CLK 200 Rear Drive Shaft

[davecut]

I have a 6 year old CLK which I bought from John R Weir in Aberdeen, Scotland. It has been regularly serviced there. I put it in for service and MOT a couple of weeks ago. I was horrified when I was told that the cost would be about £2000. The main item was the car needing a new rear drive shaft at a cost of about £1000. I believe this to be totally unacceptable for a 6 year old Mercedes with 65,000 miles on the clock. Neither John R Weir in Aberdeen or Mercedes are being helpful about this. I expect Mercedes to pay the full cost of the rear drive shaft repair and to pay towards some of the other repairs as well. I believe that there must be either a design fault or a manufacturing fault with the rear shaft for such an early failure to occur. This car has needed an excessive amount of repair work since it was purchased which I assume can be put down to the ongoing Mercedes quality problems.

Has anyone else had problems with such an early failure of a rear drive shaft? Thanks.

 

[television]

Hello dave, something not right here,If you took it to the dealer,do you mean drove it. Half shafts break just normally,nothing else ever happens to them in 65k miles. More details please.

If the halfshaft needed replacement its not that expensive with an indie to be done,many people replace, with breakages many do it themselve.

What ever needs doing you could ½ the price using an indie.

Malcolm

 

[kth286]

davecut

Has one of the rubber gaiter's split on one of the driveshafts ????????

 

[davecut]

Guys,

The reason I was given was corrosion of the pick up which is used for the ABS. This is still dragging on. Both John R Weir and Mercedes are being unhelpful. So far they have offered £200 towards the cost of the repair, which is about £1000. Mercerdes tell me that a failure like this is acceptable.

 

[wscheffer]

Can't the corrosion be cleaned off as Malcolm said in most cases people drive them until the shaft breaks.

The break usually occurs at the universal joint. MB stakes these in and most shops will not do them due to a liability issues.

I replaced mine in an older w126 and the stealer wanted $800 for the back half and another $400 for the front.

I found a firm on the west coast the US that is, that sold me a refurbished one for $390 and that was for the whole thing. I don't know if they work internationally but I am sure that if you do really need the shaft as the stealer states. Their should be a firm on your side of the pond that does the same thing.

 

[eric242340]

Guys,

The reason I was given was corrosion of the pick up which is used for the ABS. This is still dragging on. Both John R Weir and Mercedes are being unhelpful. So far they have offered £200 towards the cost of the repair, which is about £1000. Mercerdes tell me that a failure like this is acceptable.

This sounds very strange to me, never heard of this, if it were corrosion of the pick up, then this can be cleaned.

 

[wscheffer]

I would think so, it sounds like he is being feed a bunch of Bu#% @*&^ to me!

 

[television]

I have spent half hour looking at this in the service data, it would appear that the sensor is part of the half shaft, as it mentions the care in not to damage it.

Yes this could have been cleaned off as the shaft is hardened and it can only be surface rust, the would have reduced the cost as only the axle carrier would have needed removing and re fitting and installing in new boot at the same time.

 

[eric242340]

This still doesent make any sense as the speed sensor can be removed and its only one tiny bolt. Once removed you can clean the axial carrier through the hole that the sensor sits in. You dont need to remove the drive shaft, let alone replace it. You are definately being fed on (bad porridge here).

 

[davecut]

Guys,

Thanks for all your advice. I've just emailed John R Weir asking what was the problem with the drive shaft and why did it need replacing. I'll let you know their reply when I get it.



David

 

[BlackC55]

I think I can explain your problem and why they want to change your driveshaft.

I take it you have a esp fault warning on the dash?

A corroded abs ring (located at the hub end of the driveshaft) can cause implauible abs readings causing a speed sensor fault then therefore bringing on the esp warning.

Cleaning the ring is normally sufficient but I have known the corrosion to be that bad that the ring needs replacement. The ring is unavailable separatly so it must come with the shaft.

I can understand why thge dealer and MB will not contribute as the car is 6 years old.

The reason for the corrosion maybe somthing simple like: Where you live the roads get salted more or the car may once have lived by the sea.

I live by the sea and see the corrosion problem on the abs rings fairly frequently.

 

[davecut]

CLK Corrosion Problem

Thanks for the information BlackC55. The problem is as you describe it. I live about 10 miles from the sea and I have had the car from new. The roads do get salted here a few times each winter. However I would not expect that should be a problem at all for a Mercedes. The implication of what you are saying, seems to be that the car isn't suitable if you live on the coast or if you drive on salted roads!!

 

[television]

It must be possible to clean it up, it is case hardened at the min, so long as the sensor can read, thats all that matters.

 

[davecut]

CLH 200 Rear Drive Shaft Failure

Here's an update on my earlier posts. I have now had to replace both rear drive shafts on my 7 year old (60,000 mile) CLK 200. This is due to the failure of the ABS rings. It's cost me £2000!

Mercedes say that the corrosion found on the component is not uncommon given the age and mileage of my vehicle. They are prepared to do nothing to help me with the cost of the repairs. Frankly I think this is extremely poor as components like that should not fail in such a short space of time. I believe there is a reliability issue here which Mercedes are not admitting to.

 

[davecut]

CLK 200 Rear Drive Shaft Failure

Here's an update on my earlier posts. I have now had to replace both rear drive shafts on my 7 year old (60,000 mile) CLK 200. This is due to the failure of the ABS rings. It's cost me £2000!

Mercedes say that the corrosion found on the component is not uncommon given the age and mileage of my vehicle. They are prepared to do nothing to help me with the cost of the repairs. Frankly I think this is extremely poor as components like that should not fail in such a short space of time. I believe there is a reliability issue here which Mercedes are not admitting to.

 

[davecut]

Both of mine have failed now. Obviously the cars aren't suitable for the UK. Maybe somewhere like Austria might be OK if they don't salt the roads!

 

[reggie3cl]

Hi, I'm new to this forum. I have a CLK200K, year 2000 with 33K miles on the clock. It's an unreliable and rust prone thing generally, and the latest fault is as per this thread- the rear o/s speed sensor ring has disappeared. Apparently this is because corrosion gets under the ring and expands enough to snap it and then it falls off. As has been pointed out, Mercedes expect you to cough up £997 (J Weir Inverness) to fix this. My question is; has anyone made these rings available separately? It seems insane to replace a whole driveshaft just because an overgrown Jubilee clip has popped off!

Cheers

Reggie