Tension chain

Blobcat

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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 odthe 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.
I agree with David on this, we have some great consumer laws in the UK and it is reasonable to expect a Mercedes to last longer than 4 years and 55,000 miles - with full Mercedes Service history you are in a very strong position.
I wouldn't be shouting and threatening, I'd outline the facts as you've detailed here to the dealer principle and advise that if they're not improving their offer very significantly then you'll be going via the small claims courts. Come across as reasonable and you'll no doubt get what you want.
 

M80

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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!

You mean recyling kit and causing things to last longer so we slow the exhausting of the planets resources isn't really what the gov't's want?
 

ajlsl600

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constantly trying to wriggle out of being the constant consumer is , it seems my main existence now... i just took one of my electric roller shutter motors apart. issue turns out u/s electromagnetic relay on pcb. dealer wants me to spend 120E on a replacement. 2 new relays 2.60 ! just remains to work out how to get old 4 pin unit off pcb ,struggling to heat up 4 pin at same time. somfy wont sell me the pcb ! b,s surely a repair is greener than a new unit, certainly is for me/wallet...
 

M80

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If this was a Chinese made car, A Great Wall for example, would we still be saying you should have a reasonable expectation of longer and further?
I would suggest that many would say instead "well what did you expect of that Chinese stuff?"
I don't see that it being MB changes that, it is the contract of the warranty that is more relevant.

But just a non legal opinion.
 

LostKiwi

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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.
That's exactly where I was going with my questions.
 

ajlsl600

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as per LK see what they say to that, the forums ect also good as makers dont like to see bad publicity ,even if accurate. really hope you get sorted i would be really PD off !
 
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Ravern

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  • Thread Starter
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  • #27
Thank you everyone I bought the car in 2017 and mileage I believe at the time was 28000. It has a full service history and a service was required by the 7th July 2019. I am interested in views as to whether small claims court is my next option. I wrote a well crafted letter to Mercedes complaints outlining that in my opinion the timing tensioner should not have broken given the low mileage and regular change of oil.
I had a verbal response from some non emphatic individual stating that 50% was all they would offer. I asked for this in writing and to date no response.
I am not aware of the OM651 engine.
 

LostKiwi

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It all boils down to reasonable expectation.
Would a reasonable individual expect given age and condition of vehicle that it would need a new engine due to a failure of this type?
If the answer is no then the next question would be At what point would a reasonable individual expect this type of event to occur? This is your sticking point. If it's deemed to be 100k mile then 50/50 would be deemed fair. If it's deemed that the expected life span given quality of vehicle and condition etc is 200k then you might reasonably expect a bigger payout from MB. You would be unlikely to get the full amount as that would be deemed betterment which the court won't allow. The exception to this is if there are extenuating circumstances such as loss of income through not having the vehicle or other financial hardship etc.
That would be my take.

The good thing is that money claim online costs comparatively little and you can't have costs awarded if you lose.
 

Exp21

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Good morning to everyone, I post here this question because I think the topic has already been treated many times and I don't want to open another thread. Today my C200 CDI B.E. w204 MY2012 (OM651) has begun to rattle on startup: it happened after a 10 days stop of the car. Before that, on cold starts the engine noise was approximately fine, you could hear a stronger and little louder noise on first two-three seconds but it was ok. Being aware of this particular 651 issue, I've been with this worry for months, till now when it happened. The rattle is not too strong as you can see on many Youtube videos. The car has 125000 km, has always been serviced in MB and I bought it as a certified MB pre-owned. In the last two years in my control I did oil changes more frequently (every 10-15k km) because I know diesel engines issues (oil dilution etc). This rattle happened only after a 10 days stop. Do you think it's still ok to keep going or the chain is already worn and these are the first signs of chain rattle? If the rattle does not show starting the car every day, can I keep going like this? The process is necessarily going to get worse or it's possible to keep on going for years like this? This car had so many issues, I'm thinking about selling it. Thank you very much and have a nice day
 

ajlsl600

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unfortunately for me a chain rattle would be quite depressing and i would have to change it.my mate down the road would just continue ,and get away with it ,i would,nt. from what i have read it seems that mid miles and just following an oil change seem to be the danger triggers of this ?? if one makes it to 60/70 k miles it seems one will likely make 100k miles + wish i could understand why, i think that there are times when the tensioner drains down and it then wont tension up again . so my first plan if/when this happens is to investigate that before killing myself on chain changing on 651 as i hear thats a bit of a ball ache ? anyone ?
 

Blobcat

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Thank you for your comments and advice. Mercedes have now kindly offered to pay 80% off the cost.
That’s a pretty decent result - depending upon how much you’re actual 20% is
 

Tony Dyson

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unfortunately for me a chain rattle would be quite depressing and i would have to change it.my mate down the road would just continue ,and get away with it ,i would,nt. from what i have read it seems that mid miles and just following an oil change seem to be the danger triggers of this ?? if one makes it to 60/70 k miles it seems one will likely make 100k miles + wish i could understand why, i think that there are times when the tensioner drains down and it then wont tension up again . so my first plan if/when this happens is to investigate that before killing myself on chain changing on 651 as i hear thats a bit of a ball ache ? anyone ?
Owning one, I have done some research in preparation for the rattle, if ever it does develop, and it is my understand the engine has to come out in order to inspect/replace all the worn/damaged components, pulleys, guides tensioner etc, there are some random video's on YT showing how to replace the chain by splitting the existing chain from the top and using it to pull through a replacement, if that's all you need to do but how you would evaluate that isn't clear.
 

ajlsl600

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i think ,for me ,evaluate is keep listening at start up/overrun.and ALWAYS dissable stop start at each/every start up. yes ref yt i have seen that done as well, but having just done that on my w168 a class i can say its not 5 min or simply a,b,c.steps ect. i will keep my eye on that, as said tensioner would be my first point of call as it often seems to manifest itself following oil change ??? if this is the case and there MUST be a reason, the design is flawed,wots new...?
 

Exp21

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Today the cold start after a 15 hours stop was "ok". You could hear 3-4 seconds of louder engine noise, but no evident rattle. I think the issue shows only after a stop of many days
 

ajlsl600

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Thank you for your comments and advice. Mercedes have now kindly offered to pay 80% off the cost.


frankly thats prob as good as it will get. make sure when all resolved all the conditions and warranty of the replacement are in writing at 80% they are kind of admitting responsibility ...i suppose if yr corner is 3k ,they are saying thats the cost of the 55k miles that engine covered prior to failure. mind you the price they quoted for that engine are !!!!!!!!
 

Botus

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if you can prove the failure was due to a design /manufacturing issue when the car was made, the law is very much on your side and they have to pay everything including all your costs (so long as you back them up with receipts)

if that can't be 100% verified, the offer to pay 50% from Mercedes is extremely generous … although by claiming its 15.7k to resolve not only are they really contributing NOTHING at all, but STEALING a further 5k over and above what's is a totally ridiculous price for an engine.

7k absolute top whack for the lump and 2k to fit, reality is 4.5 for the engine and 8 hours to fit, at what ought to be 70 quid an hour (560) so you ought to bung 3 k in and get an engine that lasts 200k miles, they want 16k and it'll only do 50k miles = lease a Toyota or Hyundai next time
 

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