These cars are often problematic, Dan.

They aren't all bad of course.

I have a 2006 ML320 CDi, a 3.0-litre diesel.

The engine has no problems at all.

The gearbox is smooth too.

There is a bit of slack somewhere that I can feel being taken up with a jolt during some gearchanges, probably transfer case, but it's not enough to worry about at the moment.

But at this age, the electronics are starting to give intermittent problems.

For example, the wipers and indicators sometimes don't work, so I can't use the car that day The next time I try a couple of days later, they're working again.

My other problems are as follows...

When I lock the car, the right-hand rear door lock bounces up and down several times and won't lock. Apparently it's a small broken spring in the lock, easy to change, but it's a pain to remove the lock to fix it.

Rainwater gets into the rear wells through the rear light clusters and is trapped there. It corrodes the tailgate lift motor and electronic modules (SAM's). On mine it corroded one of the motor wires and it had crumbled, so the motor would not open or close the tailgate. I found fixed the wire connection and it worked fine for a couple of months, but now it opens but sometimes won't close.

There are other little annoyances like inside trim peeling, and bits breaking.

Engine oil seals leaking, I have one now which is apparently either the oil pump seal or the intercooler seal.

Screenwash bottle cracked. It's behind the left wheel arch liner, again a pain to get to.

Remember you'll need to change the gearbox fluid, most owners won't have done that and it can cause rough gearchanges and flaring.

I like my car for its looks. The rest annoys me

These cars are not the Mercedes quality of old that we knew, no way would I say it's worth the £50,000+ that it originally sold for, when the Porsche Cayenne was about the same price.

Remember that you can't fix these cars without a good code scan tool that can read all modules in the Mercedes. A generic scan tool can't read them, you need either a dedicated scan tool like the iCarSoft MB V2 or V3 (buy only from iCarSoft or their distributor UK Parts Direct) or another member-recommended tool. Those will cost from £140 to £180.

If you can afford it the best is SDS/HHTWIN the Star Diagnostic System dealer tool, copies are available, around £600 including an old Windows XP Pro laptop.

Others will let you know more.

I'm surprised Volvo would be problematic, I've had several up to the last V70. All were great, problems were mechanical ones and easily fixed. Then I guess we're back to cheaply made, problematic electronics?

 

Hi Jim

Thank you for that detailed reply, I wonder (maybe a silly comment) most of the issues you have had on the 2006 maybe be sorted on a 2010 model via updated/ recalls as such. It's a toss up between a range rover sport and this 2010 (60 plate) 350 ML. I like both but everyone has a RR not many of these ML's around where I live unless they are all in the garage haha.

The volvo is still a good car I just need more room and a bigger boot due to a growing family and I've always wanted either an ML or RR. Had an X5 in the past and did not rate it had similar issues to what you described every day was a new fault.

The issues I've had with the Volvo I had was the key fobbed just randomly stopped working this is due to a connection loss, dealer wanted £1200 for a new key and program as you can't use the old one again luckily I had key cover on my RAC. The windscreen bond failed filling both footwells this was around £400 to replace. It has a fault (and so do many others on a forum I'm on) where it judders when driving between 1500k and 2k revs no one can sort it. People have put injectors to boost pipes to relays etc and still nothing. Headlights failing plus other stupid niggles.

As you said about the scanner I bought the main one for volvos which cost me £100 plus software. I'm pretty handy with some aspects of repairs but nothing major like a gearbox etc.

I'm still undecided as of what to buy so will keep researching haha

Thanks

 

Top for reliability and dependability have been Honda and Toyota for many years.

The LandCruiser 100, the biggest one, Amazon in the UK, can't be beaten in my view. Our 1999 Prado (LandCruiser 90) has never given us any fault since we bought it in 2003 at 4 years old. Just routine service items, oil, filters, discs and pads.

Our 1994 Camry has only given us 1 fault since we bought it in 1998. That was a gearbox problem that was fixed for around £500. I was working away at the time so I never got to know what the problem was.

Friends have owned Toyotas, Hondas and Nissans for similar numbers of years without any problem whatsoever too.

You have to watch the road tax for big engines now, and the cost of fuel will go up once electric cars start to grow in numbers.

 

I actually looked at the newer Nissan x trail but the boot space is horrendous. My brother had a nivara but I didn't like the drive of them abit sketchy best way to describe it.

Running cost ie tax and fuel doesn't really bother me as I expect to pay more for bigger cars. The volvo is a 2.0d and isn't that great on fuel for what you would expect.

I suppose with any "older" car you are going to run into issues which I expect just don't want it to be thousands at a time.

 

I've not checked out an X Trail close up.

When you say its cargo space is "horrendous" do you mean "huge", or "tiny"?

 

I mean tiny, I have three children one who is a new born so we have a pram etc and also we go camping and have a berghaus air tent which in itself is a huge space taker. So a large boot is needed an these MLs seem to be ideal for what i require

 

.
Ah, as the kids get older you have to give up some things and do more of others.

 

Check out a Toyota LandCruiser Amazon too, I think you'll love it.

 

All vehicles have problems. Occasionally there are serious mistakes a manufacturer makes like eco junk wiring and GM 350 diesels. These get fixed or the cars disappear. But the anecdotal complaints about the little things that go wrong are tantalizing but pointless. The very best of rigs have failures and the very worst can be flawless. But, the squeaky wheel is the only one you hear. Buy what you want from a manufacturer who makes good cars in general and fix whatever needs fixing. And, if you can't afford to fix a problem, get a Camry with an extended warranty.

