Tension chain

[Ravern]

Hi I need some advice and help. I own a Mercedes SLK250 AMG Sport 2014. It had 55000 miles on the clock. It was bought as a approved car from Hughes Aylesbury. After the warranty ran out I took out a service pack with Mercedes so it has a full service history.

In June this year the timing chain tensioner apparently broke and damaged the engine allegedly beyond repair.
Mercedes have offered to pay half of a £15,790 bill.
I have argued that this can’t be right given the servicing and low mileage but they don’t want to know.

Can anyone assist?

 

[Wighty]

Can't help with advice buddy . Sounds dreadful , but are you sure the bill is correct ?

 

[umblecumbuz]

A few months ago I bought a Kia Soul.
It has a seven year/100,000 mile warranty.

MB has a lot of catching up to do.

 

[davidsl500]

It's that OM651 timing chain issue again - the one lots of people say there isn't an issue with.....

I would be heading for the small claims court..

 

[M80]

It's that OM651 timing chain issue again - the one lots of people say there isn't an issue with.....

I would be heading for the small claims court..

More and more I have confirmed opinion that this engine is designed for MB's increased revenue.
Fighting MB can take a lot of money and stress in the UK, shame you can't take them to the US courts.

 

[LostKiwi]

How long have you had the car?

 

[ajlsl600]

i guess this thing has/had "stop/start" nuts on a single row chain. and that benz price is something else !! another example of something whose primary design seems to be to create a just after warranty revenue stream , if it was,nt it sure seems to be doing a good job. 55k miles ! such a failure with verifiable service history should be a makers problem without argument ,after all what could be benz suggesting the owner could have done to create the situation ? this kind of thing is why i change my oil far more often than makers recommend its the only thing i can do to ,maybe ward this off.that and disable stop/start at every start up .
i do hope the OP gets some proper satisfaction in this case.. complain on every social media platform you can access, see what happens . and please post back if you get a result.

 

[Ravern]

How long have you had the car?

June 2017

 

[Ravern]

i guess this thing has/had "stop/start" nuts on a single row chain. and that benz price is something else !! another example of something whose primary design seems to be to create a just after warranty revenue stream , if it was,nt it sure seems to be doing a good job. 55k miles ! such a failure with verifiable service history should be a makers problem without argument ,after all what could be benz suggesting the owner could have done to create the situation ? this kind of thing is why i change my oil far more often than makers recommend its the only thing i can do to ,maybe ward this off.that and disable stop/start at every start up .
i do hope the OP gets some proper satisfaction in this case.. complain on every social media platform you can access, see what happens . and please post back if you get a result.

Thanks for the above. It appears that you have very limited recourse after they say that they will only pay 50%. Car ombudsman never answers his phone and there doesn’t appear to be any specialist lawyers.

 

[Bogus]

It's that OM651 timing chain issue again - the one lots of people say there isn't an issue with.....

I would be heading for the small claims court..

I think small claims court is a good approach, my son had similar issues with a renault which suffered a broken timing belt some 3000 miles after it was replaced by the renault dealer. renault were only offering to cover 25% of the £6000 costs of fitting a new engine. A submission of paperwork to the small claims court instantly brought an offer of 90% of the costs, which he accepted.

 

[Tony Dyson]

Hi I need some advice and help. I own a Mercedes SLK250 AMG Sport 2014. It had 55000 miles on the clock. It was bought as a approved car from Hughes Aylesbury. After the warranty ran out I took out a service pack with Mercedes so it has a full service history.

In June this year the timing chain tensioner apparently broke and damaged the engine allegedly beyond repair.
Mercedes have offered to pay half of a £15,790 bill.
I have argued that this can’t be right given the servicing and low mileage but they don’t want to know.

Can anyone assist?

