Wrong OEM oil filter ruins Mercedes engine

[DuckRyder]

Originally Posted By: Sayjac
[... Learned a hard lesson.


Except he did not learn anything because he is going to scam the extended warranty company into paying for it when it blows up...

 

[sleddriver]

Poor guy? After reading the whole thread on the MB site and the TSB from MB, the owner comes off as a young kid (milenial), who has had his first head-on with "details matter". Further, who takes their MB to a QL in the first place, rather than their mechanic if they choose not to use the dealer? A young kid who always took his prior auto before 'moving up'. Thats who.

Habits matter as well as details.

Now he's blaming everybody else. His use of language exposes him as a milennial. I'd paste here, but why bother?

As to MB: From an engineers perspective; what a stupid design. What were they drinking, much less thinking? Ridiculous....

 

[Wolf359]

Originally Posted By: sleddriver
As to MB: From an engineers perspective; what a stupid design. What were they drinking, much less thinking? Ridiculous....


They were probably drinking beer. Pretty popular in Germany. I went on the BMW factory tour a while ago. Their break area had a beer vending machine. Pretty common over there I guess.

I do the same thing, give the filter and oil to an indy or change it myself. I think it's understood in those situations if any owner supplied part fails, it's on the owner. Although I always go to an indy for an oil change if I give them the oil/filter, I don't do the quickie places.

I think the exit strategy for him would be to just trade the car in. Just another danger to watch out for when buying a used car. That's why I guess it'd be important to get the VMI (vehicle master inquiry) from the MB dealer to see if the oil got changed there or not.

 

[bdcardinal]

Originally Posted By: ragtoplvr
Have you ever had to tell the customer he brought the wrong part to install?


Yes plenty of times it is simple. At my work when the customer supplies the wrong part and the vehicle is stuck on a lift we either offer to have our parts department (me) find it and the customer pays what we charge or after given a reasonable amount of time the customer is billed straight time at our normal labor rate, $140/hr, while they go all over the place tracking down their own discount part.

For anyone wondering why the customer is charged our labor rate, if they are torn apart on a rack that is lost productivity for the technician and the shop as a whole.

 

[Sayjac]

Quote:
.....As to MB: From an engineers perspective; what a stupid design. What were they drinking, much less thinking? Ridiculous....

What's wrong with the design? As noted in a prior post, it's quite similar to the current FCA 3.6L Pentastar cartridge, extension prongs and all. MB also followed a similar pattern to FCA on the Pentastar cartridges. Early 3.6L engines used a more traditional looking cartridge, then went to the current extended prong design.

If the current MB design is poor, then it would seem the 3.6L Pentstar would be have to be considered the same. Not saying that's true. In any case, the differences between the two cartridges is very obvious.

Also, I keep seeing the term 'quick lube' being used to describe the place where the oil and filter change done. I read the OP to say a "local shop" and later says a "friend's shop". A reply calls it a 'quick lube.' For some that would make no difference, but I take it to mean something like a local independent shop. Especially as he describes dropping it off and then pick up after closing. Seeing as the owner picked the wrong cartridge I doubt he knows the difference. Wonder if he's still friends with the owner of the shop?

Whatever, it's ultimately the owner's error.

 

[HangFire]

It's a bad design because there was zero consideration for the possibility, neigh, probability that exactly this would happen. They even realized:

https://mbworld.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=358805&d=1500146124

Real engineering involves considering all the possible variables, then designing away bad results for all or at least all the most probable ones. This was a probable one.

Zero sympathy for the OP in the MBWorld thread- really, zero- but what happens when a DEALER screws up, and then blames the owner? You know it's going to happen sooner or later.

 

[Hootbro]

While I believe fault lies with the guy buying the wrong filter, a case could be made in a civil court lawsuit against Amazon using a "common man" argument that reasonable measures were taken buy the guy when shopping, selecting and buying that filter. Of course litigation costs would make it impractical but I can see a majority jury of 12 seeing it this way in his favor.

 

[L_Sludger]

Originally Posted By: Sayjac
Quote:
.....As to MB: From an engineers perspective; what a stupid design. What were they drinking, much less thinking? Ridiculous....

