dicksob Posted October 17, 2012 Posted October 17, 2012 Went to our storage site to pick up the Motorhome for a weekend at CC Forfar, disaster won't start. Thought must be flat battery, recording only 12v, called Mercedes 24hr helpline, 45mins later very helpful technician arrives, tries jump leads, no success, faulty starter motor. Phone call later, as its a 3litre merc only one is in Milton Keynes, on order, so now we need recovering to Merc Commercials in Broxburn. Technician suggests we pop off to nearby hotel for lunch, he will arrange for recovery truck to come and will give us a call when ready to load. One hour later, nice lunch over, van loaded on recovery truck, bit hairy that, and off it goes. Got a call Monday, work completed Tuesday, no charge as under warranty. So Mercedes can go wrong, especially with Motorhome sleepy syndrome, but after sales support great. Note to self, use the van more often!
dawki Posted October 18, 2012 Posted October 18, 2012 Hi dick glad to hear all worked out well and Mercedes did there best for you, It is not good for these vans to be parked up for weeks on end hope your able to get it out and get away as much as poss
dicksob Posted October 18, 2012 Author Posted October 18, 2012 Technician who replaced the starter said it was a reasonably common fault on Motorhomes due to limited use. They don't try and repair or clean the contacts etc, just swap out the unit and send it back. Ok if in warranty, expensive I guess if not. For those of us non-practical types, no real option.
onecal Posted October 18, 2012 Posted October 18, 2012 OK...That is a first ,,,,Glad you got fixed up so well,,,,not so good service from some other base manufacturers when faults like this occurs. Not so sure though it was the starter,,,,but then all well that ends well,,,,Regards,Brendan
dicksob Posted October 18, 2012 Author Posted October 18, 2012 Brendan,quite agree, after reading similar tales on Motorhomefacts (sorry!) I wondered if it was a relay failure, however as it was under warranty didn't enquire too much. Have to agree re their response, no quibble, friendly, professional, was a change from our previous experience with our Fiat base, though that was with a combined car/van dealer rather than commercial who deal with vans all day. Bill
Corky 8 Posted October 19, 2012 Posted October 19, 2012 It is unusual for a Mercedes Starter motor to go wrong as they are nearly always Bosch and out of all 12 volt Electrical component Manufacturers I would rate Bosch the Best. but solenoid,s do stick and that is the normal failure with starter Motor,s, since the demise of the Bendix type of starter, the usual first aid for the solenoid type was to Tap it with the shaft of a Hammer whilst trying to crank the engine, but the newday Technician's dont do such things. Glad to hear a happy ending for a change.
Corky 8 Posted October 19, 2012 Posted October 19, 2012 It is unusual for a Mercedes Starter motor to go wrong as they are nearly always Bosch and out of all 12 volt Electrical component Manufacturers I would rate Bosch the Best. but solenoid,s do stick and that is the normal failure with starter Motor,s, since the demise of the Bendix type of starter, the usual first aid for the solenoid type was to Tap it with the shaft of a Hammer whilst trying to crank the engine, but the newday Technician's dont do such things. Glad to hear a happy ending for a change.ONE CLICK .....................HONEST>
onecal Posted October 20, 2012 Posted October 20, 2012 Hi,Have to agree with Corky 100%,,,,, I really think you may have been led astray,,,Never had to replace a starter in any low mileage Merc' base Motorhome yet and quite a few have been left parked up,,,,for a considerable time Glad all turned out well ,,,,,,Regards,Brendan
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