Getting Mercedes warranty claim honoured

[Monkeylegend]

GoneAnon said:

Does the corrosion warranty not require annual inspections at a dealer?

Not just for MB but for many/most/all makes.

That's why I think they will be reluctant to honour the corrosion warranty.

[eccles]

Monkeylegend said:

GoneAnon said:

Does the corrosion warranty not require annual inspections at a dealer?

Not just for MB but for many/most/all makes.

That's why I think they will be reluctant to honour the corrosion warranty.

Chap in work is having a bit of bother with the dealers in Ipswich reference corroded rear brake pipes on a 2006/7 car. He has a full service history, car was serviced in August with no problems reported, goes for MOT just before christmas and they fail it on corroded rear pipes (at a cost of over £400 for replacement).
He kicks up a stink, they take apart various undershields to look closer at the pipes, turns out after a little rub down to 2" at the ends of the pipes they are fine. They protect them by smearing a bit of grease over them, put all the undershields back together badly (one is hanging off!) and want to charge him £200 for the pleasure!

Corroded brake pipes on a 10 year old car,OP reporting rusty doors, and Mercedes call themselves a premium brand!

[Sheepshanks]

eccles said:

...corroded rear pipes (at a cost of over £400 for replacement).

£400 is low - on my C Class dealer quoted £1200 and two indies both said £600. Rear sub-frame and fuel tank have to be dropped.

An indie who looked said they were OK, and it passed last MOT without comment, but there are plenty of reports of them bursting at MOT when the brakes are used harder than normal. A bit un-nerving. If I could get mine done for £400 I think I'd do it for peace-of-mind.

eccles said:

Corroded brake pipes on a 10 year old car,OP reporting rusty doors, and Mercedes call themselves a premium brand!

It's not just older cars - I've seen recent reports of them being replaced due to corrosion under the initial 3yr warranty!

[liner33]

Norfolkandchance said:

Thanks for the reply. I see that you would have a very good case. However, the wording of the warranty is the same, regardless of owners / age etc.

As I mentioned I have never heard of a successful warranty claim for corrosion, only ever done under goodwill

My E Class at around 5 years old had two new wings fitted and sprayed, the tailgate, door frames and bonnet were resprayed, the latter needed doing again a year later and a year after that the rust came back on the tailgate, I gave up at that point

[GoneAnon]

eccles said:

Chap in work is having a bit of bother with the dealers in Ipswich reference corroded rear brake pipes on a 2006/7 car. He has a full service history, car was serviced in August with no problems reported, goes for MOT just before christmas and they fail it on corroded rear pipes (at a cost of over £400 for replacement).
He kicks up a stink, they take apart various undershields to look closer at the pipes, turns out after a little rub down to 2" at the ends of the pipes they are fine. They protect them by smearing a bit of grease over them, put all the undershields back together badly (one is hanging off!) and want to charge him £200 for the pleasure!

Corroded brake pipes on a 10 year old car,OP reporting rusty doors, and Mercedes call themselves a premium brand!

I understood the corrossion warranty was for bodywork, not brake pipes?
How would brake pipes rust from the inside out? And according to the above, they weren't corroded anyway!

Surely he should have asked the MOT place why they failed brake pipes that were actually OK?

Or just had the pipes replaced when they had everything stripped off?
Some lengths of copper pipe, some ends and a bit of flaring don't take long or cost much - the labour content is in the stripping and rebuilding.

[hairyben]

mercedes warranty

Yeah good luck with that. Is it printed on soft absorbant paper, if so I can think of a use for it.

As been mentioned their cherished get-out is annual inspections which means you need full mbsh to even dream of it. then you have the joke that is merc customer care, who wouldnt replace a 2 year old battery in my merc (merc 2 year warranty/bosch 5 yrs), instead electing to waste my time by bringing it to them for a "diagnosis" and then spin me a fairy tale that 12k is "too little miles" "these vans arent designed to do" and that I need to carry out "special battery maintenance". Honestly it was embrassing listening to the creep as he squirmed and BS'd his way like a cheap suited backstreet shark, utterly pathetic, and annoying waste of my time- wish they'd just said "no" on the phone!

