I Nearly Died-Need help and advice

[wallabyhouse]

I drive (or did ) and ML270cdi 51 plate with just over 100k on the clock.

Car was serviced on Tuesday and when I drove it away there was a very strong "mechanical fluid" smell-almost like the strongest polish you could get.I dismissed it but after about 10 miles it got stronger and stronger.
Anyway,a few miles later,whilst travelling in the fast lane of the M5,went over a small bump and my steering became like jelly-I was unable to steer in any direction and the car just snaked.I braked slowly with no effect and then harder and harder with no effect.
I went accross all three lanes twice,spinning and hitting the central reservation and ended up hard against the crash barrier,facing the wrong way on the hard shoulder.

Now I KNOW something happened in the service,cars don't just suddenly lose steering and brakes-but what?

Being a female isn't helping my situation but I really need some advice as to what I should be looking for-or rather pointing the independent engineer towards.

I am just so angry that my daughter could have been orphaned or I could have been left permanently disabled and NEED to know what happened.

Can anyone offer me any advice?

Many thanks in anticipation.

Sarah

 

[kkmfo]

get a lawyer who specialises in these matters

 

[jberks]

Contact your insurance co and explain the situation. They normally have legal assistance built into the policy.
There are motor engineers that specialise in vehicle examinations. I would insist that the car is inspected and a formal report issued.
All I can think of is that a pipe hasn't been reattached properly and has sprayed fluid all over they tyres, causing you to lose traction and therefore steering. Diesel can do this, once the tyres are soaked, the effect is similar to sheet ice.
An inspection should get the answer.

 

[mioba]

you wi win this hands down,
clearly the garage that serviced your car has been negligent, negligence is very easy to prove and win (which is why you see so many; had an accident not your fault - type of adverts) its v easy money for a solicitor.

trust me i am a lawyer,

you need to find out what was done in the service, i wouldnt go and tell the garage just yet as they may easily deny eveything,

 

[wallabyhouse]

Thank you for your responses.The insurers are (in their own time)arranging for an independent engineers report-this will merely allow the insurers to recover their costs from Mercedes.
I,if I can prove it want to take it further.

I never want to drive it again,but equally could not sell it given I absolutely know the car was at fault.

Unfortunately,in my very shocked state sent the car to Mercedes and rang them to tell them it was their fault.It is now at a Merc approved bodyshop 200miles from me and who knows who might have been in to cover tracks.

Just now interested in any theories as to what migh have gone wrong-diesel theory sounds interesting...hydraulics?

 

[OmniCognateNeutronRangler]

do yo uknow what they did on the service? Did they change pads or anything?

btw, if you can prove anything I'd sue them for much more than just the value of the car.

 

[veedweeb]

Not sure about M class cars specifically, but it sounds like a hydraulic failure of some kind to me.

Catastrophic loss of fluid would explain the brake failure, but I'm a bit puzzled by the steering. If the steering lost its power assistance (by losing the fluid) surely it's go REALLY heavy, but still work

Just conjecture, really. It's very difficult to say for certain without looking at the vehicle

 

[wallabyhouse]

Omni-I intend to sue for more-I am a single parent of a child under two who could have been orphaned.My back and neck are still giving me pain and I know that driving on a motorway is going to be a problem for me so I really want to prove they did something wrong.

In terms of the service,other than standard full service (not sure what this includes) they replaced an injector,replaced seal and fittings on injector,replaced single belt drive.They noted there was "slight play in both lower ball joints".

This of course is all gibberish to me so if anyone can shed some light.......

 

[maldon]

Sarah - I was involved in a horrific accident in a ML - I too was able to walk away, but now 10 months later am developing some nasty neck and arm problems. Whiplash.

If you have legal aid on your policy, you need to be in touch with the legal eagles to get the ball rolling.

That the car is back in MB garage is not the best turn of events, but under the circumstances.....if plod was involved, which i'm sure they were, you will need to obtain their report - am sure it will details the conditions and road surface at the time. Get that the the solicitors urgently so that they can make it clear to the garage that it was not driver error.

