Rear Diff Seal Oil Leak - C class

[Sanny]

My 2001 C220cdi recently had a B service at 24K miles. The service dept at my local dealer not only fleeced me for £900 including brake pads all round, new tyre, wiper blades etc, but also recommended that I have the rear diff seals replaced at a cost of around £900!

As the car has such a low mileage, was bought from them and has always been serviced by them, I queried the cost and suggested that they might like to carry out the work as a gesture of goodwill. They refused point blank and refused even to speak to Mercedes.

Does anyone have any experience of this type of problem - I will be speaking to another franchised MB dealer who has offered a second opinion as they think my local dealer is talking rubbish. They have also said that MB would offer to pay at least 50%, if not all of the cost as a goodwill gesture to a long tiem customer.

I currently run a C220 and an E class.

Any thoughts would be welcome

 

[bazza]

My mother-in-law has a C200K Coupe on a 51 plate and the seals at the diff started leaking. These were replaced under warranty but the diff started to whine between 50-60mph, MB replaced the whole diff last week(just in warranty)

HTH



Bazza

 

[NormanB]

Sanny

This a difficult one. The diff could be an income generator for the dealer - but then they hardly need to do that.

If it were me I would get it up in the air, give it a thorough clean in that area and then monitor leakage/useage. If you have access to a lift so much the better as this procedure is a PITA.

A little bit of oil can go a long way and £900 buys a lot of oil.

 

[Sanny]

Diff seal leak - C220CDi

Thanks for the suggestions. I spoke to another dealer who told me that MB would almost certainly meet most of the cost as a gesture of goodwill. Armed with this information, I returned to my local dealer, where the after sales manager agreed to discuss with MB.

Result - local dealer has now offered to carry out the work for £175!

Moral of the story is don't accept the first quote and argue the toss!

 

[johnmc]

Service Costs

Sanny,
Phew! That was one pricey service at 900quid!

I use Merc for service stamps but get all wear and tear stuff fitted
elsewhere. I'll you'll see from my other posts I've had several
warranty claims and no issues with this.

Last service on my E-Class:
- Merc Dealer B Service: 250Quid
- FOUR Michellin Energy 16 inch tyres, Costco: 196Quid total.
- Brake pads all round: 140Quid (Merc genuine parts)
Total: 586pounds.

I play the dealers off against each other, since they all dish out free
loaner cars and I can go anywhere in Central Scotland. One will always
drop the price to get the business.

Mercs are average/below average for quality of product and service, don't pay top end prices for service. Glad you got your diff sorted for a good price. It was never worth more than 175quid anyway.

John

 

[Sanny]

Rear Diff Seal - C 220 cdi

Thanks for your comments John. The C class is the first MB vehicle of mine that has gone out of warranty - I have 2 others. I wanted to test the support from the local dealer and found it severely wanting. From experience, MB London is exceptionally poor but independent dealers are good.

I have found Western Edinburgh to be exceptionally helpful. After 25 years of buying MB, my family have just bought their first BMW due to the poor service from MB.

 

[jberks]

diff oil leak

My C220 petrol at 4 years old (this was 2000) was reported as needing diff oil seals replacing. I couldn't see any problems with them but as it was under signature warranty I let them do it. I suspect that its one of those things that don't really need doing and wouldn't really cause a problem for years (probably after you've sold it). Like my 3 series that "required" a starter motor at 4 years old. I ignored the dealer recommendation, ran it for 13 years and it was still starting fine on the day I jobbed it in! There is a big difference on the dealer's and our interpretation of the word "need".