Picking up the car tomorrow but now worried about the m272 engine

[shshivji]

Hi every one, been really excited this week to pick my c280 tomorrow. But yesterday i was going through the various merc forums and found that the early m272 engines had issues with soft balancer shaft sprocket that wore down and causes the timing to go out :-/ i checked my engine serial number and it falls in that bracket. Question is, mine has done 31000 miles on a 2006 and comes wih 12 months warrenty, so do i pick her tomorrow or tell merc i don't want the car anymore and loose my deposit, how many people have had this problem on this forum??? Really concerned now :-(

Cheers

Shak

[st4]

Hi. Merely alert the dealer and insist they change the timing gear for new upgraded parts and you'll have no further issues

[shshivji]

Originally Posted by st4

Hi. Merely alert the dealer and insist they change the timing gear for new upgraded parts and you'll have no further issues

Are the that accommodating about this issue then???

Shak

[grober]

There is hardly a car now you can buy that doesn't have some inherent design fault. If its being sold by Mercedes it should come with a good warranty { tier 1 ?} so you should be covered for a year. Thirty one thousand miles is quite a low mileage for a 6 year old car but may mean the problem hasn't raised its head yet. On the other hand it may have been addressed already and the car's service records should show that. Normally this shows up with the engine warning light coming on but there was a software " fiddle" to delay this happening in the USA at least. Should the worst come to the worst it is a known problem and there is a well documented repair procedure. Buying a second hand car always involves an element of risk. If its got a good MB warranty then this is removed at least for the warranty period. I would be wary if the warranty offered is of a third party insurance type- some dealers offer this on older mercs if the car doesn't fall within MERC'S own warranty criteria?? Also depends on the condition of the car and the price you are paying for it- its all a balance really. It's your money- your deposit- in the end your decision. One way out and possibly keep your deposit is to express your concerns to the dealer and offer to buy a slightly newer = more expensive model you are happier with?

[bpsorrel]

As an additional bit of piece of mind for you, my V6 CDI suffered the (as I discovered after buying the car) well documented main bearing failure. The car was out of MB warranty and covered only by a Renault dealer warranty. The upshot was the local (to them) MB dealer fixed the fault and MB swallowed the bill (£2K I think!) as good will as the car had impeccable service history. So don't worry too much, back up is there!

[brucemillar]

+1 for ST4 here. Make sure that the dealer logs your concern. I suspect that that they would be unlikely to replace anything unless there is either Tech Bulletin telling them to do so - or - there is hard evidence that there is a failure.

[dokalj]

I agree as above, it is better to ask than not ask.

[shshivji]

Right ok, will have a word with them. At the moment they are a giving me 12 months warrenty, the salesman said the warrenty i get is the same as the new car warrenty :-) what sort of price is an extended warrenty from
Mercedes ?????

Shak

[st4]

Extending the warranty will be a £800 exercise. It's best to get them to fit the upgraded parts or near end of warranty for you to pay for this work

[clk208]

Please read my thread on a similar topic:

Approved used CLS M272 issue

[Peter T]

Originally Posted by shshivji

Right ok, will have a word with them. At the moment they are a giving me 12 months warrenty, the salesman said the warrenty i get is the same as the new car warrenty :-) what sort of price is an extended warrenty from
Mercedes ?????

Shak

Sounds familiar! When I bought my 07 SLK the salesman used exactly those words about the warranty.

8 months later when a roof seal started to leak they wanted £750 to fix it. What about the "As new warranty" I asked? Oh, this is a "Wear item" and you must expect this on an 07 vehicle, they said. But, I said, this vehicle was sold with an "As new" warranty so it should not matter how old it is................

And so it want on. Eventually they agreed to fix it as a "Good will" gesture!

As far as I can tell MB warranties aren't worth the paper they're written on!!

[Vlad]

My local MB Specialist has two cars fitted with the 350 V6 waiting to have their engines removed to fix the balancer shaft and timing chains....one having just 40,000 on the clock.

[bpsorrel]

What with main bearing failure on V6 diesels and now I hear of this problem with petrol V6s, what the **** is going on with MB? We should be outraged!! This is the leading premium manufacturer building engines that fail so young!! Why?

Or are we here just a tiny microcosm of owners and everyone else has no problems?

[st4]

Originally Posted by bpsorrel

What with main bearing failure on V6 diesels and now I hear of this problem with petrol V6s, what the **** is going on with MB? We should be outraged!! This is the leading premium manufacturer building engines that fail so young!! Why?

Or are we here just a tiny microcosm of owners and everyone else has no problems?

No, the M272 engine fault effects whole batches of engines. Upgraded parts need fitted at dealers ASAP.

The V6CDI bearing fault affects just some cars, there was a batch of dodgy bearing shells.

The IPS motor, leaky turbo seals, that does the lot....

[WOODYTHEWISE]

Originally Posted by Peter T

Sounds familiar! When I bought my 07 SLK the salesman used exactly those words about the warranty.

8 months later when a roof seal started to leak they wanted £750 to fix it. What about the "As new warranty" I asked? Oh, this is a "Wear item" and you must expect this on an 07 vehicle, they said. But, I said, this vehicle was sold with an "As new" warranty so it should not matter how old it is................

And so it want on. Eventually they agreed to fix it as a "Good will" gesture!

As far as I can tell MB warranties aren't worth the paper they're written on!!

I have found just the opposite, no problem at all. they also repaired your car to the tune of £750. Seals and water ingress is not generally covered. I more or less had a full aircon replacement including a temp sensor that is on the inside of the bulkhead, this involved a lot of labour. I think a lot also depends on the dealer involved.