The ML 420 CDI Saga

Once upon a time (May 25th 2010) there was a lonesome ML 420 CDI driver jetting along the German Highway A5 at a comfortable speed of just above 230 km/h. Clear open skies, a clear open highway. Nothing in the way for having a really good ride from South Germany to the famous city of Bremen, which, as people say, is a nice city in the Northern part of Germany.

As it happens, too good a situation really may be, at times, too good to last longer than a few minutes. With a sudden "Klong !!!" the jolly ride became an Adrenaline-errupting momentary "Huh???" snatch. Roaring sound from the engine, loss of power, loss of speed, being in the third leftmost lane, trucks on the two right lanes with no space to go in between, now at 40 km/h on the left lane of the highway - and then, relief. The Bruchsal rest stop appeared and with the last remaining power and speed I managed to pull right and reach a safe place.

Wow, ok, I mean, it went well, sure - but: What now? Ok, so there's the global Mercedes-Benz rescue service hotline. Remembering the number well from my last, hm, I think about 8 incidents of similar nature, I quickly hammered the number into my still working mobile phone. A friendly male voice answered and it was decided that I get contacted by a workshop located in Karlsruhe. Karlsruhe, a nice city, for sure, but hey, I just was 40 km beyond Karlsruhe already. I knew it would be a looooong night before reaching my destination. A quick check of the car's watch said: 19:50h.

It may seem unfair to the humble reader of this story but I will make clear that I would not reach my intended destination, the city of Bremen. As to the climate of this story: I will reach a destination that also starts with the letter B - which one exactly will be held as tension point to the last phrase of the story. Oh come on, you shouldn't have scrolled down to sneak ... ;-)

The tow-car arrived at around 20:45 and I finally ended up in Karlsruhe in a nice, big Mercedes-Benz repair shop. The service technician, friendly, really, and his girl-friend, friendly, really (I mean, you know what I mean), made it a pleasant experience and we had a nice chat about pizza, TV crimis, and life as a whole. Upon switching the engine on the guy immediately said: "Charge air intake from the turbocharger". And, what shall I say, he was right on spot. He fixed the air intake hose onto the air intake and all was well again. It may be noteworthy to mention that I once again had the pleasure to see my own software (the "Kurztest" / short test) run on the engine with the diagnostics tool - just to tell everyone that the car is fine again. Cool, 21:45 now, so let's get back on the highway !

After signing off a hundred pages (at least it was a felt hundred pages) of paperwork I finally left for Bremen. Being again on the Highway A5 I noticed a little Porsche Boxster which, I knew, would not make more top speed than my ML 420 CDI, and decided that I could use the Porsche as a lead through the traffic.

With pressing the gas pedal down to the point where the Kick Start would take over, I felt the automatic gear switch down two levels, the V8 building up unleashed power, the car immediately gaining speed and life being good - for ten seconds. "Klong !!!" - 160, 140, 100, 80, 40 km/h - right lane this time, so no sweat, just steering onto the parking lane, driving another kilometer with emergency blinking lights on to the next parking place.

Knowing the procedure already I dialed 00800 1 7777777 (see, I know the number) and got connected to the same guy as before: "But I had you already two hours ago ?" - Me: "Three !"
So, same tow-car, same MB repair shop, this time without girl-friend (hm, I already was expecting another nice chat - domage, ça !) we all saw: Same cause, no spare part (We should speak about spare parts supply optimization with those guys) available. So, instead of a spare part I got a spare car and, drove off. Leaving the repair shop at 23:45h and 550 km to go to Bremen I decided to change my destination. At straight 1:00h the next day I reached Bempflingen.

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