See the doc, get yourself checked over.

 

[teemyob]

Winning and Losing

Hello there,

In October 2000 my S-class that was badly serviced (replacement gearbox under warranty) nearly killed my Daughter. It eventually careered into one of my MB Vito Vans and came to a halt. Even though a neighbouring dealer gave me wrtitten confirmation that the accident was without question their fault I was left with 2 Damaged vehicles that were off the raod for 12 months. Luckily my daughter escaped unharmed.


6 Years & 2 Different firms of Scolicitors later I have just received a cheque for £2,000 pounds as compensation from the Supplying and repariing dealers insurers in final settlement.

This has left me around £12,000 pounds out of pocket for the whole saga that lasted 6 years.

Let me tell you that unless you can prove beyond question (or lie beyond question as some do) that you were either physically or mentally effected by it you are likely to get very little other than agrevation, hastle and stress.

Worth a go if you can not get your insurers to fight it use a scolicitor by all means but despite what you may be told he will keep 50% if you go for no win no fee.

My advice, get all the written confirmation and or photographs you can make. Send the Garage a letter demanding an investigation blah blah blah. If they do not come up with something reasonable send them a claim via the small claims court for under £5k for what you feel is acceptable. www.moneyclaim.gov.uk


Hope this helps

Trev

 

[jberks]

I have to say that the only thing that explains complete loss of steering and braking is loss of traction, rather than any individual control system. It's still odd that you lost control given that the esp system should have kicked in, but it is possible.
The braking system is dual circuit and will warn you long before fluid loss becomes critical, and steering is completely unrelated with a different hydraulic system again, plus as stated above, a car is still completely driveable without any power assistance in the steering, even if the power steering fluid was empty. You wouldn't have been able to park, but at motorway speeds, it's pretty much switched off anyway. I imagine you'd probably lost traction some time before, but wouldn't have realised it until you tried to correct after the bump.

Given that they replaced an injector and you had a funny smell before hand, I'm going with a diesel leak caused by an incorrectly fitted injector, spraying diesel onto the tyres (not sure how mind). Did you have any running issues, loss of power etc beforehand? It may not have been noticable at speed though.
I once found myself with no ability to brake or steer, as did my friend driving in front. Both of us narrowly escaped an accident. The only tell tale previously was that I seemed to wheelspin too easily, given that it was a dry spring day. We summised that we had been following the route of a truck with a fuel leak and that over time, the tyres had become soaked. Only by holding the brakes fully on for several scary seconds (as I slid towards stationary traffic), did I burn through the diesel and finally stop. This was pre- ABS. There'd be no way to do this now.

In terms of compensation, I'm afraid it's a gamble. What you feel the claim is worth and what the insurance co thinks will differ. As you will disagree, it will have to go to court and from what I remember, apart from the age this will take, if the judge agrees with the ins co, you end up paying costs. You should have free legal protection with your car insurance (an extra most of us go for), so I'd ring them in the first instance. Assuming it is a diesel leak, it will be ni on impossible for the dealer to eradicate the evidence.

The dealer may be prepared to pay 'hush' money though. They won't want your story appearing in the paper.

 

[veedweeb]

I wonder if there was a diesel leak that soaked the brakes?

It's possible that there was a loss of traction for whatever reason, the ESP kicked in operating the brakes to prevent skidding. But because one or both front brakes were soaked in diesel, it affected the ESP and steering somehow?

Just a thought...

 

[wallabyhouse]

Teemyob-how awful for you adn Maldon,sorry to hear you had those problems.
I did visit the doctor initially and whilst the shock is gradually wearing off,I still have back and neck pain.

All the advice I have received on here has been so helpful and I genuinely thank you all-I suspect diesel may be the cause after all becasue after the crash,I said to the guys who helped "can you smell that smell,that's what the car smelt of this morning" and he replied,"I can only smell diesel".
The fire brigade were also called out as the traffic officers said there was diesel on the road.....I assumed that maybe the fuel tank was damaged in the crash but maybe not???

