dream car turned into worst nightmare

[dazzaessexuk]

any specialists in car dealers and garage problems on here please

 

here is most of the saga 

 

car make Mercedes

 

car model e250 cdi blue efficiency sport coupe

date of purchase 07/09/19

mileage at purchase 86399

current mileage 101000

 

i visited the showroom at the beginning of sept 2019  and saw a Mercedes for sale

i said to the salesman  was looking for a long distance motorway type car as my partners dad is very ill but lives in Lincoln and we have to keep travelling back and forth to his home a round trip of around 310 miles from my home address sometime once or twice a week

 

being registered as disabled  it had to be comfortable for my back

phil the salesman agreed the Mercedes would be the best car for that

 

i purchased the car via my already arranged hp agreement with oodle car finance and signed the papers on the 07/09/19

i collected the car a few days later.

the car was great and problem free having been serviced just before sale by Mercedes main dealer as it had been since new .

 

sadly 4 weeks in and problems started to manifest themselves

first incident was the radio and cd keep turning off including the multifunction screen which is quite important for various functions and setting ,

 

i rang the garage and spoke to phil he assured me he would sort this out ,

i took the car back i parked it up outside and went in to get phil to show him the problem

 

when he got to the car the fault had disappeared ,

he said just keep using it its probably because its not been used much and to be honest its not happened since .

 

roll on to mid November and i get a message come up saying esp inactive consult manual,

this in effect was the start of something far more worrying,

i did not have a manual as one was not supplied

 

 i contacted phil he said its probably just a sensor playing up

he advised me to keep an eye on it and let him know if i had any actual running problems or car started acting up and assured me it would probably go off on its own.

 

i rang Mercedes benz of lakeside west Thurrock to try and buy an owners manual and get a copy of the cars service record printed out to keep for my records but they said i had to go into dealership for the service records and had to supply the log book in my name which was still not back from dvla

had to wait a few more weeks till that arrived

 

in the middle of this the car broke down with literally over 60 errors being recorded on the ecu rendering the car undrivable

this included esp traction control and abs inoperative and the car would not even unlock the steering lock.

 

i called garage and told them he said he would try and get car booked in if i could get it to him which at the time was impossible as i could not even get steering lock off so it could be loaded onto recovery truck .

 

i rang mercedes benz at lakeside west thurock to ask for some advice

she asked what the problem was - i told her

she told me the car was still under Mercedes assist which is free with every yearly service and she arranged a visit from Mercedes assist.

 

the mechanic turned up and eventually managed to get everything working

this was due to a faulty electronic steering lock which i had changed that week at cost of £160

he also cleared all errors etc with mb star machine

 

he stated that for that many errors it was more than likely a battery problem or a break in connection to the ecu from the various body control units ,

he advised i tell the dealer of the problems i had,  

 

the car was now running again the dealer said that's great glad its been sorted .

i stated then that the problem was not fixed but cleared and could come back

i was advised again to just stop worrying and enjoy the car

 

in fairness he said if it goes wrong we will sort it dont worry which instilled some confidence that i was dealing with a reputable dealer and these things sometimes happen .

 

roll on 4 days and again the car came up with loads of error messages on the screen

the car would not kick down when accelerator was pressed and

the cruise control became in operative

no heating or cooling inside

the wing mirrors stopped moving electronically and

no indicators or brake lights

no abs or traction control

no esp  .

 

again i called garage and was advised to get car to them when they had time to deal with it they would sort the problem  

i again called on Mercedes assist to get the car back on the road

i could get it to the dealership as he did not have a loan car i would need to then get someone to follow me to the garage to take me home .

 

the car was booked in but again broke down with all errors before i could get it there

another visit from Mercedes assist

this time the sent a senior technician as there had been 3 call outs

he was also directed by me cedes main technical engineer as in what to check

 

i was at work when this happened

the man arrived and proceeded to dismantle the car

front seat out

drivers carpets out

 

over an hour later he called me to car to look at something he had found.

 

the engineers words were i think this car has been involved in flooding inside

he showed me a tide mark all way along one side of car under the carpets

the carpet was also stained

 

he then showed me the things known as can bus connectors

i think there were four of them

 

he showed me all the electrical connectors which are copper clad push on connectors all of which were covered in a green patina and chalky white corrosion

he said that can only come from water being inside the car and would of had to be over an inch and a half deep to get that high to reach the connectors

 

he spent nearly 3 hours cleaning and refitting them all

far beyond hes duty as a roadside technician

 

he said that these connectors is where all date travel through to main ecu to keep thing ticking over and without the data the ecu would not be able to get information to do its job , he advised that i show his report to  dealer i got it from and get them to repair it by changing all the can bus boards and connectors .

 

when informed the dealer of the flooding issue and the connectors

he's response was oh bloody hell thats not good

 

he then informed me and he had done a hpi check on the car and that never showed any claims for it and he said does not mean it has not been flooded but just that they would not have known about it which i agreed with its an unforeseen problem

 

i told him that as car was still under warranty

i would want it repaired

he said well if its really bad we may have to change car or something ,

i said it was an option if he had another Mercedes which he said he did not have any so was not an option really .

