Originally Posted by
pizzaguy
Who has EVER had a resolution to an electrical issue at a dealer that did not take WAY too long and cost WAY too much.
I'v seen topics, "After six weeks at dealer, still no start..." and "Two months, still runs rough..."
That is not a solution, it is just another problem. When Tricials' car would not run, she took it to a dealer AND a local MB shop. Weeks went by - the car was fixed by Charlie when he came over with a spare TB. All three of us learned about the car that day - and he had it running fine in an hour!
I wish to go back to this post I just made. A big reason why Charlie was succesful was because he did not troubleshoot the car as 'mechanics' and 'technicians' are trained to do these days - that is, by following the 6th-grade-level advice in the service manual.
Charlie used experience and logic to determine this. We KNEW the ignition system was fine, we KNEW the intake and vacum lines were all ok. Tricia had changed the MAF/IAT sensor herself. (once with an Autozone piece of crap, then with an OEM part). What else could we have here? There was talk of replacing the ECM ($1800) - but for the ECM to be causing this would mean that ONE ROUTINE of the code in the ECM had to be 'defective' while the rest of the code was OBVIOUSLY ok. How do you explain that? Could it be that the transistor on the ECM that drives the TB be leaky? (Sure, but what are the chances of THAT?)
But the "techs" don't think like that, they have NO experience in microcontrollers - and with the divorce from Diamler/Benz, they have no tech support to speak of.
No, dealers are handicapped and it is NOT all their fault (I KNOW I make it sound like it is, but that is not intentional.) Fact is, you are taking a Mercedes Benz SLK320 (with some modded code in the controllers and a different body) to a Chrysler dealer, that CANNOT go well for you. And it very rarely does.