Thanks for the info. Makes me appreciate the maintenance ease of the inline 6 engines.

Steve

Yes, as others have said, check out the prices on parts. These sound insane.

When I moved back to New Orleans in '01 with my W126, the local club president recommended a guy near where I lived, with one of those shiny shops with an immaculate 107 SL on the showroom-like floor. I went to him for something, I don't recall what. He "warned" me that my immaculately-maintained 420SEL was exhibiting the dreaded timing-chain slap, and wanted to do the job . . . for $3000.

You read that right. Three Biig Ones. I said to myself, "What does he want to do, take the engine out and bring it home with him?"

I did my research, and found a good independent (on whom I still rely) who changed the chain and upper guides for less than a third of that. The car then ran superbly for 20,000 more miles until it was totalled. I suspect that Captain Three Grand had his eye on my car for himself or a friend, and hoped to scare me into selling.

Needless to say, I don't go there any more.

__________________
* *
-- Paul W. (The Benzadmiral)
('03 Buick Park Avenue, charcoal/cream)
Formerly:
'97 C230, smoke silver/parchment; '86 420SEL, anthracite/light grey; '84 280CE (W123), dark blue/palomino

Here's a typical dealer story:
I went in awhile back looking to stock up on the discontinued non-resistor Bosch plugs for my 103 motor.
Parts guy said he had 18, at $6.75 apiece.
I said if he could give me a discount I would buy all 18.
He immediately said "Well, okay, I can go $2.25 each".

Maybe I should try that on a new S-Class - HeHeHe.

Of course, I later found a couple of boxes of plugs at Napa, for their std price of $1.07.

DG

There are places for people that charge $ 135.00/hr.,..............they're called prisons.

__________________
2007 C 230 Sport.

Dealer - "We charge $135/hr."

Customer - " What !!! - 135/hr ??? ..my Doctor doesn't charge that much !!! "

Dealer - "Yeah, I know....That's why we gave it up ..."

There are now three MB dealers in St Louis. I'm pretty sure I know which dealer gave you these prices. I suggest getting a second or third opinion. There are several Independent MB shops in St Louis. send me a private message and I'll send you a list.

...or the san francisco bay area

__________________
W108
W116
FJ60

Re-open Alcatraz ?

__________________
2007 C 230 Sport.

I cant help you on everything, the 01 E came with included service while under warranty, flushes, wipers, oil and filters. your warrnty ran out at 4/50 did you abuse it since then?
Roadside assistance comes to your location and will replace a battery for $135no labor, in the the shop they do.
A brake job should cost no more than $500 rear rotors, pads, sensors and brake shoes, less for the front (no shoes), including a flush.
I would check with a good indy and another dealer. I have always been treated fairly by my (service advisor) MB dealer, he left and the dealership changed hands.
Took my car in for a window regulator, and they came up with a list of everything they said needed to be done, plugs caps and rotors (they did 10,000) ago, brake flush (they did 2yrs ago), AC filter (they did when they did evaporator) air filters and wiper blades (I did recently). I could go on and on, I took my complaint to the service advisor and was told "we go by the recommended items shedule"
They finally agreed to only suggest things that they can visually see bad, I bet a lot of uninformed people have been fleeced. As you know mechanics are paid by the job (everything has a hour value) the more they can run up the hours the more they make. If they are quick they can run up more than ten hours in less than eight! The hourly rate to the dealer is just under $100