Hi I tried to get through to Mike Walsh, but the guy who they transferred me to just refused and told me that he was dealing with my case. I tried to get in contact with someone higher than him, but as soon as i'd give them my registration number they transfer me to the randomly assigned case manager. The latter being completely unhelpful and rude.
I dont know how to proceed now. I wish you better luck than me.
Received a letter this morning, saying that the complaint is being looked into. I'm not sure what else I can do. I've just paid £300 for the services and if I don't get any help with the ecu, that's another £600 and that almost £1000 pounds, I did'nt expect to pay this on a brand new car.
Me too, I forked out around £1000. Just didnt expect it. I dont know what else to do about the complaint after i received the letter above. I left a few messages for BBC watchdog but no one got back to me. Maybe if everyone else also puts in a complain, im sure they would look into this case, and make MB recall all the a-classes.
Every time the mass meter starts to fail I take it apart and clean it will some degreaser and them I spay it with WD40.It Works like a charm for another 10000km.
I have a 3.5 year old A160 Avantgarde that has done 65,000km.
The car has had a history of small problems:
3 broken seat height adjustment handles
Creaking driver's seat
Broken indicator stalk. Could not switch off hi beams
Squeaking and rattling
All the above were fixed under warranty, and fixed very well by BEA Adelaide (the main Mercedes dealership in Adelaide, Australia).
Over the past few thousand kilometres I noticed my A160 getting louder, and when idling it would jerk suddenly. This would shake the whole car, the revs would dip, and everything would be fine until it happened again 10 or 15 seconds later. When the tech opened the bonnet the A160's airbox was shaking quite violently at idle.
The cause was void to be the engine computer monolith being loose in my car and rattling around. I assume they meant the ECU... Anyway, as it was rattling around it was causing a lot of noise, and every now and then the air mass flow sensor would give a bad reading. No doubt all the rattling over several thousand kilometres has reduced the life of my expensive ECU... The idle problem is still there but nowhere near as bad as before.
I was also told one of my belt pretensioners is making a noise (and it's getting louder... very noticeable now) which will probably need replacing. Quoted price is AU$480 just for the part (US$250) plus three hours labour. Ugh. I don't strictly have to replace the tensioner, but I feel if I don't it will seize eventually and cause a bigger problem. AU$750 or so to change a tensioner.
6 months out of warranty and the costly problems begin. I am tempted to offload this car before more common A-Class problems rear their ugly heads.
Glad I found this. I have an A160 30,000 miles, 2001 X reg (this is UK). My engine warning light came on while in a nasty traffic jam (but nothing it shouldn't have coped with) after I restarted the engine because it was "pulling" and losing power. That sorted itself out after a quick break and a bit of more open road, but the light stayed on.
Oh well, I thought, running fine now, nothing to worry about.
2 weeks later service is due. £580. New ECU required. They asked for goodwill, it seems, but didn't get it. I'll go back and give them a bit more of an earful now. I'm glad that for once I complained - they're also replacing the indicator stalk for the same hi-beam fault also mentioned above. I was already fed up about feeling ripped off every time I visited them, but previously I grinned and put up with it.
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