So what is the last thing you want to see 2 days after the dealer charged you $240 to change the oil on your 2006 C230 Sport with a whopping 5500 miles it?

A puddle of oil on the garage floor.

So Sunday came around and I had some time to see how bad this situation was. I removed the "bellypan" from under the engine. There was a nice pool of oil on the bellypan but where was it coming from. The filter cannister was tight up top, I felt around the oil pan and drain plug and came up dry.

So it seems like oil spilled down to the belly pan and sat there and slowly dripped via gravity to the garage floor. To test this theory I grabbed the simple green and cleaned the belly pan to like new condition, screwed it back on and kept an eye on it.

No more dripping.

So the dealer, for $240, made a mess and failed to clean it up thereby staining my driveway a bit, my garage a tad and making me get dirty and greasy to fix their screw up.

I sent an email to the Service Department explaining my findings and asking if perhaps they would like to offer me "something" to regain my confidence and future business. They called right back to see if the car had to come in right away. When I confirmed that I had apparently fixed it - they said they would send my email to the Service Manager......still waiting and have heard nothing.

So I guess I will bash them in a public forum. Mercedes Benz of Calabasas in Calabasas, CA.

Bummer.

 

They wanted to charge my Aunt with her CLK430 over $300 for an oil change. It's outrageous for a simple job that some fail to accomplish. Sorry to hear about that mess. Personally I wouldn't even bother going back. It's like my mechanic, he wanted $400 for a new radiator and $400 for labor. Never went back after that price quote. I installed the new $110 radiator in almost an hour, saving about $690. Ridiculous...

 

Guess what??? Ready for this??? The dealer never took off the belly pan. Nor did he ever touch your drain plug. That's right. Never even lifted the car in the air to do the oil change. The tech unscrewed the cap for the oil filter back next to the firewall, pulled out the old filter, some oil leaked down the canister to the belly pan and stayed there for a while, then he put a new filter back in, tightened the cap, and sucked out the dirty oil from the top of the engine where the "dipstick" (IF YOU HAD ONE< WHICH YOU DONT) would have been and yes, that's how they do it. Later on, the oil made it's way to your floor. That's why the oil plug area was dry as a bone. And that's why it isn't "leaking" anymore. Simple, huh. Ha! [:@]

 

Replacing an oil filter change makes sense, it's hard to contain oil dripping everywhere. Still, he should have been cleaner.

 

Yes I knew that was the theory and that is why I was all the more baffled by a puddle!

-Eric

 

Also, if you don't drain at least some oil out of the engine first, however you do it, there will be a nearly full oil filter canister to deal with when pulling the old oil filter out, thereby increasing the chances for spillage. It's my guess that's what happened. You'd think a MB tech would know better though.