Potential Drive Unit Failure - Best Plan of Attack

[njquiltgirl]

I know this has been discussed before, but I'm not getting anywhere with my dealership and would like to see what you all have found to be the best way to handle this.

My 2014 has had multiple failures (Coolant leaks starting in 2015, all new tires after 8k miles, new 12V battery, constant consult wksp warnings) and has been in the shop 3x just since Sept. The 12V battery was replaced just weeks ago, and now we got the dreaded "without starting engine again" and had the car towed just 100 miles after they put the new battery in. Thank goodness by husband was alone in the car and near the house. The car was driving fine, but has a miserable "whine" to the engine which is just getting worse and worse. I noticed in the dash photo that the E-CELL display went from full to 1/4 in a single day, so at this point I am convinced it is the drive unit. Car has ~42K miles on it and hit 4 years in October. So technically over years but under on the 50K miles.

Dealership is relatively unresponsive and have no clue how to handle a B-Class. In fact, in living in NJ/PA since I bought it I've never seen another one! I was told they are opening a "Technical Case" with Mercedes, and only after I pressed them did they admit that the issue was very likely the Drive Unit. Since this issue seems to be very common on this board, can anyone suggest a plan of action or list of questions that had worked for them? The said the 12V battery was out of warranty but they paid for the replacement "to be nice" (I don't buy that). I'm thinking how far up to press the issue, the known link to failures with Tesla/Rav-4's, etc. At this point I know that I know more about the car than the dealership and that's not comforting at all.

I love the car, but it's limited range compared to new EV's and the 7th servicing in 4 years has me really depressed about the entire thing!

 

[JeffRay]

NJQuiltGirl,

Presume that this all can be argued to have started before year limit was reached. Ultimately, you should get your drive unit replaced but as per other unfortunate folks on this forum, it is a "process" that you dealer has to push through MB USA, who then pushes it to MB Germany for approval. Then voila, after many weeks, a replacement motor is sent to your dealer to have them install and test before you get your car back.

Only suggestion I have given in the past is to write letters to the head of MB USA and MB Germany to register your situation. Your local dealer cannot do squatola except to push your situation up the line. It takes a lot of time, sorry to say. You mentioned coolant leak, this was the cause of a couple of reported incidents that required a motor replacement.

Speaking of nice, have they given you a complimentary loaner?

 

[njquiltgirl]

Today they officially are claiming it needs a new drive unit at a cost of 10k. Dealership gave me the Customer assistance number @ 800-367-6372 and told me good luck. They weren’t helpful so far at all in pushing anything up the ladder. I’ve requested a copy of their commmunication with MB Germany but it’s been dead silence still.

While I fight the case, does anyone know how long I can keep the rental for? I haven’t even been able to get an estimate on how long the repair would take to see if I should give the go ahead while I fight it.

 

[JeffRay]

It depends when the warranty expired and the laundry list of issues occurred. One should argue with MB central that all these issues are known and related, especially the coolant leak into the motors, and hence this all started before the warranty expired. Also, claim the whining started before the warranty expired but no one diagnosed it as a motor problem at the time. How exactly is a consumer to know, let alone a dealer. However, central MB would know.

I would lobby before even hinting that you would pay for motor replacement. I like my B250e but would put $10k down on a new electric before fixing the B250e.

Yes, good luck.

As to rental, at this point, be nice to your dealer as they have discretion and their service department would love to do the $10k replacement for you or MB. Just keep it for as long as you can.

 

[JeffRay]

NJQuiltGirl,

I assume you read the post entitled, "MB/Tesla Motor replaced", although they caught it before 4 year mark. Again, I would argue that this started when the coolant leak was first reported (hope that was before 4 year mark).

 

[barsaec]

I'm sorry you are faced with this. We were fortunate that our DU went out at 47k miles on our 2015 in May18. All said and done it took 10weeks, under warranty, with a loaner. We are hoping that the car makes it another two years on the new DU. More EVs will be out by then, at other than Tesla prices. It took the MB tech 2 days to swap out the DU once all of the approvals were received. My tech rep at our dealer was pretty awesome, and grabbed a state-side DU before the approvals came in. On the way to determining it was a DU failure, they replaced the inverter as well. Water was found in our motor too, but minimal whine. All said and done our dealer stated over $20k. was the cost of the repair.