Wow, talk about great service!!!

[Rebel]

Okay, to cut a long story short, I live in Peterborough (Cambs) and because I have the MIL warning light return (after having all the fault codes cleared) I took my car to the local MB dealers today

Anyway they diagnosed the fault and quoted me £1475 to rectify it

Having read the forums I know the fault is not exactly uncommon and is a known problem with oil getting into the ECU from wiring to camshaft adjuster solenoid bringing up the fault code relating to lambda sensor, and it is caused by the oil getting into that part of the ecu circuitry that deals with lambda control.

Anyway they have given me a parts list which according to them needs to be replaced consisting of an engine harness, and engine ECU a Camshaft magnet plug adapter harness and a new upstream Lambda sensor, as I have only had the car since last september (I bought it off a motor trader, so have no comeback even though I got a full service history when I bought the car) I was a little upset to say the least.

Thats when I did something extremely sensible (for a change) and phoned Ian Walker of 124works.com (I found him through these forums) wow! this guy is so helpful its unreal, He couldn't have thought he was going to get my business, after all I am nearly 200 miles away, and as I am disabled, thats a heck of a trip, but he went into detail as to how to fix it without going broke in the meantime, and told me what needs to be done to solve my problem, as against what MB want to do and the cost is about 1/5th thats right ONE FIFTH of what MB dealers wanted to charge me!!!!!

The only thing Ian got wrong was the fact he didn't expect to get any business from me, the 400 mile round trip is a big problem, but its a problem I intend to solve, I want to meet a guy that is this honest, this helpful and goes out of his way to help people.

This thread is a blatant plug for Ian and www.124works.com , because anytime someone goes to this much trouble to help out a stranger he deserves thanking in public.

PS I don't post on these forums much, but this post had to be made.

 

[speedybiker]

Fantastic post, respect to you both.

Unfortunately I am in Scotland, if I was anywhere near you, I'd vounteer to either drive you to Ian's, or leave my car with you to use, while I take your car there and return it to you repaired.

Regards,

Alex

 

[television]

I hope that Ian knows that oil in itself does not damage the ECU, it can be washed to prevent any long term damage, as all national grid transformer running on 600k volts are full of oil, as are ignition coils.
I had a running Sky box on the bench (do bare in mind that they only just manage to work on their own) and filled it with oil and it carried on working as normal, these things have 6 individual clocks running.

It is only MBs policy to replace just incase

 

[Rebel]

I hope that Ian knows that oil in itself does not damage the ECU, it can be washed to prevent any long term damage, as all national grid transformer running on 600k volts are full of oil, as are ignition coils.
I had a running Sky box on the bench (do bare in mind that they only just manage to work on their own) and filled it with oil and it carried on working as normal, these things have 6 individual clocks running.

It is only MBs policy to replace just incase

Malcolm, it was actually your posts regarding this very issue which led me to do some research (thanks for that, you have been instrumental in saving my bacon so to speak) and it was the other forum members glowing recommendations for Ian that led me to phone him, all in all the MB forums and their members have saved me a lot of heartache!

(As a matter of interest I nearly contacted you direct Malcolm to ask your advice, but there were no contact details and I felt it would have been an imposition to pm you, whereas I knew if Ian could help there was a strong possibility I would be asking him to do the repair for me.)

 

[television]

Thanks for the kind words, its nice helping folk where possible, we dont all earn mega bucks