What's wrong with the design?

It should have been designed so that the previous model filter wouldn't fit in the housing at all.

 

[Sayjac]

Quote:
While I believe fault lies with the guy buying the wrong filter, a case could be made in a civil court lawsuit against Amazon using a "common man" argument that reasonable measures were taken buy the guy when shopping..

So I went back and listed the 2013GLK in my amazon garage and found the older 2012 MB cartridge. It shows it fits the 4matic but not the "base" model. That looks to be incorrect. The correct cartridge shows it fits both 4matic and base. Perhaps there might be some basis for a case.

As for the engineering of the correct cartridge, so basically it's poorly engineered because it's not an "idiot proof" design. Got it. IMO, the MB owner then qualifies.

I wonder if the FCA 3.6L Pentastar older model cartridges fit in the later model cartridge housing too?

 

[Hootbro]

Originally Posted By: Sayjac


I wonder if the FCA 3.6L Pentastar older model cartridges fit in the later model cartridge housing too?


The filter cap on the newer ones is suppose to not allow the old design filters to be installed, but I have heard of a couple of people actually wrenching a few in by brute force but usually it cracks apart the filter housing .

 

[Sayjac]

^^^Perhaps FCA thought that out a bit better than MB then. If recognized at installation, cracking the cap/housing better than destroying an engine.

 

[Ethan1]

Originally Posted By: sleddriver
Poor guy? After reading the whole thread on the MB site and the TSB from MB, the owner comes off as a young kid (milenial), who has had his first head-on with "details matter". Further, who takes their MB to a QL in the first place, rather than their mechanic if they choose not to use the dealer? A young kid who always took his prior auto before 'moving up'. Thats who.

Habits matter as well as details.

Now he's blaming everybody else. His use of language exposes him as a milennial. I'd paste here, but why bother?

As to MB: From an engineers perspective; what a stupid design. What were they drinking, much less thinking? Ridiculous....


Funny, he sounded like a Gen X'er or even a Boomer to me. What made you think he was a millenial?

 

[Hootbro]

Originally Posted By: Sayjac
^^^Perhaps FCA thought that out a bit better than MB then. If recognized at installation, cracking the cap/housing better than destroying an engine.


Maybe, maybe not. I owned a 2014 Wrangler that was the first year of the newer style filter in the Pentastar engine. There was much discussion over their over the whole filter style change and even when using the correct filters for model years, the whole filter housing assembly was prone to leaks and very sensitive to failure. They seem to crack if you looked at them funny. Better oil filter/cooler housings became available I think in late 2015 and has largely been address.

I just remember it took a extra special retard to get a old style filter into a new style housing but like anything that is engineered, a better idiot is built.

 

[sleddriver]

Originally Posted By: Sayjac
Quote:
.....As to MB: From an engineers perspective; what a stupid design. What were they drinking, much less thinking? Ridiculous....

What's wrong with the design?
I'd of thought it obvious...the old filter fits the new motor all to easily. Perfectly as a matter-of-fact. The result being no oil pressure which means the motor bearings are now Tango Uniform. Scratch one Mercedes motor....

A proper design would have never allowed this when the possibility of mistake results in such severe consequences to the customers car.

 

[sleddriver]

Originally Posted By: Wolf359
Originally Posted By: sleddriver
As to MB: From an engineers perspective; what a stupid design. What were they drinking, much less thinking? Ridiculous....
They were probably drinking beer. Pretty popular in Germany. I went on the BMW factory tour a while ago. Their break area had a beer vending machine. Pretty common over there I guess.
Really?
Germans like bier?
Since when?

Perhaps BMW serves its engineers better bier....

 

[Wolf359]

Originally Posted By: sleddriver
Originally Posted By: Sayjac
Quote:
.....As to MB: From an engineers perspective; what a stupid design. What were they drinking, much less thinking? Ridiculous....

What's wrong with the design?
I'd of thought it obvious...the old filter fits the new motor all to easily. Perfectly as a matter-of-fact. The result being no oil pressure which means the motor bearings are now Tango Uniform. Scratch one Mercedes motor....

