They Said it Can't be Fixed - A Journey to the Inside of a Mercedes Bluetec

Quick update on our ML350. It continues to run surprisingly well, and is a very solid handling & braking tow vehicle.

Just finished a B (B+?) service. Changed engine oil & filter, air filters, fuel filter, cabin filters. Also did the recommended 'Extract all DEF & refill with fresh'. 5gals did not quite bring it to full, need to get another 2.5gal cube next time at NAPA. 

The tire that I pulled a nail out & shoved in a string still had a slow leak (4-5 psi/week). The wheels were off to rotate, so the tire was dismounted and a 2" patch was clamped inside on the string repair. Seems to be holding 100% now. The tire repair was free, if I ignore the cost of tire machine.

The one mechanical problem is oil leaks at the front of both cam covers and at the steel sump.

It's messy, but only requires a 1 liter top off at 5k miles. A closer look showed that 90-95% of the joint is sealed. I elected not to attempt repair on the assumption that I would just end up with a leak elsewhere.

A look at the bug filled filters. Yes, the ram-air is quite functional. 

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And a pic from today, at Cowan Lake SP. Tow truck doing tow truck things.

Well, things were going swimmingly until the parish festival.  There is something about the festival that just does bad car things to me.  One year it was emergency tires due to a puncture.  One year my whole family nearly got killed coming back from the festival late at night due to someone coming over a crest at a high rate of speed.  In our lane.  Where there was almost no shoulder.  And then, of course, we can't forget the year that the engine decided that the #2 rod bearing would make a tasty treat.  This year, on the way in to the festival this morning, the left front air strut went ka-bang.  It's an Arnott unit that I put on back in February of 2018, so it "should" still be covered by the lifetime warranty since they didn't go to the 24 month warranty until 2023. 

But...  Rockauto says that the part is out of stock and they can't process a warranty return so they'll just refund the original purchase.  Which means I'd have to buy a new one.  That is more expensive.  And only has a 24 month warranty.  I think they just changed the flipping part number so they didn't have to deal with the lifetime warranties anymore.

In reply to wae :

Have you contacted Arnott?  They may honor the warranty.

In reply to Aaron_King :

I thought about that...  A couple reasons I didn't:

First of all, as it turns out, the new one is basically the same price or maybe even a little less.  So I'm not really out any significant amount of money.

Second, I don't anticipate having this beast for another two years.  At the rate I drive, that would be another 40-50k miles which would exceed the expected life of the transmission - I've got it to 167k now.

Third, I've talked to them before about a warranty replacement on an airbag and they very much didn't want anything to do with me, referring me back to my retailer.

Also, I knew with some level of certainty what Rock Auto would be able to do for me in terms of when I'll get the new one.  I was able to order it last night and get it on the way as opposed to calling Arnott today and taking however long to work through their process and their shipping times.

And finally, the worst reason, after the festival weekend, I'm just freaking exhausted so I the easiest answer is what won!

I will say, though, that the OEM strut is still on the right side.  With 167k miles on it.  And the strut that I replaced with this failed Arnott unit wasn't actually failed - turns out that one was just an oring on the air line that failed, but I went ahead with the new strut because everybody talked about how much better the Arnotts are.  The failed strut has about 70k miles on it, plus or minus.  And when the second OEM spring failed on the rear due to crappy Ohio roads, the replacement bag from Arnott failed within a month.  So I'm not convinced that these Arnott products are all that fabulous.

I can believe the Rock Auto thing.  When I did the bags on the R Class I got them directly from Arnott and in the 100K plus miles I have only had to replace one and they were great about it.

In reply to Aaron_King :

That's interesting... I didn't know Arnott sold direct!  Well, perhaps I'll file that away in case there's a next time!

In reply to wae :

The iPD heavy duty strut mounts for my Volvo sat in the "worn out" position when new.

After 120k or so, one was thoroughly broken.

I replaced it with one of the 220k mile Volvo units that I took out and saved because they sat better than the iPD ones.

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

Did we reach an inflection point where the OEM parts started getting really good while the aftermarket parts just didn't?  Or did the OEM parts stay the same and the third-party stuff just took a dump?  Or is it both?

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In other news, despite creating a label for it, Rock Auto didn't actually give the strut to FedEx until this evening.  So I'm not expecting to get it until Thursday some time.  Which is putting a kink in my plans to go to Oktoberfest Thursday night.

I find that parts quality is all over the map anymore. Formerly good brands like Bosch and Febi-Bilstein and SKF are just as likely to be chicomm junk or made in DE.

OEM parts quality depends greatly on the OEM.

Chrysler parts? Junk parts for junk cars. (Sez this former ChryCo tech) 

Toyota parts? Reliable parts for reliable cars. (Sez this 30 year Toyota tech).

In reply to wae :

Rockauto ALWAYS does this when they ship by FedEx and I don't understand it. I have a strut that's been sitting at "label created" for two days now. 

In reply to peanutpckrupper :

I'm about 75%/25% with them on that - usually they hit or exceed their target.  I would have just bought one locally, but FLAPS wants about $300 more for the same part number to get it today.

In reply to wae :

Yeah that's the fun part with Mercedes, if the FLAPS has it it's usually 3-4x more expensive. 

If I need it quick usually Amazon is my go to.