Phoenix Network "Eye of the Storm" produced
On the night of February 9, when Mr. Car Director recalled that the vehicle suddenly lost power on the highway during the day, he felt afraid.
The staff of the repair shop said that the right front drive shaft of Mr. Ren's Mercedes-Benz GLK broke, destroying the gearbox.
(Transmission with broken shaft scratch)
Mr. Ren contacted the Mercedes-Benz 400 customer service three times, but did not negotiate a solution to the matter with the dealer who followed up the process.
He posted his experience on social media, received comments, private messages and more cases online, making him think that the problems he encountered in his car were not unique.
In fact, mercedes-benz GLK has a number of cars that have been recalled because of the same problem, but Mr. Ren's car is not in the list, is the scope of the recall incomplete? Or something else?
The Mercedes-Benz GLK suddenly lost power
At about 15:00 on February 9, Mr. Ren drove the Mercedes-Benz GLK to the Capital International Airport to pick up his lover and children, and returned home via jingping expressway.
Driving about 3 or 4 kilometers, the right front side of the vehicle suddenly made a noise, similar to the sound of metal hitting the body, and the speed of the vehicle was about 80km/h at that time. After a few minutes, the car lost power. No matter how you step on the throttle, only the engine makes a rumbling sound, and there is no longer power output. Fortunately, there were not many cars behind him at this time, and when the double flash was turned on, he parked the car on the side of the road with only a little speed inertia.
The car was then towed to a well-known repair shop, and the inspectors could see at a glance that the right front drive shaft of the vehicle was broken. The staff told Mr. Ren that "GLK is a problem with a broken shaft", which made Mr. Ren alert.
(At broken shaft)
As shown in the figure above, due to the breakage of the drive shaft, the gearbox was destroyed, causing damage to many components.
If you want to repair, you need to replace the small drive shaft, the right three-way catalytic converter, the right front and right rear oxygen sensor, the heat shield and bracket, the engine intake pipe, the differential heat shield and screws, and the differential oil needs to be added.
The above items, plus man-hours, consignment fees and other costs, the quotation given by the maintenance plant exceeded 30,000 yuan. Mr. Ren himself paid 25,000 for accessories.
Since it may be a problem with the car itself, Mr. Ren has communicated with the Mercedes-Benz 400 three times, and the 4S shop that followed up the processing said that Mr. Ren's car has long passed the shelf life.
Mr. Ren interpreted the three communications without progress as: "Mercedes-Benz: find a dealer; dealer: you have passed the shelf life." He felt that the problem of the car itself should be found in the car company rather than the dealer, hoping that Mercedes-Benz would solve it, and the process proposed by Mercedes-Benz was to let the dealer check the vehicle first.
At first, he did not trust the dealer and did not want to test, but in the end, in order to find out the truth, he agreed to be checked by the 4S store. As of press time, the vehicle has entered the 4S shop inspection process.
Because on the Internet, some messages that do not know whether it is a water army also bother him.
"Don't look at this car for a few years", the same words appeared under the comments section of a website.
He said, "I know that this car is oversure, and I can accept some consumables and small problems, but the transmission is related to the safety of the vehicle." 8 years and 100,000 kilometers, for many cars are normal driving, not to mention Mercedes-Benz. ”
Can I break the shaft after the shelf life? Why is the shaft broken? Mr. Ren searched the Internet for possible answers with questions.
He found out that the Mercedes-Benz GLK had been recalled a few years ago. The reason for the recall is that there is a risk of fracture in the flange of the front drive shaft universal joint.
The same ISK, the same broken shaft. Mr. Ren wants to know why his car has not been recalled?
The result of the inquiry was that his car was not within the scope of the recall.
According to public data, in 2020, Beijing Benz and Mercedes-Benz recalled 58,884 domestic GLK-class four-wheel drive vehicles and 16,531 imported GLK-class and S-class four-wheel drive vehicles. Among them, the scope of the vehicle recall of Beijing Benz Automobile Co., Ltd. is: vehicles produced from October 18, 2011 to October 31, 2013.
The vehicle departure date of Mr. Ren's car is January 10, 2014.
"Although the vehicle's factory date is 2014, the style is 2013, and the obvious identifying point of the model is the black wheels," Mr. Ren told Phoenix.com.
According to Mr. Ren's assistant, he is very busy at work and does not defend his rights to repair his car.
"I didn't ask Mercedes-Benz to make any appeals, I don't have to repair the car for me, I have already paid for it myself." He said that he only hoped that Mercedes-Benz would find out this matter, solve the safety hazards, and not have any more accidents. If you encounter complex traffic, it is not as simple as repairing the car with a broken shaft.
