Mercedes-Benz Stephens - Sacramento, CA- Shop Talk

Mercedes-Benz is a trademark of Mercedes-Benz of North America, Mercedes-Benz USA LLC and other Mercedes-Benz corporations. The words Mercedes-Benz is solely used to identify a make of automobile. It does not imply or indicate any affiliation or relationship between Stephens Service Center and the manufacturer or their dealers.

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These are Cabin Filters. All models built since 1993 have them. We took these out of a car with 70000 miles. The owner said he had taken the car in for every service. He was positive they had been done.
All the air you're breathing in the car has passed through these filters. They should be changed every 45000 miles. We practically never see a new customer's car that has had these changed. The Blower Motor has to work extra hard pulling the air through them. So much so, that it can burn up the Blower Motor. On one customers car, the Blower Regulator got so hot it melted. That caused a constant drain on the battery. Because the customer's old repair shop couldn't find the cause of the dead battery, they told him to drive the car every day to keep it charged up. It cost over $1000 to fix the problem.

One of our regular customer's was recently driving their 2002 S500 back to Sacramento on interstate 80 near Truckee. Suddenly the engine's electronic accelerator unexpectedly went to full throttle. It was not a driver error. It was caused by a very rare electrical failure. The driver had to push the brake pedal as hard as she could with both feet to even slow the car to 85 mph. They were going so fast they couldn't get off at an exit. Smoke was boiling from the brakes and other drivers were all blowing their horns (like they didn't know they were having a problem). When they finally got to a "Run Away" exit for truckers, they were able to pull off and stop. When they stopped shaking, they tried to restart the engine and again the engine went to full throttle.
After the car was towed to the shop, we also tried to start the engine and it raced to full throttle. Nothing was stuck in the accelerator pedal and this model doesn't have a accelerator cable. The accelerator pedal works by sending an electrical signal to the throttle actuator on the engine. The "Check Engine light didn't come on and there were no Fault Codes recorded.
We had recently flushed the brake fluid as part of the normal Mercedes-Benz recommended service that is performed every two years. We also used a special brake fluid that has a much higher boiling point then the normal Mercedes-Benz brake fluid. It's a higher quality Brake Fluid that is made for extreme driving in mountain conditions. It only cost slightly more then the standard Brake Fluid and we've always felt it was worth the extra protection the higher boiling point provides. On one hand, we are pleased that the extra effort we've always done, finally was the difference between loosing total control of the car and living to tell the tale. We're also very proud of the fact that we actively encourage customers to flush the brake fluid when they are in for service. Practically every day we see new customer's cars that have never had the brake fluid flushed even though they have taken the car in for service many times. Even though Mercedes-Benz has recommended the brake fluid be flushed every two years, for some reason most service departments don't see the brake flush as important. After seeing how bad the brakes were burnt, I am 100% certain that the customer would have lost the brakes had the brake fluid been in the condition we normally see in new customer's cars. If the fluid had been old, the moisture in the fluid would have turned into a vapor and the brake pedal would have gone to the floor. I know for a fact this customer avoided a very serious accident because the fluid was fresh and had higher then normal quality. I knew this was always theoretically possible but had never seen it for a fact. The shops that ignore flushing brake fluid should be ashamed of themselves. Customers trust them to do the things that keep the car safe when the unexpected happens. We are very glad our customer was able to keep some control of the car.

These are Spark Plugs we took out of a Mercedes-Benz with 80000 miles. You can see the Mercedes logo on the right Spark Plug. That means it is an original part that was installed by the factory. (The replacement Spark Plugs don't have the logo.) You can also see the Spark Plug on the left has a brown ring around it. This is combustion gas that has been leaking past. The tips of the Plugs are burnt away. This car came in with the "Check Engine" light on & it wouldn't go over 30 MPH. The ignition coil had burnt out. Coils burn out because the gap gets to wide on the spark plug. The coil has to produce higher voltage to jump the gap. The higher voltage burns out the coil. This engine was a V12 & the coil cost $1200. The owner was positive

the 60000 mile service had been done. We hear this all the time. Owners think that because they took the car in for a "B" service, that was correctly serviced. Mercedes has changed the service schedule so many times that it's no wonder things are over looked. The cars are so complicated that a owner can't realistically question the service department's procedures. It finally boils down to "trust".

Shop Talk . . . . .

Getting through tough times without getting taken.

Your 1980's or 1990's Factory radio doesn't have an iPod connection. But that doesn't mean it has to stay that way. We can update your original radio to be hard wired with a hidden iPod connection. You can't see any wires & the iPod is in your glove box. We have a special holder for the iPod that is made by Mercedes-Benz. You can select the iPod on the face of the radio & it plays everything on your iPod. If your CD player has broken, we can install this radio for half the price of a new CD player. It also recharges the iPod so you don't have to remove it from the car. This is a neat way to really upgrade your sound system for not very much money. And, it's easy to install.

