A car you love that might be eating you alive?

So I bought a new to me super awesome daily about 15 months ago.

A 2011 E350 Bluetec diesel with only 27,000 miles on it. Got a great deal cars KBB value was about 3k more than I paid. We put a lot of wonderful miles on the car in the last 15 months (almost 30,000) worth. It drives amazing, it cruises amazing, it fits our family of 4 great and still gets great gas mileage (average 30 in mixed, 36-37 hwy)

I took the car in for a CEL that came on that was supposed to be a secondary heating element for the urea injection tank.

The bad news? According to the first shop this can only be replaced by replacing the whole tank which is somewhere between 1500 cheapest internet and 2900 straight from a dealer pricing parts only. It does not seem to affect performance or drivability however.

In getting this evaluated I was informed of oil leaking from the upper and lower oil pan according to the diagnosis. I went ahead and did this work which a weeks worth and involved dropped the trans and subframe. While they were in there they found the rear main seal was leaking and updated it to a new part. This was about a 3k repair bill. (This was out in San Diego)

Car shipped out to NC to start my new job I get a coolant warning light and decide to have the coolant system checked by a new local shop that has tons of experience with my vehicle. They check the car and pressure test it and everything seems fine so maybe just a fluke that colder weather needed to be topped off a little bit.

However they find presence of oil leak, not from the oil pan but from the oil cooler which sits in the V of the motor. The San Diego shop however swears the actual pans were leaking and this wasnt just the oil cooler which still needed to be fixed.

So I went ahead and decided to have the new shop fix the oil cooler leak which is a known weakness of these motors. 5k down in repair costs in a couple months and have not even addressed the CEL (the current shop thinks it might be a control unit which is much more economically fixable)

Is this a sign of things to come? Should I eat whatever I have to to get rid of the vehicle and run away? Or at this point the money spent will actually probably be likely the car should continue to be rock solid?

Car only has 56k miles on it total as a 2011 and everything about it looks like its been in great shape. These oil leaks the only thing i could think of is maybe deferred maintenance or aged out not getting used enough to keep the seals wet?

When do you guys bail on a vehicle you really do enjoy driving?

When it costs more than I can buy a decent car for in yearly repairs. With that said, I have never owned something like that. I really like the idea of that car but your experiences have reinforced my concerns.

Where it is at now (5 years and 60k miles) is where I would be starting to consider one but if you are already at the several thousand a year in repairs stage I am going to have to say it is time to bail because it is only going to get worse.

It isn't just the cost but if you have to give it to the dealer for a week once a quarter, that gets annoying quick.

So you have KBB + $2k in the car now and everything is up to snuff except the CEL that isn't bothering you except that it's on?

I'd probably tape over the CEL and keep it a while until I racked up enough miles to make the $$$ equitable - but then again I'd have just parked on cardboard for a little oil leak before I shelled out $3k. And I'd have DIY'd that oil cooler.

Honestly, if I couldn't DIY 99% of things that go wrong I wouldn't own a modern car out of warranty.

Welcome to NC. Good luck with the car. Which shop are you using?

I honestly think I probably COULD drive the car with the oil leaks as is for quite a while without noticing. It wasn't even at the drip it on the driveway stage.

The oil cooler is a PITA in this car for packaging issues it sits in the V of the motor and you have to disassemble the whole top of the motor/intake/turbo stuff to get at it.

The main reason I fixed it was because I was expecting to drive it across the country and was not sure if the oil leak could become something more major/more expensive if left alone.

I don't mind a little bit of "premium car" care and feeding needed to own such a nice vehicle, just these two repairs have been more expensive than anything I have ever had to do on any vehicle I have owned and give me some sticker shock.

Googling around there havent been many people reporting issues with these cars, in fact the oil cooler is the only really well documented thing to look out for so once its fixed I would prefer to just drive the snot out of a really sweet car.

I bought it with the plan of keeping it essentially forever because diesel reliability :P

Brett_Murphy wrote: Welcome to NC. Good luck with the car. Which shop are you using?

The Car Place NC in Raleigh super awesome dudes

This is just more confirmation of why I don't own german cars. period.

But with that said, when you buy a luxury vehicle you have to be prepared to maintain a luxury vehicle. Can't buy a MErcedes thinking you're going to have the same maintenance costs as a Civic.

Bobzilla wrote: This is just more confirmation of why I don't own german cars. period. But with that said, when you buy a luxury vehicle you have to be prepared to maintain a luxury vehicle. Can't buy a MErcedes thinking you're going to have the same maintenance costs as a Civic.

Which I don't expect at all. But I prefer diesel to like the accord/avalon hybrids I was cross shopping at the time.

I would keep if since you can't find any other major/common problems with the vehicle. Stuff happens.

While I acknowledge that people like you are the difference between cars going to E36 M3 and not going to E36 M3, it seems like the main expense here is actually the willingness to pay full retail to do non-critical repairs.

My Porsche 911 may be eating me alive right now by your standards but so far i haven't spent a penny on repairs, because non-critical.

It seems like the most important thing for you is just to find a reliable service provider for your repairs but especially diagnosis since as you are seeing, a swing and a miss with $2000 parts could be pretty brutal to your ownership experience. Enough to make you question keeping a car you obviously love.

I feel like the shop in SD is a good shop and diagnosed off what they saw, the drawback was they clearly were not as familiar with this particular vehicle/drivetrain to know its common issues.