Be prepared to fight and fight dirty with social and motoring publication media if you have to in order to persuade MB they have a bigger responsibility in this than the 50% they have offered, by making that offer they are by implication admitting a level of culpability and you need to work on this, do you have this offer in writing? The first thing I would advise is document everything, record discussions and confirm them with E Mails or letters, others on the forum will advise you to go directly to the MB UK CEO which is good advice, I personally like to work my way up the chain of command so everyone knows the details of the issue and the repercussions to the brand if you don't get satisfaction. You also need to address this issue with a blitzkrieg attitude, insist of face-to-face meetings and at short notice, threaten to go over their heads if they try to fob you off, formulate your plan of attack and stick to it, be prepared with copies of your documentation to support your position and tell them exactly what you want for your satisfaction. While I would agree, the easiest thing in the world is to load someone else’s gun with bullets, but when right is on your side I don’t see how you can lose, I never have.

A question, 1, were you aware of the reputation of the simplex timing chain and tensioner of the OM 651 Engine when you bought the vehicle and 2, Were you periodically listening for, or did you notice any changes in engine startup noise, specifically the 'chain rattle'?

 

[M80]

It's difficult to imagine MB will bend over easily by accepting full liability.
There's a lot of these engines around and the problem is becoming known. If MB reluctantly pay out on a few repairs, and make that difficult, there will be less 'others' who will have the confidence to have ago.

The risk to MB is the damage to the reputation of their engine and less buying a car with it, but that's in decline due to the diesel being considered evil anyway. And that engine is 5 years old so can be said to be unlucky, or new engines aren't quite the same.

If you confess that you heard a change in engine noise at start up you become complicit as you should have taken preventative action or sought expert advice, so I'm guessing this failure was sudden, w/o warning.

Keep pushing'em for good will though.
I don't suppose raising this on other forums would do you any harm.

 

[Oldspanners]

What you are up against here is a quality control failure by MB.
They will point out there are many thousands of these engines running reliably and somehow you are responsible for the premature failure of your engine. They have already admitted some responsibility but there are a lot more failures (do some research) as these faulty parts fail due to their weak quality.
There are problems with M271 cam sprockets/chains and notably M272/3 balance shaft that in the USA they were forced to replace.
Buying a new or used car is a gamble and buying a MB should be less risky than most but it has not turned out that way for you, so I hope you find a solution that enables you to get a working car again and keep up the pressure on them.
PS MB used to have a publicity blurb that went something like, Quality doesn't cost you, it pays you.
Looks like they want you to pay for their lack of quality.

 

[umblecumbuz]

... but when right is on your side I don’t see how you can lose, I never have.

Ahh ... Eutopia!

 

[LostKiwi]

June 2017

How many miles since that time?

 

[bembo449]

how the heck is a derv engine worth nigh on 16k fitted ? that's incredible , the car can't be worth that or certainly much more ??

 

[Blobcat]

how the heck is a derv engine worth nigh on 16k fitted ? that's incredible , the car can't be worth that or certainly much more ??

Labour costs at Mercedes Dealer to fit it will be the largest cost by far I would expect

 

[ajlsl600]

how the heck is a derv engine worth nigh on 16k fitted ? that's incredible , the car can't be worth that or certainly much more ??

labour ? anything involving it is a fortune today. thats why SO much stuff is throw way today. and i have found NO rhyme or reason for benz parts prices .how can 2x nox sensors be a grand ????

 

[davidsl500]

The car was bought as a Mercedes approved car - naturally from a Mercedes approved dealer. It has a full Mercedes service history and has covered 55,000 miles before a catastrophic failure. It's a 5 year old car. I don't think that that is reasonable and nor will a small claims court judge who tend to be very down to earth and sensible. It's not merchantable quality, end of. It's not that this problem isn't known out there, however low the failure rate may be.

I would calmly speak to the the Dealer Principal and remind him/her of the above and ask them whether they think having to pay nearly £8K is reasonable and ask who they think a small claims court judge would agree with.

 

[Oldspanners]

labour ? anything involving it is a fortune today. thats why SO much stuff is throw way today. and i have found NO rhyme or reason for benz parts prices .how can 2x nox sensors be a grand ????

Yes, we've had this situation/conversation before. We are here to consume and must continue to consume at a greater rate each year and if you, I and the rest of the Forum continue to fix things we will break the whole system!