HERBIEMERCMAN
Senior Member
- Joined
- Dec 15, 2008
- Messages
- 1,407
- Reaction score
- 40
- Location
- PRESTON, LANCS.
- Your Mercedes
- 97. E300.TD. 7 SEAT.ELEGANCE. EST.TOYOTA SUPRA MK4. RS. VAUX. CORSA.GLS AUTO. SPORT.
hi everyone, yes the way i feel now i am posting my experience as a warning. basically i have a local garage who's owner is a friend of mine, the friend bit may have caused my expensive problem. he is a good mechanic and quite keen, the problem is he has succumed to the "mot" money spinner syndrome, ten mot's per day this brings in lots of donkey work, tyres, brake pads, exhausts, etc. big mark up easy money. my problem started with asking them to replace a corroded brake pipe on my 97. e300 td est. car. unfortunately my local garage at the time employed a young fitter with little experience, he was not given any supervision by the owner of my local garage so when he was asked to remove the brake pipe he mistakenly removed the whole of the hydraulic self leveling suspension pipes, in fairness to him they did look like brake pipes. the first reaction from my local garage was one of me now having a problem not them! as the 6mm pipe was not available from mb. i purchased copper pipe but this leaked due to the temperature the pipes can run at and the differential exp. caused leaks. again it was my problem so i purchased 6 mm bundy tube, my garage had a flaring tool set, but yes you have guessed it , the 6mm former was missing. i then had one made and the pipes were fitted, the piping did not look good but there was no more leakage. at this point the pipe and hydro liquid had cost me £110. plus some frustration. some months later i noticed that the oil level in the supply resavoir had moved above the max level ? the rear suspension had also become very bumpy, no cushioning. so i returned to my local garage and they said change the spheres, this was done. £300. but the self levelling was still not working and the ride was still very bumpy. the car had been sent out to me in this condition without any explanation. the car was returned for a week they said they did not have time to look at it ( too many mot's etc ), i then took it back for a second week, again too buisy, so we took it away. the final comment was that it must be the tandem pump at £350. my two brothers who have mercs told me about an "inde" who they felt knew what he was doing, leon thornley, walton-le-dale, preston, lancs. leon said following his investigation that the pipes were cross connected and the connecting unions they had used could collapse the inner seatings in the die cast self levelling valve, also the tandem pump, which was perfectly ok just needed bleeding. at this point in time i do not know what i will be charged but the moral of my story is DO NOT TAKE YOUR MERC. TO YOUR LOCAL GARAGE, apart from monkey work, like, tyres, brake pads, etc. this experience has cost me circa £1,000 for a brake pipe as well as me considering a "building site reaction" , my good wife stopped me, against my local garage owner. herbiemercman.
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