QC Charge: How to check for a motor coolant leak

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hallcp

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 7, 2019
Messages
127
Pardon me if someone else has already posted this, but I think I came across it by myself. A company in California has a short YouTube video on how to check if your B-Class motor has leaking coolant seals:

https://youtu.be/txD7u2DKanE

There is also a mention somewhere of their selling new seals for this. Unfortunately they're in California so I'm not sure if it's worth shipping your car to them for repairs. I'm on the East coast and I'll bet it's $2000 shipping each way.

I did have the Mercedes dealer check this for me at my 4yr/40K maintenance. They did the test for free (everything else was $790). Bad news is that my 2014 has a good old leak underway. I have two months extended warranty left, so the tech told me to drive like hell for the next two months. The dealer can't do anything until there are actual problems or error codes, and when they do do something its has to be a total motor replacement. They don't open up Tesla components and do internal repairs.

2022-Feb-a.jpg


I've emailed QC Charge for advice, but no response yet. Perhaps this is a job for Rich Rebuilds...
 
I followed up with the guys at QC Charge. If you drove into their San Diego shop they'd pull the motor, put in new seals, and re-install, all for $4000. If you pull the motor and ship it to them on a pallet, new seals are $2750.

Too bad I'm on the east coast in North Carolina. I'm afraid that shipping the car to them and back would be prohibitive, and I doubt I can find a local mechanic to pull the motor, put it on a pallet, wait several weeks, then re-install. I have another month or so of warranty, but I will have a tough decision to make after that.

Of course the used car value of a 2014 with a working motor is probably around $8500!
 
What MB Dealer did you go to? MB Raleigh replaced mine based on the whining noise issue... not any error codes. I asked them to escalate to MB corporate and get their opinion. As a result corporate approved the replacement while under warranty.
 
My dealer is in Cary, NC. They've been great. But my car has no whining noise... yet.
 
Well, "here's the rest of the story". On April 29th, 56 days after the above photo of my speed sensor was taken, I got a "Malfunction Visit Workshop" error and the car wouldn't start unless I disconnected/reconnected the 12V battery. Tech at the dealership identified this as the dreaded motor failure and had to install a new one. Good news was that I had a day or two left on my Extended Warranty and IT WAS ALL FREE. (Not sure what I did to deserve such luck.)

The Ext. Warranty was for 3 years, on top of the original 4 year warranty.The warranty cost me $2760 and prior to this I don't think it had paid for itself. Service Rep. estimated that it would have cost $15,000 if I wasn't under warranty. That seems crazy, but when I got the bill I saw they had installed "242340420180 REMAN ELECTRIC DRIVE". A little checking on-line revealed that this re-manufactured motor alone would have cost $11,804 here https://www.mbpartsworld.com/oem-parts/mercedes-benz-electric-drive-242340420180?c=az0x

My car has 47,150 miles on it. I'm not posting here to brag about my undeserved luck but to hopefully give other owners a clue about when this motor failure might occur. My 2014 was the first year of production, perhaps this model year is more susceptible to this than later years. Let's hope so.
 
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