We must get a dozen calls a day from people shopping the price of service. We wish there was time to explain that there is a lot more to the service then the price. We had a new customer come in after just having the 60,000 mile Major service done by a Dealer.   All the Repair Order said was "Perform 60,000 mile Maintenance Service".   It didn't say what specific things were done. It just listed the parts that were used. How is a normal customer suppose to know what was really done? If you ask the Dealer, they say they did everything listed in your car's service booklet. That's fine, but if you check your Service Booklet, it list work for all the models. You'll really need to be very knowledgeable in order to figure out which items are for your car. You can however, tell a lot by the parts that were billed out or "not" billed out. The customer's repair order had 4 quarts of Transmission oil billed out. However, the transmission holds almost 8 quarts. So why only 4 quarts? (They only needed 4 quarts because they only drained half the oil out of the Transmission. They didn't drain the oil from the Torque Converter because it's messy & hard to do.)
What's not on the parts list can say a lot. There was also no Power Steering Oil billed out. (Because they didn't change its oil. The oil in this customer's power steering looked like a old pot of coffee.)  A Power Steering Pump cost about $600 and a Steering Rack cost about $2500. When the oil doesn't get flushed out, these parts start leaking. When the fluids all gone, the steering gets very stiff. It takes 15 minutes to flush the Power Steering & takes about $20 worth of p/s fluid.
Another missing part was the Rear Axle Oil. When the Rear Axle Oil isn't changed, it also starts leaking. But on this model, something else interesting happens. There is a Speed Sensor in the Rear Axle that sends the rear axle speed signal to the ABS and the Engine Control module. The sensor creates a magnetic field that attracts tiny metal partials over time. When the oil doesn't get changed, the speed signal is finally lost and the engine quits running.  We'll bet you never dreamed dirty Rear Axle Oil could cause the engine to quit running.
Just because a someone says they did a 60,000 mile Major Service doesn't make it true. If what's being done to your car is not spelled out in plain English, that can be a big clue that maybe they really aren't doing all the work.

Estimates

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We've heard that some Mercedes-Benz service departments are offering a 15% discount on any repair that the customer gets an estimate from us. There are lots of things we would like to say about this "offer", but we'll share one incident with you. A lady called us for an estimate to replace the engine wiring harness in a 1996 C280. She freely admitted her car was in another shop & she was trying to save 15% on the job by getting an estimate from us. What she doesn't know is the 1996 C280 doesn't have a problem with the engine wiring harness. Mercedes-Benz did however have trouble with the engine wiring harness in the 1993, 1994, & 1995 models like hers.  Mercedes fixed the problem with the harness in her model as of 9/95 production date, which is when Mercedes started with the 1996 model year. We have never seen a engine wiring harness fail on a 1996 or newer model.
That gets us to the second part of this "good deal". It appears that not everyone can see through this "15% discount" promotion.   New Customers with old billing questions will often show us repair orders from this same shop. If you knew what the true suggested Mercedes-Benz retail price for a part should be, you would see that they charge 35% above the Mercedes-Benz suggested retail price. That's right, they make the normal profit & then tag another 35% on top of that. Since Mercedes-Benz keeps their pricing tapes very secret, it makes it hard for a customer to know what the price really should be. Customers assume that authorized dealer's only charge the suggested retail price.  In America any business can charge whatever they want for something. America has price fixing laws that prevent a manufacture from telling a dealer what they can charge.  That's why you see the phrase "suggested retail price" in ads. Think about that before you take them up on their "discount".
Things are tough enough without playing this "discount" game.   Be careful who you get a "good deal" from.

The truth shall set you free....
but first it will piss you off.

We have a customer that bought a used Mercedes from a Broker in another state. He brought the car to us for a over all inspection. He wanted to know if he got what he paid for. He paid top dollar for what should have been a perfect car. The ad the Broker ran on Ebay read like the car was a super low mileage cream puff. As you can probably guess, it was far from a cream puff and the mileage is very questionable. The Broker knew just what to say to get a moderately experienced buyer interested. One trick he used, was to describe all of the repairs to the car and a little story to go with them. We noticed the numbers in the odometer didn't line up perfectly. When we looked at the back of the speedometer we found a repair sticker. The person that sold the car to the Broker had put the sticker there to give a plausible explanation for the obvious tampering. A dishonest shop can roll back the mileage but it always leaves evidence. The business name on the repair sticker doesn't exist. With a "so called" repair sticker on the speedometer, that would explain why it looked like someone had legally worked on the speedometer. Only a licensed speedometer repair station has the special tools to make the numbers line up. This is a sneaky way of changing the mileage and not being able to prove it was done by him.
There are many subtle little things that speak volumes about the cars care. This car was advertised as having everything from new brake calipers to a new A/C compressor. All these things were done to a car with allegedly less then 50000 miles. Some things had been done, and some had not. One shop had worked on the car for most of its life. The brake calipers had been overhauled, not replaced. Overhauling Brake Calipers is not needed on a car with this low of mileage, plus it's very dangerous. We would "never" overhaul brake calipers. The A/C compressor had not been replaced. They simply recharged it with the wrong Freon. They replaced the spark plug wires with cheap aftermarket auto parts store wires. When these cars are repaired, it's very important that Genuine Parts be used. There is a difference in the quality. The car had many repairs that should not be needed on a car with so few miles. The original owner was really taken advantage of by the repair shop. Then a Broker got hold of it and cheated the new owner. Try recovering money from a Used Car Salesman in another state.
The lesson to learn from this? Do business with someone you can talk to, face to face. These days, the Crooks are coming out of the woodwork.

This is what the brake rotors looked like after they cooled off. The caliper is normally painted black and the brown parts are light grey.

If this ever happens to you, put the transmission into neutral. The engine will race up to the rev limiter & sound like the world is ending, but it will let you stop the car with the brakes. Once stopped, shut the engine off. Never turn the engine off before you've stopped.