My friendly local dealer did an annual service in February on my immaculate, one previous owner, 18k miles SLK auto R171, and they suspected an oil leak in the transmission area. They didn't fix it but said they wanted "to keep an eye on it." As they didn't get in touch again in the next several months and as the end of the warranty period was approaching I took it back and asked them to sort it. This they did - but it turned out not to be the torque converter but another seal (unspecified). Thought nothing of it and was relieved it was finally sorted. Or was it?
Got the car back, but within 3 hours (after stops at the gym and the supermarket) I returned to the house to park and found that the car was creeping forward in all gears and wouldn't reverse. I turned off the engine. Then I noticed that the gear lever was extremely loose (it didn't feel connected to anything), then after attempting to start the car again the lever was stuck in Park, the starter motor wouldn't turn and there was a large yellow warning triangle in the centre of the left hand clock.
After the car was taken away by truck and looked at, the dealer reported that the gear linkages "had fallen off on both sides". However they also said that because the oil seal they changed had not required opening the gearbox the current problem had not been caused by them. But they said they would come back to me with their final conclusions, check out if any parts were needed and see if there was any 'good will' from Mercedes on this and let me know! That was this morning and I'm still waiting. Warranty is now expired by a week.
"Not caused by them"!!!! Do they think I was born yesterday? An independent Merc specialist advised me to open a case direct with Merc customer services which will force the dealer to get its act together and because all dealers are obsessed with their CSI ratings ('customer support indices' although I'm starting to think it should be 'crime scene investigation') this would put maximum pressure on the dealer to do the right thing.
Another official Merc dealer said that changing a seal would not require access to the transmission internals but agreed that SLK gear linkages don't fall off at any mileages and certainly not at 18k miles. She helpfully said that the good will thing which is often mentioned is not some informal process of deciding if they'll do things for free but is actually a basic computer form which is filled in, submitted and then gives a decision. This is supposed to standardise the decision making process on these issues. Even if the good will process comes back negatively then dealers can get a regional customer service manager to over-ride the decision i.e to pay for the job instead of charging the customer.
I suspect that in investigating the leak they removed the transmission casing which would have required unlinking the gear lever, the leak proved to be elsewhere but the gear lever link was not then reattached correctly. Is this technically credible?
Does anyone have any advice for me as to how to play this? Or any insight into the technical aspects. Any advice greatly appreciated,
Robbie
Last edited by Robbie606 : 07-09-2008 at 06:49 AM.
Reason: wrong word used
This is obviously the result of the mechanic not reattaching the linkage correctly. I would ask them to give a written report as to how this linkage may have detached itself from the casing.
Furthermore I would send them a link of the post on the forum and warn them that you will be naming and shaming if they do not deal with this as a matter of urgency and free of charge.
This is a clear case of neglect/incompetence on the mechanics part.
Yeah, I'd be really curious as to what their mechanics think you could have done between the time you left and 3 hours later when your car was on the back of a truck that would have caused the linkages to "fall off".
I'd hang tight with the threats, opening of cases, etc. and see what they come back to you with. Hopefully they will step up to the plate, and make things right. I've had a very good relationship with both of the dealerships I deal with (knock on wood!!).
If they refuse to make things right, politely ask to speak to the service manager, and tell him that you would like a written diagnoses of the problem, estimate of the repairs, and if they would not mind explaining - in writing - just how a car that had just had it's transmission serviced managed to drop the gear linkage 3 hours later.
After you have that, then start working your way up the Customer services food chain, letting them know that you are posting your experiences with them on a number of well respected Mercedes specific web sites.
Sorry to hear of your problem, it definately seems like a dealer problem hope they do the right thing.
On a separate note some warranty plans allow you to extend them up to 30 days after the old warranty expires, wonder if the official MB one does as well?
Thanks for the sympathy and advice, very much appreciated. What a great forum!
After leaving the car with the dealer for a day they rang to say it was all fixed and I could collect it. They said they hadn't heard back from MB yet as to whether it was covered by good-will or would be chargeable. So I went to collect the car and as if by magic they said there was nothing to pay. I ask for the report but they said they would send it on. I will hold them to it.
I suspect they found the fault, and "had a few words" with the mechanic and got it put right. All the rest about contacting MB to clear it under the good-will provisions was obviously rubbish. They are so terrified of a complaint that instead of just saying "Oh we're really sorry about our mistake, we'll fix it for free and give you 20% off your next service" or whatever, their policy seems to be to refuse liability as a form of reputation-saving denial, fix it for free pretending it is an act of generosity and only tell us we having nothing to pay at the point of collection so our pleasure/relief about avoiding a charge gives us a warm glow and we leave happy to have it all sorted.
I will be chasing the report on Monday because
a) I don't like being taken for an idiot,
b) if I'm supposed to believe the breakdown was a genuine coincidence (yeah right) how am I (and more importantly my wife) supposed to have faith in the car again
c) what if the gear linkage "fell off" at speed on a motorway miles from home?
and lastly d) why won't they admit a mistake which might have earned some respect rather than losing my future business?
I heard today they are shedding staff. They must be in trouble as when I collected the car they were selling (if memory serves me) a 2007 350 SLK , AMG wheels, with very low miles for only £27.5k!!! Felt gutted after paying them nearly that much last year for my 2004 SLK200.
If anyone is interested I'll let you guys know what the report says, WHEN I get it!
All reasonable people realize that sometimes a person or company makes a mistake. All we ask is that they deal with us fairly. Saying "we goofed up, sorry" goes a long way in my book.
So first off, glad to hear that your problem is at least fixed - I'm a skeptic at heart, so like you I suspect that they have found what they did to cause it and made it right.
As an aside, my salesguy was saying the other day that SLK200K's are actually fetching a premium given gas prices here. No clue if it's reality or a sales pitch!
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