Sbc no contribution

ALFIEBEARD

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Hi Again Lads,
For all the people who have been informed that the SBC pump on Mercedes W211 E270CDI was covered by a lifetime warranty dont hold your breath, here is a reply from Mercedes after my pump failed at 29,000mls and under 5 years old.

I have today informed them that I am going to publicise this bad situation and have also told them that when my pump failed it nearly locked up a rear wheel.

I would recommend that if your car is still under warranty, I would make sure you have a new pump fitted prior to the warranty expiring;:rolleyes:;).

Alfie B
------------------------------------------------------------------------

6th July 2009

Ref: CS-1-1113917240

Dear Mr Beard

Mercedes-Benz Model: E-Class
Chassis No: WDB2110162A598290
Registration: J8DCL

I write with reference to your correspondence dated 12th June 2009 regarding your dissatisfaction with the quality of your Mercedes-Benz E-Class.

We understand your disappointment regarding the issues that you have experienced with your vehicle and would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused to you as a result of this matter.

Upon receipt of your concerns, we contacted Mercedes-Benz of Carlisle. Please be advised that a goodwill application was made to the Warranty Department of Mercedes-Benz UK Ltd for financial assistance towards the costs of the repair.

We regret to inform you that this request has been declined and hope that you will appreciate that given that your Mercedes-Benz E-Class has now entered its 5th year of registration there has to be a limit to even the most generous goodwill guidelines. We apologise a more favourable outcome will not be forthcoming.

Thank you for writing to us and providing us the opportunity to address your concerns. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any further enquiries.


Yours sincerely

Craig Stenhouse
Customer Service
Mercedes-Benz Customer Assistance Center Maastricht N.V.
Gaetano Martinolaan 10
NL-6229 GS Maastricht, the Netherlands

Phone Nr: 00800 1 777 7777
mailto: CustomerService.UK@cac.mercedes-benz.com
 

television

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Oh dear,,so no 10 year guarantee as in the USA
 

124coupe

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There has been misleading info floating about re a Merc "10 year warranty" on the SBC pump. This is an MBUSA warranty and the equivalent does not exist in MBUK.

There have been many successful one-off goodwill claims for the pump but there is no specific extended SBC pump warranty.

Maybe MB UK have seen the Forum chat here and on "the other one" and decided to start to try to call a halt?

There is strong evidence that the pump "wears out" after a number of actuations - clearly strop/start driving will hit this wear limit far earlier than motorway work.

Do you have full dealer service history (including brake fluid changes at 2-year intervals) ?

What's the £total and parts/labour breakdown for the replacement? (I assume you have had labour discounted as the car is over 3 years old).


Edit: spookily SBC was removed from late June 06 on the E (from the facelift) so all E-class cars except any late-registered stock are now (just) out of warranty......


If you can take the publicity, this is a good one for What Car? to take up for you - especially if they include the USA versus UK discrepancy and the precedents reported on the 2 UK Forums PLUS the fact that SBC was a very expensive, Merc-only experiment that they have subsequently abandoned and removed from the new and facelifted models in their range.
 
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Rory

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Have you owned the car from new?
 

Dosco

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Sounds like another (good) reason not to consider changing the barge:shock:
 

124coupe

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The USA addendum for reference....
 

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mirras

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I must have been one of the lucky ones as MBUK just paid in full for the SBC pump to be replaced in my 2003 SL500. As a comparison, my car is on it's 3rd keeper, was last serviced at an independent and is in it's 7th year of registration. Why replace mine and refuse others? Are there different faults on these units? I was told the maximum number of pedal presses had been made on my unit. Could it be the dealer requesting the goodwill payment? Is there a limit on how much MBUK pay each dealer franchise? Mine was done by Stratstone. Not trying to sound smug, just offering a comparison for you to use.
 

turbopete

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blimey Alfie! if you get any more unlucky, you will become me!!!
 

124coupe

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I think we need Alfie to confirm the service history on the car to get the full picture.
 
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ALFIEBEARD

ALFIEBEARD

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There has been misleading info floating about re a Merc "10 year warranty" on the SBC pump. This is an MBUSA warranty and the equivalent does not exist in MBUK.

There have been many successful one-off goodwill claims for the pump but there is no specific extended SBC pump warranty.

Maybe MB UK have seen the Forum chat here and on "the other one" and decided to start to try to call a halt?

There is strong evidence that the pump "wears out" after a number of actuations - clearly strop/start driving will hit this wear limit far earlier than motorway work.

Do you have full dealer service history (including brake fluid changes at 2-year intervals) ?

What's the £total and parts/labour breakdown for the replacement? (I assume you have had labour discounted as the car is over 3 years old).