A proper design would have never allowed this when the possibility of mistake results in such severe consequences to the customers car.


On the flip side, maybe they did it on purpose to sell more engines. If he had taken it to an MB dealer for the oil change or had not supplied his own filter, it probably won't have happened. You can't plan for everything.

Nothing is fool proof because fools are so ingenious.

 

[CrAlt]

Originally Posted By: sleddriver
Originally Posted By: Sayjac
Quote:
.....As to MB: From an engineers perspective; what a stupid design. What were they drinking, much less thinking? Ridiculous....

What's wrong with the design?
I'd of thought it obvious...the old filter fits the new motor all to easily. Perfectly as a matter-of-fact. The result being no oil pressure which means the motor bearings are now Tango Uniform. Scratch one Mercedes motor....

A proper design would have never allowed this when the possibility of mistake results in such severe consequences to the customers car.


You can screw the wrong canister filter on and have a major issue.
SAE/Metric lug/stud miss-match causing wheels to fall off.
Wrong spark plugs that meet up with piston
I am sure people could think of a few other common costly parts screw ups.

The wrong part is the wrong part. Mr cheap skate picked the wrong part.

MB's catalog system tells you the right part at the parts counter.
If he went to a real autoparts place he would have gotten the right part.
If he just let the kid at the QL place scan the vin and provide the filter he would have gotten the right part.

 

[amcguru]

Originally Posted By: Ethan1
So... 1) buy supplies off Amazon to save money 2) go to a quick lube to save money 3) (worst of all) have freakin' Geico to save money 4) drives a Mercedes?

I've noticed that the people who have problems with German cars are the people who can't afford the upkeep and don't learn to do the upkeep at home.


I've been a M-B dealer tech since '00. You would be amazed how often similar scenario's have played out through the years.

 

[DoubleWasp]

Originally Posted By: Ethan1
Originally Posted By: sleddriver
Poor guy? After reading the whole thread on the MB site and the TSB from MB, the owner comes off as a young kid (milenial), who has had his first head-on with "details matter". Further, who takes their MB to a QL in the first place, rather than their mechanic if they choose not to use the dealer? A young kid who always took his prior auto before 'moving up'. Thats who.

Habits matter as well as details.

Now he's blaming everybody else. His use of language exposes him as a milennial. I'd paste here, but why bother?

As to MB: From an engineers perspective; what a stupid design. What were they drinking, much less thinking? Ridiculous....


Funny, he sounded like a Gen X'er or even a Boomer to me. What made you think he was a millenial?


Everything wrong with the world is a millenial's fault.

We lived in the Garden of Eden until Eve (a millenial) ate from the Tree of Life, after being tempted by the Devil (also a millenial).

 

[Sayjac]

Originally Posted By: CrAlt
....You can screw the wrong canister filter on and have a major issue.
SAE/Metric lug/stud miss-match causing wheels to fall off.
Wrong spark plugs that meet up with piston
I am sure people could think of a few other common costly parts screw ups.

The wrong part is the wrong part. Mr cheap skate picked the wrong part.

MB's catalog system tells you the right part at the parts counter.
If he went to a real autoparts place he would have gotten the right part.
If he just let the kid at the QL place scan the vin and provide the filter he would have gotten the right part.

All valid points. The first, wrong canister filter able to be screwed on was posted not too long ago HERE. A well known store quick lube was able to screw on an SAE threaded filter on a metric designed canister application.

Quote:
....I'd of thought it obvious...the old filter fits the new motor all to easily.

If it had been obvious 'to me' I wouldn't have asked the question so as not to waste your valuable time. Based on the condescending reply, in hindsight a poor decision on my part to make the query include a specific quote rather than asked as a general question using the OP's re: as reply name. A lesson learned for me here too.

I believe in common sense. 'IMO,' beyond not doing his due diligence in researching and selecting the correct cartridge, the owner didn't use common sense. As I've oft heard dating back to my high school days and holds true here, common sense is not so common.