The place in NC seems much more familiar and confident and has a mercedes tech who has worked on more of these particular motors so I feel a lot more comfortable with them.

I can afford this I just don't think anyone really likes having to shell out so much on car repairs. But like you said I think its also about qualifying what is non critical. For example I have driven the car for 3-4 months now with that CEL and have noticed 0 issues on the cars performance drivability, economy etc. So I really don't care about fixing it.

Nice car+ignore noncritical problem+repeat a couple times= junk car.

I would keep it for one more issue. But I drive a lame Accord and it just runs and runs and runs. I just put new rubber pads on the brake and clutch peddles since I have to sell it soon and want to not have the worn out obes on it - there's another $10 shot.

it depends on how much you like or love the car. I threw a metric tonne of cash at my Rover and so far so good, but I also enjoy driving it and how it looks so much more different from everything else on the road. So to me, it was money well spent

mad_machine wrote: it depends on how much you like or love the car. I threw a metric tonne of cash at my Rover and so far so good, but I also enjoy driving it and how it looks so much more different from everything else on the road. So to me, it was money well spent

I love it enough to put 30k on it in a year and enjoy all those trips. My wife has enjoyed it too. About the only thing I don't like about it (well besides these current repairs) is that the auto trans isn't quite sporty enough to make it worth autocrossing, it actually handles quite well and has good power and gas mileage. I also love that while I see a lot of E350's I dont see many bluetecs so it does feel special. And I think at least is a sharp looking car.

Another reason why I don't buy a diesel.

Bobzilla wrote: This is just more confirmation of why I don't own german cars. period. But with that said, when you buy a luxury vehicle you have to be prepared to maintain a luxury vehicle. Can't buy a MErcedes thinking you're going to have the same maintenance costs as a Civic.

Funny. Until this post, I thought a diesel E350 was a big van, which made the 30mpg rather impressive.

Not so much anymore.

Haha :P

alfadriver wrote:

Bobzilla wrote: This is just more confirmation of why I don't own german cars. period. But with that said, when you buy a luxury vehicle you have to be prepared to maintain a luxury vehicle. Can't buy a MErcedes thinking you're going to have the same maintenance costs as a Civic.

Funny. Until this post, I thought a diesel E350 was a big van, which made the 30mpg rather impressive. Not so much anymore.

Exactly. And after, I was like....Mercedes. that explains it.

I can't really think of many non german 30+ mpg large/luxury sedans. Maybe the ES300H/Avalon Hybrid

Jaynen wrote: However they find presence of oil leak, not from the oil pan but from the oil cooler which sits in the V of the motor. The San Diego shop however swears the actual pans were leaking and this wasnt just the oil cooler which still needed to be fixed.

Haha wut? I'm guessing you mean an oil-to-water heat exchanger?

alfadriver wrote: Funny. Until this post, I thought a diesel E350 was a big van, which made the 30mpg rather impressive. Not so much anymore.

I thought the same thing until I went searching for engine bay pics to see if some manufacturer actually buried an oil cooler where the wind don't blow. And then the horror story made sense.

dont ask me why its called that

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/363973-journey-into-infamous-om642-oil-cooler-leak-2.html

Jaynen wrote: I can't really think of many non german 30+ mpg large/luxury sedans. Maybe the ES300H/Avalon Hybrid

When you factor in the extra cost of the diesel and the urea additive, you're talking about the equivalent to a 25mpg large luxury sedan.... which brings you a ton of options.

EDIT: look, you are happy with your purchase and I get that. But cost and fuel efficiency is not the reason you bought it.

Bobzilla wrote:

Jaynen wrote: I can't really think of many non german 30+ mpg large/luxury sedans. Maybe the ES300H/Avalon Hybrid

When you factor in the extra cost of the diesel and the urea additive, you're talking about the equivalent to a 25mpg large luxury sedan.... which brings you a ton of options. EDIT: look, you are happy with your purchase and I get that. But cost and fuel efficiency is not the reason you bought it.

People always say that but I don't get it. I can buy 2 gallons of urea at walmart for 7 dollars and I haven't paid more for diesel than someone would premium fuel in 6 years of owning diesel vehicles. For that matter I paid 15-20 cents less than regular unleaded for most of the time I have owned this vehicle so far. So every 10,000 miles I spend at max 20 bucks on urea, the stuff at Walmart is certified btw. Regular non Arco gas here is 2.85 Diesel is 2.79 (in California). Now out in Raleigh its like 2.13 for regular and 2.29 for diesel. Premium is 2.65.

I don't see how those costs take my 30-37mpg luxury sedan and make it cost equivalent to 25mpg

But at least living out in California yes I did buy it for fuel efficiency. And it was a lot more car than a comparable accord at the time I bought it (but the accord would not need this kind of work obviously and thats the rub)

I just wish the responses were a little less focused on "german car bad lol" and more actually answering my question as to when do you bail on a vehicle due to its costs.

Two of these will pretty much get you 10,000 miles between oil changes. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Supertech-Diesel-Exhaust-Fluid-2.5-Gallons/44457724

Welcome to NC! You moved just in time for the weather to get miserable here.

If you can afford it and like the car then why sweat over the money? (I will sometimes legit stay awake in bed an hour worrying if my car will break and when because i cant afford another one heh). I think the real decision is deciding what repairs are needed and what quircks are OK to deferr for a bit.