And I'm a tradesman with a van you might expect to recognise and challenge piffle when he hears it, god help all you smart suits and pretty women.

Mercedes warranty sorry you didnt think they were a quality brand did you?

[eccles]

GoneAnon said:

eccles said:

Chap in work is having a bit of bother with the dealers in Ipswich reference corroded rear brake pipes on a 2006/7 car. He has a full service history, car was serviced in August with no problems reported, goes for MOT just before christmas and they fail it on corroded rear pipes (at a cost of over £400 for replacement).
He kicks up a stink, they take apart various undershields to look closer at the pipes, turns out after a little rub down to 2" at the ends of the pipes they are fine. They protect them by smearing a bit of grease over them, put all the undershields back together badly (one is hanging off!) and want to charge him £200 for the pleasure!

Corroded brake pipes on a 10 year old car,OP reporting rusty doors, and Mercedes call themselves a premium brand!

I understood the corrossion warranty was for bodywork, not brake pipes?
How would brake pipes rust from the inside out? And according to the above, they weren't corroded anyway!

Surely he should have asked the MOT place why they failed brake pipes that were actually OK?

Or just had the pipes replaced when they had everything stripped off?
Some lengths of copper pipe, some ends and a bit of flaring don't take long or cost much - the labour content is in the stripping and rebuilding.

Turns out the car is a 2008 model.....The MOT place was the main dealers that had serviced the car a few months earlier and not spotted anything wrong. They are also the ones who took the car to bits, cleaned up the end 2" of pipe, smeared a dob of axle grease on it then failed to put the underguards back on properly and charged him for cleaning up the full length of both pipes!

He's got his car back this week with the pipes fully protected with CPC and the underguards fitted correctly and a reduced bill.
All this from a 'premium' main dealer charging a mere £100 an hour.

[Norfolkandchance]

So, is there a document, that presumably came with the car and I no longer have, that trumps the wording in the service book, which makes no mention of service history other than it has to have been serviced in the past 2 years (as I read it)?

"In the unlikely event of the bodywork or underbody rusting through from the inside, this will be repaired by a Mercedes Benz Service Centre free of charge for labour and materials."

[paintman]

Norfolkandchance said:

So, is there a document, that presumably came with the car and I no longer have, that trumps the wording in the service book, which makes no mention of service history other than it has to have been serviced in the past 2 years (as I read it)?

"In the unlikely event of the bodywork or underbody rusting through from the inside, this will be repaired by a Mercedes Benz Service Centre free of charge for labour and materials."

As said earlier, this means perforation of the panel not rust spreading across the surface of a panel.
Your description of the issue appears to say that corrosion started from the seam where the outer skin meets the inner face of the door. If that is the case and it has spread down the inwards facing part of the skin then around the edges and onto the outer face it is on the same side of the skin. If there are no holes in the skin then MB will continue to reject it as it hasn't rusted through.
If the word 'through' was missing you'd have an argument as it has spread from the inside of the car.
Keep at them though, you never know!

Edited by paintman on Sunday 15th January 12:49

[Norfolkandchance]

paintman said:

Norfolkandchance said:

So, is there a document, that presumably came with the car and I no longer have, that trumps the wording in the service book, which makes no mention of service history other than it has to have been serviced in the past 2 years (as I read it)?

"In the unlikely event of the bodywork or underbody rusting through from the inside, this will be repaired by a Mercedes Benz Service Centre free of charge for labour and materials."

As said earlier, this means perforation of the panel not rust spreading across the surface of a panel.
Your description of the issue appears to say that corrosion started from the seam where the outer skin meets the inner face of the door. If that is the case and it has spread down the inwards facing part of the skin then around the edges and onto the outer face it is on the same side of the skin. If there are no holes in the skin then MB will continue to reject it as it hasn't rusted through.
If the word 'through' was missing you MIGHT have an argument as it has spread from the inside of the car.
Keep at them though, you never know!

