Mercedes Servicing

Hi Everyone
             The service plan on my Mercedes is now finished, I am looking for a new service plan, they have an offer at the moment A & B service £432 covers 4 years but it excludes Auto's and Motorhomes has anyone found a way round this.
              Regards
              Alan

Hi Everyone
       I have just got my Mercedes Serviced so I am thinking where next I know it is a while, do you give up on Mercedes and go local or carry on with main dealer servicing at a premium
       Regards
        Alan

Alan,

Sorry, not an answer to your question but further food for thought.

One thing to consider - The dashboard service advisory messages indicate my next service is a long way into the future having just had a service. But, I am advised by my local Mercedes dealer that the 'free' ongoing Mobilo roadside assistance is only available for 12 months from the last Mercedes service after which it lapses until the next Mercedes service at which point it's available for 12 months again. I'm currently trying to determine what the minimum Mercedes annual service requirement is to maintain the continuous availability of Mobilo assistance should I have the misfortune to need it. Or does someone know the answer?

Regards

Lance

Hi Lance
         I noticed the same thing, no answer yet. I have breakdown cover with Britannia Rescue, I presume that would get me to a Mercedes Commercial Garage. The special service deal of £432 for an A & B service does not cover Automatics and Motorhomes any more. I checked yesterday and an A service is only an oil change and filter and visual check of a number of items
     COST £300 inc vat seems an awful lot still I have 2 years to save up and think about it
       Regards
        Alan

Hi Everyone
             Just had some recalls done that could not be done at service time, most urgent one was a new fuse holder in case it caught fire. Got a quote for a service plan £55.00 inc vat a month for 12 months for an A & B Service that will last me 4 years and be inflation proof, what are your opinions
            Regards
            Alan

My opinion Alan, is that we need to find a competent garage with a mechanic who charges a reasonable rate, and knows that when The Computer That Must Be Obeyed says 'cam chain sensor faulty' it is definitely NOT the cam chain sensor that is faulty, but instead the mechanic is capable of diagnosing the acutal fault.

My 2019 Bourton came with one Mercedes invoice as follows:
Carry out free (DID YOU GET THAT? FREE? ) visual health check . . . .£0.00
MOT fee £58.60 plus VAT (or £45 inc VAT at your local test garage)
Now this is the bit I don't get:
Vehicle to official inspection prepare £120 +VAT
Vehicle to official inspection submit £60 + VAT
(so it sounds as if it costs £216 to get the vehicle on the ramps)

This is printed on the invoice: "Customer said do not replace key fob battery and do not replace NOX sensor." Guess what they did?
NOX sensor £455 + VAT. (excluding labour)
It cost him £551 in parts for them to do something he had instructed them not to do. Plus another £116 for the labour of changing the sensor.
EML on dash. 54101101 £24 + VAT Well it's worth £28.80 to open the door and look at the dash to see if there is a light on, isn't it?
Perform quick test 54065001 £12 + VAT ? I wonder what that is. I guess that is extra to having got it on a ramp, they had to plug in the OBD2 diagnostic plug. Phew., take a rest old chap.
On-board psu voltage maintain when checking / testing and troubleshooting 
54101001 £120+ VAT I think that means get another 12v battery and connect it with croc clips while troubleshooting. £150 to connect another temporary 12v. The mind boggles.
Electrical system check £72 + VAT I.E do the headlights work? Yes. OK, that will be £86.40.
Replace NOX sensor with electric controller unit upstream of cat converter £96 + VAT. Ignore the customer's instruction not to change it, we'll change it anyway and charge him.
Threaded socket repair, program, code control unit £36 + VAT

Total £1,264.32 including VAT

I expect that is the reason he got rid of the Bourton, and probably went and got a Ducato.

I've been looking for the engine battery. Anyone know where it is? It's not in the engine, not under the carpet / rubber mat in the cab, not under the front seats. I reckon the engine starts by fairy power.

Addition to the above:
Ebay NOX sensor with the same part number, £115.19 including VAT, not Mercedes price of £546. It's probably made in the same factory. I imagine this same part would be used on many different vehicles.
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So the realistic, sensible solution would be to find a garage that can accommodate the Bourton on its lift, and that charges say £60/hour as my local one does, plus the run-of-the-mill ebay prices for parts given that they can get them cheaper as they are trade.