 

i took the car in and advised him again of the report from Mercedes benz about the can bus connectors he assured me it would all be sorted 

 i rang for an update and was informed that the car was taken to a local garage to be looked at

 

i rang this garage and was informed that the canbus connectors were nothing to do with it not kicking down in gear

they said the dpf filter was 97% blocked and would need removing to sort this problem assumed by me to mean cleaning  as a manual regeneration was not working ,

they were going on about high mileages and not running car properly

 

my response was short and direct

"i am now getting fed up with this

the car has been off the road more than its been on it since i bought it

 

just do whatever you need to do to get my car back running as its supposed to be

to that they replied ok  

 

they had the car for a week and was informed that they had trouble accessing the ecu with the machine they used and had to send the car to a third party for work to be done .

 

i collected the car from the 3rd party garage who informed me i would not have any more issues with the dpf

they mentioned they had done software updates and remapping to sort the issue ,and in all fairness to the garage it was great although a bit slower on pull away seemed smoother overall sorted i thought .

 

roll onto feb 2020 and the problem again arose ,

i rang the dealer and stated about we will have to look at changing the car stating i was now fed up with all this and i had no confidence in the repairs or the car,

he was very apologetic and said car needs to come back in to be sorted as could be the automatic gearbox playing up

 

i take the car down to be booked in the dealer said i needed to take it back to third party garage as they would be doing it ,

i went there and arranged a date with them sadly then covid appeared on our scenes and was told could not get it in garage as lockdown measures were in force

 

that takes us to may when things started to open up again

the car had been faulty for the whole period of lockdown apart from local journeys

leaving me to drive my old car which had problems of its own being 20 years old and having covered 230000 miles .

 

in may i tteok the car back telling them i was sick and tired of bringing it back please fix it correctly, and walked off

i got 150 yards away and realised i had left my phone in car

 

walked back all 45 seconds of walking to be met by the salesman coming out of the garage saying i was just trying to call you

i said oh i left my phone in car

 

he's reply was manager has just test drove the car and said its fine nothing wrong with it

what the hell a 10 second test drive really you can imagine i was furious and pushed him into passenger seat and then i drove him round industrial estate at a highly accelerated rate of know showing him the fault which he now agreed was there.

 

in may 2020 we get the car into the garage at last

loads of checks and they come back with the gearbox ecu as faulty and said this has to come from Germany

in all they had the car from 12th june to 12th july

 

i collected the car on the Friday and immediatly drove 200 miles to test it

brilliant not a missed beat

 

i went to bed at 2am after cleaning and polishing and doing my oil water and fluid checks

brilliant my dream car back on form 

 

roll on to 6am

up for work pull away no kickdown nearly causing a major accident pulling onto motorway  

 

i rang garage and told them i was now sick of all this its making me ill only to be told take it back to third party ,

back into garage for another 6 days

 

they advise me that the car has a faulty throttle body and that was causing the thorn in my side and that he would order it and change that  

i get a phonecall midweek saying that they also now had to remove the inlet manifold as it was nearly totally blocked and would need cleaning

again i left them to it

 

at this point my dream car was now my worst nightmare

i had already contacted the finance company at beginning of covid and lodged a complaint about garage  and dealer

they said this would be investigated  but due to covid i could not get anything sorted .

 

i rang about collecting car and asked am i going to have anymore problems with this

he said of course you will its a merc they are crap

look my garage is full of german cars they are all crap not really what i wanted to hear.

 

i collected the car last week and had to go to brighton and back a few times for work the next day

i noticed a lot of black smoke coming from the exhaust when accelerating hard to get onto motorways

 

i found a clear patch of road and opened the throttle fully and my god i thought the sun had gone in

all cars behind me disappeared from rear view mirror in a thick black smoke

i called the garage to let them know he said drive it will ring you in few days.

 

over next few days the smoking has got heavier and denser so i thought i would check the oil as its about 1200 miles from needing changing at service

well there was no oil on dipstick at all - remember i checked this on the friday before it went into garage and was fine as it has been since i bought the car its never used a drop of oil ,

 

i added a litre of oil still nothing

4.5 litres to get it to correct mark on dipstick

 

when i informed garage of this he said well its a merc mate they all use oil

my reply was 4 litres in 3 days i dont think so

he said well yeah you know you have an oil leak on that car dont you .

 

well when was he going to tell me that when it blew up

this is not the service or warranty i signed up for and will no longer be taking the car back as now other things have come to light

 

today on having car inspected by myself at a local garage with the car in the air to find this oil leak that's been there for last few times i was in garage and them not fixing it or even informing me

 

i can pay them to do that as well while half of engine was out .g

arage told me i would find the 4 litres of oil on undertray guess what only some signs of wet which looks old as its got loads of road grit on it

either they drained oil out and never refilled it or its burnt 4 litres in 3 days when i  filled it back up wth oil

 

the oil know has a gun metal grey colour which one can only assume is the big end shells and turbo bearings breaking up which effectively means the engine now needs changing .

 

also while inspecting the underside to find the leak the mechanic has said the dpf has been removed and the egr valve blanked off

when i said yes they took it off to clean it

 

i think he has said i need to get it checked because the emissions are so high

looks like its been removed if it has i have been driving a car with no dpf filter which is illegal also the removal warrants theft surely.

 

i am trying to source another car as this one is now scrap without correct repairs being made leaving me with a 7000 finance to settle on a scrap car

 

i need some advice on this please

 

 

 

Edited August 3, 2020 by dx100uk
post converted to lower case and punctuated.

[dx100uk]

post 1 sorted and punctuated.

[dazzaessexuk]

dx100uk thank you so much i have just been and bought a new keyboard button stuck down think spring has gone in old one first one was sent from mobile im punctuation dyslexic which does not help