Edited by paintman on Sunday 15th January 12:43

its not gone round the edges - the actual bottom of the door, the crease of the folded part is ok. There is about 10mm of outer skin wrapped round the door and folded up. The corrosion is about 8mm up from the very bottom, on the inside, and is starting to show on the outside, again about 8-10mm from the bottom, where it is starting to rust through. It isn't perforated though, though it might if someone jabbed a screw driver into it.

[paintman]

If there is no physical connection between the inside & outside corroded areas then in the absence of it being attributable to stone chipping or other external damage to the paint allowing corrosion to start then it can only have come through the skin.
Tempting, but I'd advise against you prodding it with pointy things.
I would reiterate that you need expert independent inspection of the vehicle and a written report otherwise it will just be a case of MB continuing to say 'No'.
As I said, I'm not sure who you could use or what it would cost but it may be worth speaking to your local Citizens' Advice or Trading Standards to see if they can give a recommendation - unless anyone on here knows of such a person?

Edited by paintman on Sunday 15th January 13:07

[liner33]

It may be better to ask if any successful warranty claims have been made on a MB forum although I suspect that elite group of owners would be even smaller than the Rolf Harris fan club

[Monkeylegend]

liner33 said:

It may be better to ask if any successful warranty claims have been made on a MB forum although I suspect that elite group of owners would be even smaller than the Rolf Harris fan club

I have a friend who did get his 2000 E320 estate repaired by Merc in 2009, they told him there was a 10 year cut off on age so he was lucky to just scrap in.

They did a wonderful job, it was at least 18 months before the rust came through again on the tailgate.

[hairyben]

Monkeylegend said:

I have a friend who did get his 2000 E320 estate repaired by Merc in 2009, they told him there was a 10 year cut off on age so he was lucky to just scrap in.

They did a wonderful job, it was at least 18 months before the rust came through again on the tailgate.

[anonymous-user]

g7orge said:

My CLK was about 10 years old when I had the boot replaced by Mercedes - I had rusting elsewhere as well however they wouldn't touch that - but I was certainly happy with what they did do - I went through the dealership in Bury St Edmunds.

My brother brought a brand new £40 grand Merc off them, the first port of call after dropping him off was follow him down the Petrol station as there was no fuel in there.
I'm afraid they rust, they con you with servicing and I would avoid a Merc at all costs.

[Monkeylegend]

hairyben said:

Monkeylegend said:

I have a friend who did get his 2000 E320 estate repaired by Merc in 2009, they told him there was a 10 year cut off on age so he was lucky to just scrap in.

They did a wonderful job, it was at least 18 months before the rust came through again on the tailgate.

e

[liner33]

Monkeylegend said:

I have a friend who did get his 2000 E320 estate repaired by Merc in 2009, they told him there was a 10 year cut off on age so he was lucky to just scrap in.

They did a wonderful job, it was at least 18 months before the rust came through again on the tailgate.

Under warranty NOT goodwill ?

[Monkeylegend]

liner33 said:

Monkeylegend said:

I have a friend who did get his 2000 E320 estate repaired by Merc in 2009, they told him there was a 10 year cut off on age so he was lucky to just scrap in.

They did a wonderful job, it was at least 18 months before the rust came through again on the tailgate.

Under warranty NOT goodwill ?

It was done under warranty, but because of the well known issue with Mercedes at that time my understanding is they put a 10 year limit on claims.

[liner33]

Monkeylegend said:

It was done under warranty, but because of the well known issue with Mercedes at that time my understanding is they put a 10 year limit on claims.

The bodywork warranty is longer than 10 years , goodwill claims were given a 10 year limit along with other condition imposed

[Monkeylegend]

I thought they introduced the 30 year anti corrosion warranty after the debacle of the late 80's/90's in order to regain some credibility.

But then again I could be wrong.