It's not an isolated case
In the Beijing Mercedes-Benz GLK owners group exchange, some people also responded that he had encountered a similar situation. However, most of them are listed in the 2020 Beijing Mercedes-Benz GLK recall, and a small number of those who are not listed have also solved the problem through "noisy way".
For example, there is a car owner who is lucky, after the vehicle found a strange noise, did not drive again, took it to check, found the same broken shaft problem.
Mr. Ren began to consciously search the Internet for past Mercedes-Benz broken shaft cases. He found a five-month Mercedes benz, passing through two "speed bump" nests at low speeds. A similar situation occurs with new cars that are shorter on the road.
The owner of the Beijing Mercedes-Benz GLK was informed in consultation with the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of the People's Republic of China that this GLK series model is a defective model, and the defect is the drive shaft due to the supplier's processing quality problems and the explosion of airbags. By the end of 2020, Mercedes-Benz had recalled more than 75,000 vehicles since the 2008 model.
"The drive shaft is not an ordinary consumable, as an important power device related to the stability of the vehicle, it is unreasonable to break the shaft after the warranty period", Mr. Ren said, his car has traveled about 100,000 kilometers in nearly 8 years, and the insurance record can prove that there has never been a major impact accident, the chassis has not suffered any damage, and there is no possibility of internal injury caused by external forces.
Since the factory date of his car is very close to the production date range of the 2020 Mercedes-Benz official recall vehicle, he speculated: Did the scope of the Mercedes-Benz GLK recall not cover all the problem models that year?
Not being recalled does not rule out quality issues
Mr. Ren found some technical explanations about the broken shaft of the vehicle.
For example, because the ternary catalysis is close to the shaft head of the universal ten bytes, when the high-temperature ternary catalysis drys the ten bytes of lubricating oil, it will eventually cause the cross knot to wear out, which will cause it to break. The ten bytes of the car are usually closed, and the normal maintenance project is not involved.
Wan Chunlei, an automotive technology expert, told PhoenixNet that the reliability of the quality of the cross universal joint is affected by comprehensive factors, such as structural design, manufacturing materials and processes, etc. will affect its durability. Under normal circumstances, such components should be maintenance-free for life, but this does not mean that they will not have problems, such as axial limit circlip shedding, needle roller bearing failure, etc.
"Mercedes-Benz has carried out a recall on this issue, indicating that Mercedes-Benz has found quality problems with the cross joint. The scope of the official recall does not guarantee that all the vehicles in question have been covered. The cross joint of Mr. Ren's vehicle was broken, indicating that there was a quality problem in the vehicle. But the embarrassing thing is that his car has been used for nearly 8 years, and the auto parts will inevitably wear out, resulting in abnormal conditions in the vehicle, so it needs to be looked at in two ways. ”
Wan Chunlei said that the official meaning is that Mr. Ren's car has a problem outside the warranty period, so the owner needs to repair it himself. This statement is fine at the legal level, beyond the three-guarantee period, which means that the corresponding quality, quality claim agreement rights and interests have expired.
"But if Mr. Ren has conclusive evidence that the break in the cross joint of his vehicle was caused by a quality defect, he can ask Mercedes-Benz officials to handle the repair free of charge."
"However, for car owners, it is difficult to produce evidence. Because if Mercedes-Benz denies it, the owner needs to come up with more sufficient evidence, or collect enough similar cases at the same time to correlate the proof," Wan Chunlei said, if ten, dozens, or even more cases of the same quality defect problem can be found, the meaning is completely different. Because this is enough to prove that the broken shaft is not an occasional case, but a high probability of poor batch, Mercedes-Benz has the obligation to find the relevant design structure, manufacturing process and other causes of component abnormalities, give official explanations and bear corresponding responsibilities. At the same time, car owners can actively feedback records to the national quality supervision department on related product problems, and clearly require Mercedes-Benz to recall the problematic products and take effective measures to eliminate the quality and safety hazards of their products through reasonable and legal quality supervision channels.
epilogue:
After communication, on the afternoon of February 11, the 4S shop has transported Mr. Ren's car from the repair factory for identification.
At first, he was worried about handing over the car to the 4S shop, but in order to find out the cause of the broken shaft, there seemed to be no better way than to actively cooperate.
Mr. Ren told phoenix network "Eye of the Storm" that he hopes that Mercedes-Benz will find out all hidden danger vehicles, inform the relevant owners of the reasons for the possible disconnection, and make timely recalls and other safety treatment.
"The joints of the cross are broken, roughly understandable as the joints connected by the main axis and the branch shaft, like the elbow of a person. The elbow will suddenly break, this is too dangerous, do not want others to encounter this situation again. ”
(Note: The picture sources are provided by the owner)