It also bothered me that beyond brakes my lifelong mechanic that has done oddball things like a clutch and timing chain/oil pump my 11 a3 was unable to work on my Blu tec due to the cost of the equipment to work on a Mercedes.Trusting someone to work on things you can’t do is a biggie to me.A def delete on anything American wouldn’t be a problem though.
New to Mercedes
- Thread starter rainman49
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DEF delete requires software. That depends on whoever is making DEF delete how much they will sell for. There are more truck diesels out there and they will be cheaper.
Take into consideration that federal government got really serious about this and many companies went out of business.
I thought GLE 350 designated the 3.5 v6?
I've owned 4 MB's, 2 currently. I think one reason for low satisfaction ratings is electrical gremlins and incompetent technicians. I got my 2000 CLK convertible with 100k on it cheap because it had some electrical gremlins that didn't make sense. Doing a lot of reading and thinking I got them worked out and the car was solid. These vehicles throw codes, the owner takes them to the dealer who charges them a lot to not fix it. Mercedes is weird in a lot of ways. For ex. a $10 brake light switch will throw codes that make no sense. In the CLK, behind the headlight switch is a small fuse box with lots of stuff going through it. Why would stability control or anti-lock brakes go through the headlight switch?? A good indy mechanic thought the HL switch was the problem. They were no longer available but I found a used one on Ebay. That fixed all the codes. Also the shifter was electronic although it felt like a physical shifter. Any moisture gets in there puts it into limp mode.
I had an 08 ML diesel which I loved. I had to replace the steering rack at 120k. It was a known weakness as it was a car rack used on a truck. It was going to need an egr and brakes so I traded it. Figured I was pushing my luck with the emissions crap. The two I currently own have given me no problems. Changing the oil on the 3.5 has to be one of the easiest jobs on any vehicle.
I had an 08 ML diesel which I loved. I had to replace the steering rack at 120k. It was a known weakness as it was a car rack used on a truck. It was going to need an egr and brakes so I traded it. Figured I was pushing my luck with the emissions crap. The two I currently own have given me no problems. Changing the oil on the 3.5 has to be one of the easiest jobs on any vehicle.
That used to be true. But with all the movement away from larger engines, to smaller turbocharged or supercharged engines, MB has broken away from the suffix of the model names designating the engine displacement. Instead, the number portion of the model shows an equivalent or better performance level than the last engine used with that displacement. Or something like that.
For example, the SL550 has a 5.5liter 382 hp & 392 lb/ft engine. In 2012, the SL550 engine changed to a 4.7 liter 429 hp twin turbo engine. Better fuel economy and better performance.
The S550 made a similar change.
Large sump. . 7 liters of oil for that 4 cylinder.
My son's 328i at 108k miles. The minimum OCI was 15k, using BMW TPT 5W-30. As an aside, UOAs from the GDI turbo in my old Mazdaspeed 3 indicted that a 7.5k OCI was very conservative. I follow the Mercedes service intervals; I believe that they are not extreme.
Most indy Mercedes mechanics will tell you 5k mile OCI. You've got a high output 4cyl turbo. I would want to take care of it.
Shorter intervals are always better.
Congrats on the MB, hope it serves you faithfully for many safe miles and years.
Ours has been pretty solid since buying it in 2017, although it only has 134K miles currently. Yes, it's a Bluetec, but it has gone through the approved emissions modification (AEM) that MB was forced to provide a couple years ago.
A very comprehensive warranty was part of that work and we still have 2 years of coverage left on it. After that, we'll have to decide if we keep it or not. I do most of my own maintenance on it and I've found it's very straightforward; oil changes, brakes, filters, etc. is 98% of what it has needed, the other 2% being water pump and drivebelt and drivetrain fluids that I've paid the Euro indy to do for me (well worth it).
Ours has been pretty solid since buying it in 2017, although it only has 134K miles currently. Yes, it's a Bluetec, but it has gone through the approved emissions modification (AEM) that MB was forced to provide a couple years ago.
A very comprehensive warranty was part of that work and we still have 2 years of coverage left on it. After that, we'll have to decide if we keep it or not. I do most of my own maintenance on it and I've found it's very straightforward; oil changes, brakes, filters, etc. is 98% of what it has needed, the other 2% being water pump and drivebelt and drivetrain fluids that I've paid the Euro indy to do for me (well worth it).
A def delete is federally illegal. It's considered tampering with a mandatory epa device.
Maybe so, but not “better” enough to make me modify my current OCI regimen.
