It's not just Mercedes...

[Blobcat]

I've a friend with a Range Rover (I know he's a masochist...) and he noticed wind noise from the sunroof - as it's under an extended warranty (essential with JLR...) he took it to his local dealer. They diagnosed it as needing all the seals replaced at ~£600 as that isn't covered under warranty they also charged for the diagnostic (£100) they further advised that it will probably require the whole sunroof cassette mechanism which is £2,000 but recommended the cheaper seal option first...

I took a look at it and noticed that the back of the sunroof was sitting about 3mm low of the roof - after a good clean and lubrication the roof was working perfectly - going back and forward and up and down but still sitting 3mm low.

I said it looks like it's just forgotten where it should be parked - found a reset procedure online and it now sits perfectly flush again and no more wind noise.

So for the sake of a few mins online and some cleaning and lubrication it's all perfect. Now why couldn't the "experts" at the main dealers do that....

(Yes I know this will just wind @ajlsl600 up - it winds me up as well)

 

[sl500amgsport]

Wow so you are now £595.00 up and your friend happy ;-)?

They are called stealers for good reason, I would not accept replacement mechanism/seals as chargeable on a car presumably under 3 years old if on original warranty!

Lexus were the only main dealership I have experienced to go above and beyond, I bought a 2 year old SC430 years ago from them and with that they even valeted it once a month for free between services while I sat drinking their coffee feeling like a celeb. They were the good old days when customers were looked after!

Mercedes SL500 R231

 

[malcolm E53 AMG]

Well done Blobcat always a good feeling to use experience and common sense to save ££££.

Sounds mad I know but fitting new parts is the only way technicians can be sure of fixing anything nowadays and it certainly helps the bottom line and keeps the finance director happy.

The electric tailgate on my E estate creaked and groaned and stuck partially open not long after I bought the car what’s the odds that if I had taken it to a dealer for ‘diagnosis’ it would have required a new motor/gearbox assembly. In the event all it needed was copious amounts of oil on the (poorly designed) hinges to free it.

 

[Blobcat]

Wow so you are now £595.00 up and your friend happy ;-)?

They are called stealers for good reason, I would not accept replacement mechanism/seals as chargeable on a car presumably under 3 years old if on original warranty!

Lexus were the only main dealership I have experienced to go above and beyond, I bought a 2 year old SC430 years ago from them and with that they even valeted it once a month for free between services while I sat drinking their coffee feeling like a celeb. They were the good old days when customers were looked after!

Mercedes SL500 R231

On an extended JLR warranty as over 3 years old. He renews the warranty each year and he’s always had more work done than the ~£1,000 premium...

I’m not in profit on this job, but I’ve had a few decent bottles of whisky off him for other work I’ve done for him.

 

[keefysher]

I've a friend with a Range Rover (I know he's a masochist...) and he noticed wind noise from the sunroof - as it's under an extended warranty (essential with JLR...) he took it to his local dealer. They diagnosed it as needing all the seals replaced at ~£600 as that isn't covered under warranty they also charged for the diagnostic (£100) they further advised that it will probably require the whole sunroof cassette mechanism which is £2,000 but recommended the cheaper seal option first...

I took a look at it and noticed that the back of the sunroof was sitting about 3mm low of the roof - after a good clean and lubrication the roof was working perfectly - going back and forward and up and down but still sitting 3mm low.

I said it looks like it's just forgotten where it should be parked - found a reset procedure online and it now sits perfectly flush again and no more wind noise.

So for the sake of a few mins online and some cleaning and lubrication it's all perfect. Now why couldn't the "experts" at the main dealers do that....

(Yes I know this will just wind @ajlsl600 up - it winds me up as well)

It wound the sun roof up too

 

[Blobcat]

It wound the sun roof up too

I see what you did there...

 

[peterws1957]

I've a friend with a Range Rover (I know he's a masochist...) and he noticed wind noise from the sunroof - as it's under an extended warranty (essential with JLR...) he took it to his local dealer. They diagnosed it as needing all the seals replaced at ~£600 as that isn't covered under warranty they also charged for the diagnostic (£100) they further advised that it will probably require the whole sunroof cassette mechanism which is £2,000 but recommended the cheaper seal option first...

