I have finaly gone mad pt2

stratos

For those of you that missed the first part it was about my move from bmw to mercedes.
Well, and so it begins.

Driving the merc today and it suddenly transformed it self into a tractor, bellowing it's way down country lanes.
I knew it was the exhaust, when i got home I checked it out, the noise was in the engine bay near the downpipe/exhaust manifold joint.
I could feel the leak with my hand but could not see it, okay I thought this is not too bad the joint is leaking.

Further inspection, removing covers etc revealed the exhaust manifold has broken just above the downpipe connection. :eek:
I have never seen a failure like this before, and so suddenly without warning.
I give up.

RicardoSmith

Check the engine mounts, especially the one at the front. Sometimes if its gone it can damage the exhaust.

junkyard

Told you so, Mercs really are crap cars, are you going to buy another BMW now, before the rest of it falls apart?

stratos

No No this is just the opening shot, as failures go, this is bmw 5 merc 1, time will tell.

junkyard

How long did you have the BMW? How long have you got the Merc? Check out the ratio of time to faults and you'll soon see!!! Don't get me wrong I used to love Mercs and promoted them but they left me down so often I just couldn't stand by them any longer, especially when the main dealers are such a bunch of w*****s!

stratos

I have driven bmw for years, the 5 series was my car, from clonkers to lookers, they all gave me grief. the newer they got , the more grief they gave. I'm still optimistic about this merc move. Teething problems, who's got the ear muffs ??

unkel

stratos wrote:

I have driven bmw for years, the 5 series was my car, from clonkers to lookers, they all gave me grief

That's very unusual. Which models, E34 or E39? Did you buy the cars new? If not, did you not have the cars checked out properly before buying? Did you fall for (UK import) Nikasil victims?

stratos

I have driven both the recent shapes of 5 series, I can't really fault them too badly as none of the failures were major except one nikasil engine, which was an Irish car.
Where I live the roads are awful and would kill most cars in no time.
BMW fixed the nikasil engine free even though the car was out of warranty.
Most of the problems were electronics ( bumpy roads/muck/silage coated roads/ hard driving)
However I have had other way cheaper cars withstand it.
Then again they could not be driven as fast as the eternally grippy( or ungrippy when you want it ) bmw in the same conditions.
Okay I'll be honest I just hate them for ruining the new 5 series, it looks horrible.

unkel

stratos wrote:

Okay I'll be honest I just hate them for ruining the new 5 series, it looks horrible.

Your honesty is appreciated

I'm not too sure where I'll go next. Maybe I won't go anywhere. The car has just marked it's 9th birthday @125 thousand miles and I can not fault it or what is way worse, I can't think of a suitable replacement

Nelo86

Is this a Turbo Diesel Merc? As Ricardo said, have the engine mounts checked, if one of these had play or had failed they can cause exhausts/manifolds/downpipes to crack given enough pressure.

Also the crappy roads you're driving on won't help.