It’s worth remembering that servicing/repairs by a MB garage will give access to the MB software updates and analysis which independent garages won’t have. We got caught like that with our Sprinter when an independent was unable to find a fault. We still had a bill to pay there and another at the MB van centre who later carried out the work.

In my experience, MB vans are expensive to buy but servicing and repair costs tend to be cheaper than for the Boxer/Ducato.

I have a Peugeot van & have recently bought my first MB car. I’ve taken out the service plan for 4 years of servicing but when I replace the car at 5 years it won’t be another MB. Likewise when I change the van it’ll be a Ducato or Boxer. MB dealers are rip off merchants.

Flash wrote:I have a Peugeot van & have recently bought my first MB car. I’ve taken out the service plan for 4 years of servicing but when I replace the car at 5 years it won’t be another MB. Likewise when I change the van it’ll be a Ducato or Boxer. MB dealers are rip off merchants.

It’s like everything. Some are some aren’t. There are two dealerships near me, one is a car franchise that dabbles in smaller vans and the other is an authorised MB commercial garage. I’d not class the second as rip off but I have grave doubts about the car dealership in terms of repair costs and ability.

I recently purchased a replacement fuel filler cap (£7) from the car dealership for my Vito - I was passing the door and several miles from the van dealer - and the parts salesperson confirmed spares for vans are much more reasonably priced than those for MB cars.

Tinwheeler wrote:It’s worth remembering that servicing/repairs by a MB garage will give access to the MB software updates and analysis which independent garages won’t have. We got caught like that with our Sprinter when an independent was unable to find a fault. We still had a bill to pay there and another at the MB van centre who later carried out the work.

In my experience, MB vans are expensive to buy but servicing and repair costs tend to be cheaper than for the Boxer/Ducato.

Today I found myself parked (with my motorbike) next to a Merc van and the driver came to get in. 
I said "I've just got a sprinter, an automatic motorhome. I looked at the bottom rad hose and it looks as if it will cost £400, but then again it looks as if it is the same for a German tank so it should outlast me"
He said "I'm a merc commercial mechanic, no they aren't that much, about £100 and they will last 20 years. The worst problem with the sprinter is the inlet manifold, they are made of plastic and over time they crack. They don't cost a lot but they take a full day's labour to replace, they are very difficult to get at" I then asked what the labour rate at a merc dealer would be, and he said about £100 an hour, he said much much cheaper than at a merc car dealer which will charge about £400 an hour".

I've just been out to look at mine. It is a RWD so the engine is in line front to back of the vehicle, and the access each side of the engine is spacious. I can't see any bother replacing the inlet manifold - there is a lot of bits of plastic to remove, but I can see the manifold and I can imagine doing it myself. I suspect that he may have been referring to a FWD Sprinter where the inlet manifold would probably be up against the bulkhead.
Anyway so I am happy - or at least, less worried about the running costs of the Merc chassis. Yesterday I got my first Mercedes spares disappointment - I went to the dealer in Leicester with a list of water pipes I would like to replace on my 1981 car. He couldn't supply any of them which was a bit of a surprise because in the past they have always supplied parts for my 1987 onwards cars. But he did say go to Mercedes Benz Poole, who have collected a large stock of parts for the older cars.

The mechanic you met verified my postings of MB commercials being cheaper to repair than MB cars. 

I’m glad you’re happy. 

No, I find £400/hr hard to believe too, he was probably just saying in effect that commercials are significantly cheaper than cars and picked a number out of the air.
Talking of which, m/h versus cars I have just applied for Critair and Umwelt stickers, and the German www gave me a choice of vehicle type to enter which was motorcycle / car / light commercial / HGV / PSV so I called it a car, since it isn't any of the others. My V5 doesn't have any entry next to J: Vehicle Category. Neither does it have a CO2 rating, which the site wanted, but I got away with not entering a value for that. I just scanned the V5 data page and added that.

I can't remember what I entered but I think I'd have entered light commercial as that describes the base vehicle better than car.  I might have left it blank. Whatever I entered, the green grade 4 sticker came back very quickly giving entry to all the LEZs in Germany. Similarly the yellow grade 2 Critair sticker was quick to come.

Hi Everyone
       Just to sew it up really, in the end I went for a Mercedes Service Plan,I know it is a rip off, but the MH is only 4 years old and I think it will help keep it's value. It is about £56 a month payable for 12 months, It is inflation proof, 4 years servicing paid for, fit and forget cheers
        Alan