I took a look at it and noticed that the back of the sunroof was sitting about 3mm low of the roof - after a good clean and lubrication the roof was working perfectly - going back and forward and up and down but still sitting 3mm low.

I said it looks like it's just forgotten where it should be parked - found a reset procedure online and it now sits perfectly flush again and no more wind noise.

So for the sake of a few mins online and some cleaning and lubrication it's all perfect. Now why couldn't the "experts" at the main dealers do that....

(Yes I know this will just wind @ajlsl600 up - it winds me up as well)

I wonder who actually "diagnosed" it. Probably the finance director.

 

[Blobcat]

I wonder who actually "diagnosed" it. Probably the finance director.

The dealership had a £10M refit last year I think....

 

[peterws1957]

The dealership had a £10M refit last year I think....

Probably financed it by flogging sunroof cassettes.

 

[Blobcat]

Probably financed it by flogging sunroof cassettes.

They try to, they definitely try

 

[JBell]

I bet they would have reset it first then charged for the job

 

[Blobcat]

I bet they would have reset it first then charged for the job

With a wipe down to make it look new...

 

[JBell]

With a wipe down to make it look new...

Exactly

 

[Rory]

Lexus were the only main dealership I have experienced to go above and beyond, I bought a 2 year old SC430 years ago from them and with that they even valeted it once a month for free between services while I sat drinking their coffee feeling like a celeb. They were the good old days when customers were looked after!

Well, 'the good old days' in the UK. Elsewhere:

 

[mioba]

Great post.
Things like this truly annoy me with dealers. I would be inclined to write to the delaer and Jag HQ and complain of such service, what your sultion was and that they should put customers first.

 

[Rory]

LandRover dealers are legendary for being awful - remarkable really bearing in mind the price of the cars. I quite like Discovery Sport and occasional 7 seats would be handy, but there's no way I'm prepared to risk my sanity when both the cars themselves are pretty iffy and the dealer support so poor.

 

[davemercedes]

I bet they would have reset it first then charged for the job

Frankly, I doubt if they even know of the reset procedure and it's almost certainly not described in the official manual. The fitters who have been lucky enough to go on a training course are only shown the "book" method of doing repairs and they probably spent no more than 1-2 hours on the roof.

I worked at a Rover Triumph distributor (in a previous life!) and with a problem vehicle the Service Manager would either get stuck in and sort it out himself (he was a proper time-served motor engineer) or he could involve our area factory engineer with anything particularly harsh like this. On a car less than 3 years old the Field Service Engineer would have issued a ticket for the repairs to be carried out under warranty. He (the factory Engineer) would probably have known about the reset procedure. Mind you, those were the legendary days of shoddy Leyland Cars (lack of) quality.

But it's the same with Mercedes - hidden tricks can be found on YouTube but I doubt if they're written up officially anywhere.

 

[Blobcat]

Frankly, I doubt if they even know of the reset procedure and it's almost certainly not described in the official manual. The fitters who have been lucky enough to go on a training course are only shown the "book" method of doing repairs and they probably spent no more than 1-2 hours on the roof.

I worked at a Rover Triumph distributor (in a previous life!) and with a problem vehicle the Service Manager would either get stuck in and sort it out himself (he was a proper time-served motor engineer) or he could involve our area factory engineer with anything particularly harsh like this. On a car less than 3 years old the Field Service Engineer would have issued a ticket for the repairs to be carried out under warranty. He (the factory Engineer) would probably have known about the reset procedure. Mind you, those were the legendary days of shoddy Leyland Cars (lack of) quality.

But it's the same with Mercedes - hidden tricks can be found on YouTube but I doubt if they're written up officially anywhere.

I'm fairly sure they didn't know about it either, can't really make (lots of) money that way either...

 

[coxyhog]

It's not just cars,just after I bought my brand new Harley I noticed the speedo would under read intermittently.Ended up getting a new pick-up fitted and still have the new,unused speedo they gave me(They were winding the company up & had ordered it already).

After some digging I found out it was caused by not letting the speedo complete it's self test before hitting start.

Fortunately Taggers of Watford are no longer there,their mechanics were a total waste of time.

 

[ajlsl600]

think these experiences are ,unfortunately across the board now . a sign of the times.