"Mercedes-Benz" is a trademark of Mercedes-Benz of North America, Mercedes-Benz USA LLC and other Mercedes-Benz corporations. The word "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 its dealers.
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 the car had all its service. 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 this dirt. 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 for 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, west of 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 was pushing the Brake Pedal as hard as she could with both feet. The car just kept accelerating. She was going so fast she couldn't get off at an exit. Smoke was boiling from the brakes and other drivers began blowing their horns (like she didn't know she was having a problem). When she finally got to one of the "Run Away" exits for truckers, & she was able to go up it and stop.
After the car was towed into our shop, we tried to start the engine and sure enough, it went 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 did not come on and there were no Fault Codes recorded.
We had recently flushed the Brake Fluid as part of the routine Mercedes-Benz service which is performed every two years. We had also used a special brake fluid that has a much higher boiling point then the standard Mercedes-Benz Brake Fluid. It's a higher quality Brake Fluid that is made for extreme driving in mountain conditions. It 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 were pleased the extra effort made the difference between loosing control of the car and living to tell the tale. We're also proud of the fact that we actively encourage customers to flush their Brake Fluid as the factory recommends. Practically every day we see new customer's cars that have never had the Brake Fluid flushed even though their records indicate they have taken the car in for service many times. The fact of the matter is, most shops don't bother with flushing the Brake Fluid because it's a small service that doesn't cost much. There is a reason Mercedes-Benz wants this and similar maintenance performed. Most of the time your car doesn't have to work very hard. But when things go wrong for whatever the reason, you need to be sure you can depend on everything working with 100% reliability.
After we saw 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 Brake 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 as soon as they hit 212°F. When brakes get hot enough to burn the paint off the Calipers & melt the grease out of the wheel bearings; they definitely got hot enough to boil any moisture that might have been in the Brake Fluid.
How long has it been since your Brake Fluid was flushed?
Shop Talk . . . . .
Getting through tough times without getting taken.
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 where the customer gets an estimate from us. We have a few things we would like to say about this "offer"; but instead we'll share this incident with you. A lady called us for an estimate to replace the engine wiring harness in her 1996 C280. She freely admitted her car was at another shop & she was trying to save 15% with our estimate. What she didn'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 the same shop this lady was calling from. If you knew what the Mercedes-Benz suggested 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 doesn't make their pricing tapes public, 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.
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.
It's not so hard to meet expenses....
They're everywhere!
Helen Waite is now in charge of all rush orders....
If your in a hurry, just go to Helen Waite.