Maybe I now have an avenue to persue?

Where else could diesel come from if the tank wasn't damaged? Am guessing a hose or something but also guess I couldn't prove whether the garage did it or it happened in the accident?

 

[television]

Teemyob-how awful for you adn Maldon,sorry to hear you had those problems.
I did visit the doctor initially and whilst the shock is gradually wearing off,I still have back and neck pain.

All the advice I have received on here has been so helpful and I genuinely thank you all-I suspect diesel may be the cause after all becasue after the crash,I said to the guys who helped "can you smell that smell,that's what the car smelt of this morning" and he replied,"I can only smell diesel".
The fire brigade were also called out as the traffic officers said there was diesel on the road.....I assumed that maybe the fuel tank was damaged in the crash but maybe not???

Maybe I now have an avenue to persue?

Where else could diesel come from if the tank wasn't damaged? Am guessing a hose or something but also guess I couldn't prove whether the garage did it or it happened in the accident?

The pumps on deisels run all of the time, any spare fuel is returned to tank with modern cars, if a fault appeared on this part of the circuit the engine would still run. I cant think of anyway that deisel could be sprayed onto the front wheels as most of the deisel pumps are near the bulkhead, the rear is another story as the return to tank pipes are under the sills, a leak here could spray deisel onto the Hubs/wheels and tyres.
I do have the pictures on another computer and I will look later in the day.

Malcolm

 

[Ultymate]

Some modern common rail diesels have a fuel cooling radiator under the car to cool the fuel down as due to high pressure and constant flow to and from the engine the fuel heats up. I don't know if M/B use one or not but the fuel radiators fitted to the Hdi Peugeots are very vulnerable to damage under the car usually just under the driver's footwell

 

[JPM993]

I drive (or did ) and ML270cdi 51 plate with just over 100k on the clock.

Car was serviced on Tuesday and when I drove it away there was a very strong "mechanical fluid" smell-almost like the strongest polish you could get.

Sarah

Wow, NOT funny!!

Glad to hear that you're "ok". Was it a main dealer that serviced the car?

 

[bitonw]

Any connection here http://forums.mercedesclub.org.uk/showthread.php?t=22222 ?

 

[johnmc]

Hi,
Really sorry to hear about this problem. Wife thinks I'm mad now, went out to sniff my diesel in the fuel tank, then some of her furniture polish. I'm totally with jberks diagnosis of a diesel leak.

There have been problems with the injectors/hoses leaking on various Merc diesels, a nieghbour here with an E320CDI had exactly this problem. I reckon a pipe has come off somewhere, whatever the result it's poured out diesel. I'll also bet it's continued to pump out through the leak briefly after the car stopped, hence the police concerns about a diesel spill. The fuel tanks are the last place where I'd look for a fault, even in a crash. I helped my friend drain his diesel tank last year using the fuel pump and disconnecting the injector hose.It's amazing how much fuel pumps out each time you turn the key to the starter position, never mind turn over the engine. Don't know where the fuel pump on an ML is, but on my own car it's mounted down low, near the drivers side front wheel. The garage could have disconnected it during the injector change and not put it back right?

Best of luck! The advice to use the small claims court is top notch, fees are very small, so you'd get 99% of the money.

Take care, the shock will wear off, get your revenge!
John

 

[Birdman]

Keep a cool head and get a good lawyer, paid for by anyone else but you.
Don't assume anything about the cause.
Change the model you drive and the dealer you use. Heck, you might even want to try another manufacturer...
Celebrate your still being here by throwing a party for all the friends you've been meaning to see but not yet got around to calling.

 

[television]

It is not fair to blame anyone at this stage. You cant go to the doctor and say that I am going on holiday, please make sure that I am OK. likewise you cant take your car in for a service with a guarantee that it will be perfect for X amount of time. Anything can break or go wrong at anytime,and it does.

When all of you put your key in the car in the morning you hope it will start, one or two may not.

malcolm