 

If you don't do major work yourself skip it. You missed quite a few issues a diligent DIY should have found like the oil cooler issue. These cars will bleed you dry even if you have a great and honest mechanic. That's why they are now half the price of a used Toyota that was half the price of the ML when new.

 

I have been the owner of a w164 320 cdi MY 2008 for more than two years. Other from the maintenance fluid changes it needed only the transfer case chain replaced which was due one month ago. Common problems on the OM642 engine include: oil cooler gaskets, swirl flap motor, EGR valve. During my ownership I have not had any of these problems. The one you are looking is a 2010 so you should not have problems with the rear SAM due to water entry because in Q4 2009 the rear SAM was moved from the rear light area to the rear seats.
Also good the check with a scan tool the condition of the DPF. There are some gaskets that like to leak over time such as: red turbo seal and pcv valve seal, green turbo o-ring, turbo resonator o-ring which are not costly at all and I replace the turbo and pcv seals on regular basis the other two were not leaking on mine but I replaced as a preventative maintenance togetger with the PCV valve.

 

If your worried about reliability I wouldn't even look at a RR , my experience of Mercedes (4 cars) is that they aren't bad and better then most brands for reliability but expensive when they do go wrong

 

Unless you have very deep pockets or buy with a rock solid full warranty, don,t even think about buying an old ML.
These cars are not really Mercs, they are built in Alabama USA to a price, using cheap labour, and are fitted out with cheap parts from Korea and PRC to name but a few. Wiring looms are bio-degradable so disintigrate very early, oil leaks all over the place etc etc . The best car ever owned was a Merc. The worst by a country mile was a ML.
Nissan,Toyota ,Lexus if your looking for reliability. All have similar specs to an ML but the difference is that they work for longer !.

 

I have to take offense to those comments. MBZ has spent more money on the MBUSI Alabama factory than any other factory they have built - and then they spent MORE money to expand it for building the GL, R, and C classes. Every car MBZ designs and builds is "to a price". The original W163 ML was MBZ's first foray into the SUV market and it had some growing pains. The transition from building it to the W164 in the same factory was a miracle of modern technology. They made the change from a body-on-frame to a unit-body vehicle overnight. Yes, the labor here is "cheap" compared to Germany, but very expensive compared to China, Brazil and other places where MBZ has factories. There are not more Chinese, Korean, or Mexican-made parts in an ML that in any other MBZ vehicle. In fact, a very large number of parts are made in the USA. Engines and transmissions come fin crates from MBZ factories in Germany and other European countries. MBZ is a global company and sources parts globally.

I think the worst thing that happened with the ML and MBUSI factory was that they did not understand that USA suppliers were not used to supplying parts to equal the typical German suppliers. USA automotive suppliers are used to dealing with GM, Ford, Chrysler, Toyota, Nissan and Honda. Those manufacturers are used to accepting parts with a higher failure rate and a shorter lifespan. Once we (and I say "we" because I was part of a QA team that worked on this) began to make the suppliers understand that the Germans weren't paying more for parts because they were harder to deal with, but because they wanted better quality parts.

I've owned many MBZ cars, including two ML's made in Alabama, several from Germany, and even a C-Class made in Brazil. All had their problems, but I do not regret owning any of them. They were all exciting cars with just the right combination of comfort, sportiness and safety to put a smile on my face every time I drove them.

 

Instead of a subjective perspective of quality, a better objective arguement might be what parts commonly fail on a W164. The chassis and body are pretty well sorted. The bigger issue with W164s are the motors, which I don't believe are built in Alabama.

Regardless, the US labor force can and does build reliable vehicles, Toyota, Honda and Subaru have built plenty of cars here that were very reliable.

 

Anecdotal reports of parts failures are pointless unless there is a major failure across thousands of vericles.

Its like asking a co-ed if football players are good kissers. If her boyfriend is she will say yes, if not no. Does that help her girlfriends?

 

Failures like the oil cooler seals aren’t anecdotal. Same with the cams on the gas motors. They are common issues.

 

Yes, they will want the same model

(Or not)

 

Actually, I have to add in the OM617 to that mix, but that one only accounted for less than 100K miles.

 

Yes, exactly. They are pointless vanity. If you are seeking help to solve the problem, while it is probably a bad idea to get it from keyboard technicians, it is a reason to post. Otherwise the posts detailing mechanical failures of your one of 16000 similar cars are mostly just whining. If I posted that the mailman who lives across the street from me tosses peoples' junk mail in the trash, how would that help you? Do you think a person should not buy a W164 car because you had to take yours back to the dealer for warranty work?

 

To put this in perspective, let's consider the infamous "balance shaft failure" problems in the M272 and M273 engines. Over 500,000 engines are in the affected range. While there is no definitive answer as to what percentage will fail early, there are many owners in the forums who have had the failure. It is even possible that "all" will fail prematurely, just some much earlier than others. Still, this problem does not even show as a blip on the radar of various car review and valuation services (e.g. Consumer Reports, KBB, Edmunds, Carfax, etc.). This is almost every MY2006 MBZ and about half the MY2007's, but not even a blip.

 

In my view, for myself it's important to know what others have found on my car too.

When a particular car has the same repeated problem I want to know about it.

And my experiences of the problems I've had with a particular car might help someone else save a few thousand dollars too.

My E320 was superb. The turbo actuator failed, but that's all in 4 years driving. A difficult winter start was due to me not tightening the fuel filter canister ring enough.

This ML is about to cost me another €1,000 after several annoying intermittent faults.

I'm tired of its faults.

If it's the last of the daft problems it's coughed up then fine, I'll keep it and enjoy it.

But next fault - out it goes.