see what the problem was. The fault came back as misfire on cly 1. So they took it for a test! Then it got worse. They plugged it in again and allsorts of faults came up, misfire on 1, 3 and 5, the MAS thing faulty, and what sounded like a hissing exhaust. The upshot of this is the catalytic converter is blocked, because it has fallen apart inside. So I now have the prospect of paying them £2,500 for the repair. I have asked them to contact Mercedes and ask for a goodwill gesture (everything is now crossed) the car is only three and a half years old with 55,000 miles on it! My previous car, a BMW 1998 E39 528 had 150,000 miles on it and drove like it was new and I never had any problem at all in the 80,000 miles I covered in it. So my enjoyment of owning a 02 W210 MB E280 A/Gard is, to say the least soured.

Any advice on getting Mercedes to pay for this, as in my opinion it should not have happened on a 3 ½ year old (Quality) car with full service history.

I will keep you up to date with this tale of woe. If I can see the screen for my tears!

 

[dougtsc]

£2,500 seems a little expensive. Never used the following website but 'parts only' prices are shown. You would still have to get someone to fit it of course. Let us know how you get on.

http://www.carsandcats.co.uk/cataly...pageNum_Recordset1=5&totalRows_Recordset1=185

 

[Tony]

I have a tale to tell.
I have asked them to contact Mercedes and ask for a goodwill gesture (everything is now crossed) the car is only three and a half years old with 55,000 miles on it!

Best of luck, but I recently had cat problems (for the second time in 4 years and 24k miles - first cat replaced under warranty after about 2 years and 15k) and they absolutely refused any goodwill payment. (I posted a reply in the the thread on the next page "Catalytic Converter/MOT dilemma). The quoted cost was £1287 (BTW - remember to ask for the 20% off labour and 10% off parts that you're entitled to with a 3 year old car). I was exceedingly angry about this because I regard the parts that they have provided me as defective, and the independent I took the car to backed this up. Also, MB are using duff cats to prop up their flagging profits. There is absolutely no way it costs over a thousand quid to make a cat.

I put an after-market part on and now have a problem that the "check engine light" is indicating "insufficient capacity on the nearside cat". So I'm in a bit of a dilemma as to where to go from here.

Let us know how you get on.

 

[Smucker]

Just had a call from the dealer, the good will gesture request has come back as requiring a manual authorisation, whatever that is. At least they are looking at it and haven't said NO. Still got fingers crossed and counting the kids piggy banks contents.

 

[Smucker]

Update

OK just got a call from the dealer, they have informed me that MB will pay 50% of the parts and 50% of the labour. That's a good first offer at least. My thanks to the MB dealer for trying.

So I have called MB customer services and raised an official complaint, hoping for MB to do the right thing and complete the repairs themselves as i still feel that 3 1/2 years and 55,000 is way to soon for the cats to fail. it?s got to be defective/poor components at fault here.

In MB's defence there Mobil Life warranty was exemplary, after the initial call a technician was with me in 25 mins, then a transporter 30 mins after that, and a hire car delivered to me within 3 hrs of the first call to Mobil Life.

As an aside, I was reading a US forum last night and it would appear that in the US if the cat fails in the first 7 years or before 70,000 miles, the manufacturer MUST by federal law replace the catalytic converters. We in the UK need some consumer protection like this!

The saga continues

 

[Mounis]

E220cdi (2001)

I hate the problems that these cars have with their cats. My car started to lose power and began making serious wooshing/hissing noises when accellerating. It then cut out and went into Limp Mode allowing me to drive it home with virtually no power. MB said that they would charge me £1400 + labour + vat to replace the system. "It 'may' be a blocked exhaust" i was told. How about some transparency???. Anyway, I took the precat off, and it was flopping around inside its housing. Tried blowing through it and found it was blocked. Cos of the back pressure created by the a blocked exhaust I think I may have popped a seal or something on the turbo. I have gone ahead and removed the cat to see if that was the problem and replaced the housing it was in. For intents and purposes it looks as if its a standard exhaust. The car is running much better but there is a secondary cat that I think may be blocked as there isnt much exhaust coming out the back of the system... Looks like MB have my by the balls. No one else does replacement exhausts for these cars... I cant believe that on a 85k miler with full service history ,the car has a naff exhaust....

 

[jberks]

What about a 2nd hand one?

 

[Smucker]

Final update

After the initial offer to pay half the cost themselves. I made a lot of calls, and wrote letters to MB customer services, who where as a matter of fact very efficient. I had a call from MB to say that in the circumstances MB are offering a further payment of £400; basically they have paid 2/3rds of the cost of replacing my cats and O2 probs.

This is not ideal, but we don?t live in an ideal world, do we!

What to do now eh! Do I lick my wounds and hope for the best that this ?quality? car will give years of trouble free motoring or go back to BMW, who?s customer service is terrible, but the cars are ?pure quality?. What do you guys out there think?

As a foot note the Mobilo life warrant was awesome, it was quick, hassle free, and offers great piece of mind should anything happen in the future.

 

[hashim]

mercedes e280 w124 misfire

hi my mercedes e280 w124 1993 is misfiring when accelarating.

 

[BABASON]

just a quick point sir,

and am wondering if any other techs agree with me. Cats do not fail for no reason. even though you have new cats on the vehicle soon. What caused them to fail in the first instance ???

Because if the actual cause is not cured you may find yourself with faulty cats again in the future