Edit: spookily SBC was removed from late June 06 on the E (from the facelift) so all E-class cars except any late-registered stock are now (just) out of warranty......


If you can take the publicity, this is a good one for What Car? to take up for you - especially if they include the USA versus UK discrepancy and the precedents reported on the 2 UK Forums PLUS the fact that SBC was a very expensive, Merc-only experiment that they have subsequently abandoned and removed from the new and facelifted models in their range.

Hi,
The SBC pump cost was £900 then there was £500 labour. so I dont think even the labour was discounted.:mad:.
Interesting thought about what car, I certainly dont mind the publicity.also the car has full MB service history, at 29k only had 2 services.
Regards
Alfie B
 
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ALFIEBEARD

ALFIEBEARD

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Have you owned the car from new?

Hi Rory,
No it was owned by the Managing director of a high class Garage prior to my ownership.

Alfie B
 
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ALFIEBEARD

ALFIEBEARD

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blimey Alfie! if you get any more unlucky, you will become me!!!

HA HA ROFLMAO CLASSIC. AT LEAST I CAN RELY ON YOU TO CHEER ME UP PETE:lol:.

Regards
Alfie B
 

mercmadjim

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blimey Alfie! if you get any more unlucky, you will become me!!!

Here we go again Alfie, go get em fella!! if I ever get on a boat with you, i will shoot an albatross for luck;)

You should buy yourself a BMW ;)
 
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ALFIEBEARD

ALFIEBEARD

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Here we go again Alfie, go get em fella!! if I ever get on a boat with you, i will shoot an albatross for luck;)

You should buy yourself a BMW ;)

Hi Jim,
I dont know who's the funniest you or Pete, shoot an Albatross ha ha ha, I bet you would,nt get on a boat with me:rolleyes: especially if it had a Merc engine,:rolleyes::lol:.
I told MB in my reply to them I was going to buy a BMW.

Take Care

Alfie B
 

turbopete

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HA HA ROFLMAO CLASSIC. AT LEAST I CAN RELY ON YOU TO CHEER ME UP PETE:lol:.

Regards
Alfie B

thats why im here! that and the fact that i can kinda fix things! still thinking over setting up myself!

re your sbc pump though, what car, which or possibly even watchdog etc may take up your offer to go public! worth contacting all of them! the more that know, the better!

besides, if sbc pump replacements were so expensive for MB to stand all warranty claims, why didnt they just modify the system to return it to the type of system used before and/or after sbc? surely itd be cheaper for them, long term??!!
 

television

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In these cars it is not possible to convert to a conventional system, there is no room for a servo for starters, this is on the CL and SL
 

television

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How, the facelifted 211 does without SBC altogether.

The newer 211 has EBC this is another system, there was more room on the 211 but no room on the 215 or 230.

The 211 sells in a much greater volumes than the other 2 cars, this being the case the alterations to the firewall were economical to enable the change.
 

television

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SBC the short comings

SBC uses an electric motor to charge the system up, this motor is a standard motor that contains carbon brushes, so we have a limited life on this part alone-. Motors fail all the time on other parts of the car so why not this one. these also contain a printed circuit board,and I have now repaired 3 normal PCB's on the multi connector where the main plug, plugs in. there were badly soldered joints on the connector sockets. So we have the motor that can fail, the PCB and electronics, and the pump section.

The guarantee on these thing is not determined by any brake fluid changes, or any electronic programming, it is the same system used in the UK as in other parts of the world.

With a conventional brake system we only have the hydraulics ( the same with SBC) and a vacuum booster, so in all very little to go wrong, OK we now have BAS this is also an electric motor pump, but if that fails it is not the end of the world and you still have normal brakes, to bring the car to a stop.

With SBC if the pump or motor fails, then you just have the master cylinder with no servo, and they braking effect by using the pedal is almost non existent, yes it still uses the hydraulics, but 2 tons of motor car is not easy to stop without a vacuum servo. The first mini cooper S cars did not have a servo and they were awful to stop with,

The added thing on SBC is if you have distronic like I have, and this uses the SBC all the time to keep the car at the set speed, so the wear rate on my car should be much higher, we will see if I stop posting, then you will know.

The SBC was only removed in the SL as from the new model with the single slat grill that came out in late 2008.

Obviously very little thought was given to the long term issues that have started to arise, on here this will be the 4th thread on the pump failing, plenty more in the USA and the cars are now coming up to 7½ years old now. MB did admit that it was rushed through, and MB and Bosch worked together on this design, if they got this so wrong, though it is a super system to have and very effective, it makes you wonder about other things that fail.

Its no help either to just replace it from time to time as a new one can fail just as easily:(
 

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