Car: 1998 ML320 Miles 63K
A year ago my car underwent a rountine service at Mercedez-Benz of Morristown (NJ). They told me that "down the road" I would need some work done on my brakes (presumably pads..), but that they had "life still in them" so they had taken no immediate action.."likely they would need action during my next service".
By May 2003 I felt the brakes needed service, but as is standard for MBM they could not fit my car in for 3-4 weeks. Because of my concerns I took the car to a NON MB Garage where I stayed and watched them work on the car. It needed NEW Rotors and Pads in the REAR. These were purchased from MB and I watched them replaced on the car. I also had some small jobs done around the same time including oil change etc., again not done by MB, but prety rountine stuff and not worth while waiting 4 weeks for a MBM appointment.
Early December 2003 I telephoned MBM and requested an early appointment. because of a undulating brake pedal, when braking. My thinking was that the front brakes now needed service and while NO warning light had come on, I requested as early an appointment as possible because the braking issue was very unpleasant. I was told that I could NOT be accommodated before January 5th 2004. (By the way this is the garge where I bought the car and they have done 90% of all service work). I was quite disappointed by the considerable delay and their inability to inspect the brakes earlier. I expressed this quite clearly as I attempted to gwet them to take some action earlier.
Fast forward to today, Jan 5th 2004.
I drop the car off at MBM at 8:15 a.m. By 11:30 a.m. MBM telephone me to tell me I MUST have NEW brake pads and Rotors on ALL 4 wheels (noting the service record of a year ago). I tell them that the rear brakes are only about 6 months old. I am told that maybe the garage which did the work did not use MB parts. I tell them I inspected the parts prior to their being fitted and watched the entire service of the rear brakes. MBM then tell me that either the car had undergone severe braking, causing overheating and rotor distortion, OR the front brake issue had gone on too long and created the problems with the rear brakes. I, of course, mention that I had strongly requested a more early appointment to check the brakes some 4 weeks ago and MBM had declined this. I also tell them I only went o/s of MB in May 2003 because they could not see the call early enough and had not wanted to "risk" the brakes any further at that time. Of course now we go round in circles..... and I the owner will be paying ALL the Bills no matter what went wrong.
I call up MBNA and ask their customer service people what is their quality standard re the time taken from request to an actual service. They tell me the dealerships are independent and decide their own schedules. I ask why a dealership would not attempt to schedule a "brake" appointment as early as possible when a customer strongly requests it, because of the performance of the brakes even when no warning light comes on? All the satisfaction I get from MBNA is that they will "consider my feedback along with all other feedback they recaive". i.e. no specific action.
What have I done?
I have authorized MBM to replace the Front Rotors and pads and NOT to touch the rear brakes. This way I can independently check IF they really need attention. I really hate this, but I have lost confidence in MBM because of their unresponsiveness and have that nagging feeling I may be getting a run around. Of course when I told MBNA I was going this route they advised me to replace all 4 Rotors and Pads. I in turn pointed out that if I followed their suggestion I could not check if MBM were giving me a run around.
But the silliest thing was MBM telling me that the rear brake problem could have been caused by my using the car for too long, with a front brake problem (even though no warning light came on). Well IF MBM had been decent they could have taken some time to inspect the car earlier to see if the car was in desperate need of attention. But of course they steadfastly refused to see the car w/o a 4 week delay.
Seems if you follow the time schedule of the MBM dealership you risk extra expense and damage to ones car. But IF you dare go o/s of a MB service dept they immediately tell you that improper parts were used. Heads they win, tails I lose. I have lost trust in MBM and MBNA.