Good news and Bad news about our 04 ML350 (longish) - Benzworld.org

hawaiibenz · 01-07-2004, 11:27 PM

The good news is it's here (Desert Silver 2004 ML350 Inspiration Edition), and accounted for. The shipping company dropped the ML off on the wrong side of the island, so it had to be trucked over. The delivery went ok, and I put 31 miles on it (total of 45) this afternoon and evening.

It's dark right now so I'll post pics tomorrow, or sometime soon...

The bad news. I pulled into the subdivision and realized I didn't program the homelink right, so in fishing for the gate opener my brother and I smelled something funny coming through the AC, kinda like sitting behind an old diesel car. We dismissed the smell, continued through the subdivision to the house and parked the ML in the garage. I then get out of the ML and there was the smell, and very stong. There odor was coming from the passenger side rear tire and there was a white-ish smoke coming out from the same area. It smelled like it could be burning plastic or brakes. I wasn't driving with the e-break on, and almost all of my driving was uphill, none of it was very fast. After letting it sit, the rotor and caliper on the smelly side was hotter (mildly... after 5-10 mins of sitting) than the driver's rear break rotor and caliper.

We just so happened to have a service scheduled for the C320, so it looks like we're going to have to postpone that one... more tomorrow

jdbower · 01-08-2004, 06:01 AM

Hopefully it's just some sort of a coating on the caliper that should wear off in a few days. Best of luck!

celm77 · 01-08-2004, 08:22 AM

I had the same experience 4 weeks ago when I got my 04 ML350 Inspiration.
The same smell, the same thing on the first day. On the second day was less and the day after less and it disappeared. Right now with 250 miles on the car, I smell nothing other than the new car smell.
Cy

JimB · 01-08-2004, 10:06 AM

That's normal for the new car, Jeff is right its jut the rotor coating and the pads burning when they met. I smelled the same thing when I changed my rotor a week ago and now no more burning plastic. ENJOY[:D]

hawaiibenz · 01-08-2004, 01:07 PM

allrighty, thanks for the replies

hawaiibenz · 01-08-2004, 01:07 PM

allrighty, thanks for the replies [:)]

We were all worried we'd have set some new record for something to complain about [xx(]

ron350 · 01-08-2004, 06:06 PM

My 03 350 Inspiration still smells after 4800 miles. I have to leave the garage door open for about 5 minutes to let the smell out. Smells like rotten eggs or some kind of road kill.

ed · 01-08-2004, 06:25 PM

Quote:

My 03 350 Inspiration still smells after 4800 miles. I have to leave the garage door open for about 5 minutes to let the smell out. Smells like rotten eggs or some kind of road kill.

You may actually have critters that have crawled in your engine bay and died![:D]

IndyPatrick · 01-08-2004, 07:19 PM

rotten egg/sulfur smell sounds more like a catalytic converter...

blackbenz87 · 01-08-2004, 07:39 PM

Quote:

ed - 1/8/2004 8:25 PM

Quote:

My 03 350 Inspiration still smells after 4800 miles. I have to leave the garage door open for about 5 minutes to let the smell out. Smells like rotten eggs or some kind of road kill.

You may actually have critters that have crawled in your engine bay and died![:D]

about 3 years ago, we found a rat in the exhaust of my moms bmw...that was probably one of the most disgusting things I;ve ever seen. We live in a nice area though, i guess it happened when we went to NYC that weekend lol.