Exhaust cam sprocket

[Rundmt]

Hi, I’m new to the forum and here because I’ve have a bad experience with a second hand car dealer.

I bought a 2006 Coupe 106k Miles 7 months ago for £1.9k and had nothing but trouble with it. Firstly the brake fluid light came on on the way home (the dealer agreed to repair it) then 4 months later the transmission started slipping out of gear (quite dangerous) even though the transmission had had a full service a year and a half ago. It had doing some leaks!
I decided to throw some money at the vehicle to sort out all it’s issus and get a new MOT, I spent £1.5k that included 4 new Michelin Cross Climate tyres.
The dealer gave me £150 towards the transmission repair. Two weeks later though the cam chain slipped, and
it turns out the cam sprocket was badly worn. See pics.
Bearing in mind I had only done 4.5k miles since owning it over 7 months I was devastated. In total I’ve spent £3.8k on it.
The garage that did all the work thought they might be able to replace the sprocket without dropping the engine out but it wasn’t possible (this is the replacement in the pics).
So I need to know could I have done this amount of wear and tear to the sprocket over 4.5k miles and why would this happen when they are designed to last the full life of the car? Surely over 110k Miles!
I think I’m taking the dealer to court for selling me something that was not satisfactory quality but need some testimonials as to what the cam sprocket may have been like 4.5k miles back. Any comments would be gratefully received.
Cheers,
Dave

 

[LostKiwi]

Your car has an M271 engine.
Google M271 timing chain and you'll quickly find this is a well known problem and sadly all too common with that engine range.
If you got away with just a sprocket set and chain you were very very lucky.

 

[Rundmt]

The vehicle was scrapped as the repairs were not economically viable.

 

[LostKiwi]

The vehicle was scrapped as the repairs were not economically viable.

Sadly not an uncommon outcome.

The root cause of this issue is s change by MB to single row timing chains (previous versions used double row timing chains) and a sprocket set made from Brie (they might as well have been Brie they were so soft).
MB refuse to assist owners caught by the poor design/materials.

 

[Westheath]

Welcome to Mercedes Benz motoring

yea right

 

[John Laidlaw]

Sorry to hear this , I really is a crying shame how poorly designed this is.
And please don’t take this the wrong way but do research this ( and other) forums before choosing your next car. There’s a helpful bunch on here for instance...
And finally not all Mercs are bad - otherwise there’d be none sold and no members on here - some of us quite like them!

 

[Rundmt]

Sadly not an uncommon outcome.

The root cause of this issue is s change by MB to single row timing chains (previous versions used double row timing chains) and a sprocket set made from Brie (they might as well have been Brie they were so soft).
MB refuse to assist owners caught by the poor design/materials.

Oh that's pretty ****, though when I googled it I couldn't really find anything specifically about the cam sprocket only the chain but I guess it's all part of the same problem :0(

 

[alexanderfoti]

.
MB refuse to assist owners caught by the poor design/materials.

They are a joke.

 

[sonic]

My wife had a 2004 SLK200K with the M271 engine. Sold it at 90K miles, fortunately no problems.
She now has a 2010 SLK200K same engine with 45K miles. Now retired so not doing great miles, but will sell it before 90K miles.