Engine Belts And Pulleys Problems of Mercedes Benz ML320

Harmonic balance pulley was failed and was recalled 1998 mercedes Ml320 -VIN#4jgab54e6wa030152. Mercedes refused to pay total labor for process. Vehicle has no equipment other than mercedes made and installed equipment. Vehicle has mercedes fog light bar on front (standard mercedes made and installed items). If the part had not been defective, this charge would not have occurred. Regardless of the fact that is was installed by mercedes before I got the car--I do not feel that I should be burgeoned with mercedes costs due to poor quality of defective parts.

See all problems of the 1998 Mercedes Benz ML320 🔎.

Failure of harmonic balancer, an event that has occurred on many mercedes with this design for the harmonic balancer. New cover, oil pan. And balancer needed.

See all problems of the 1999 Mercedes Benz ML320 🔎.

1999 mercedes Ml320 harmonic balancer. I was aware of the investigation being performed and had mercedes check the balancer in January. They said it's fine. On 9/6/04, it failed causing $1500 in damage. I was not injured because I knew not to drive the vehicle after failure. Mercedes needs to recall the harmonic balancer. It is failing on most vehicles and causing extensive damage.

While driving a loud noise came from the front of the engine. I took the car to the dealer and the crankshft pulley has failed making a hole in the oil pan. The pulley and the oil pan were replaced and found out that this kind of premature failures has happened with this model. The dealer will not pick up the full cost for repairs since the car had 85000 miles. I think mb realizes that they have an issue with this type of failures but will not do a recall.

Faulty harmonic balancer in fly wheel 1999 ml 320, 66,000 miles NHTSA action no. Pe03058.

(1)vehicle was making a left hand turn and became almost impossible to turn steering wheel. (2) crankshaft dampener became separated at point of rubber vulcanized and caused serpentine belt to come loose leaving power steering to stop working along with all other pulleys run by the same belt. (3) dampener and belt were replaced. (old parts are available) this is an extremely dangerous situation that my local dealership says is happening very frequently. New types of replacement dampeners have been changed six (6) times in the last five (5) years in the parts book. Several local mechanics say it's a very common problem and they wonder why a recall has not been ordered. It would be very easy to find out how many crankshaft dampeners have been ordered and replaced by both dealers and parts sales. Again, let me say this is a very dangerous situation that is very common. My primary worry is that a small person would not be able to turn the steering wheel if the power steering goes out as in these broken dampener cases. I'm a 225 lb man and I could barely bring the car to a safe stop at only 25 miles per hour. What would have happened on a mountain road? please investigate this problem for everyone's safety. Thank you!!.

Laundry list of failures. Jack has almost killed me while changing tire. Vehicle fell, almost hitting me but catching side of vehicle before landing on me! hood latch has failed on a few occasions, causing hood to open while vehicle was in motion. Air mass meter failed. Has required 5 (five!) alignments in two years. When brought to dealer's attention, was told nothing was wrong. A month later requires another alignment. Alignment problems causes wear on tires, which has caused hydroplaning and loss of control of vehicle. Vehicle swerves uncontrollably when hits anything other than flat road. Transfer case motor fixed by dealer without consulting. After repair, transfer case motor failed. Dealer states owner responsible for costs. Has had repair of harmonic balancer on front of engine due to excessive heat buildup leading to oil leak and failure of belt tensioner. Window switches have failed twice and fixed at expense of owner. Six different keys have failed @ the cost of $220/key. Rear window defroster causes loss of stereo reception. Rear window wiper motor has failed. Front end makes noise.

The vehicle vibrated uncontrollably while driving. The driver had difficulty to maintain control of the vehicle. However, the driver was able to pull over and the vehicle was towed to the dealer for inspection. The mechanic informed the driver that the pulley assembly needed to be replaced. Please provide further details.

Steering failure due to defective harmonic balancer. Refer to NHTSA action number: pe03058.

Regarding NHTSA action number pe03058. The crankshaft pulley harmonic balancer was found to be defective on my mercedes ml, 320 today. The vehicle had 57,435 miles. The dealer told me it was starting to fail and recommended it be replaced or it could lead to a loss of power steering and major engine damage.

Harmonic balancer failure.

I have been an owner of a 1999 Mercedes Benz Ml320, bought used about 6 months ago. Recently, something went wrong on this vehicle and it started wobbling and making external engine noise. Soon, I discovered that there was a non-metallic part, a ring, the size of a palm was found in my engine bay. I took it to my local mb dealer, Mercedes Benz of cincinnati ohio and received a quote of $3700. 00. The dealer's service manager told me its not a problem commonly seen but it sounded like awfully too popular as they knew exactly what it was when I described on the phone. The mercedes e320 engine (supposedly 1998 through mid 2000) called m112 as well as the same engine or substantially similar engine on c280, Ml320, e430 etc. , has a harmonic balancer, a rubber ring sandwiched between 2 metal pulley to isolate the engine vibration from the rest of the pulleys being driven by the engine. This is what the serpentine belt rotates on. Over time, the poorly designed harmonic balancer pulley fails, the rubber ring cracks, breaks or falls off, depending on the temperature of the vehicle driving conditions and stress/load. It is typically seen on Ml320 in the range of 40,000 miles, but is not as commonly reported as typically it is still under warranty. On e320, it tends to be around 60 ,000 miles though, often it could be as low as 25000 miles. The issue is, when this part fails, the engine timing belt cover , oil pan etc get seriously gouged by the rotating pulley. In my case the dealership, Mercedes Benz of cincinnati is charging $3700. 00 for the repairs. Often dealer profess innocence or lack of similar failure (common across board, every user in my group mentions that the dealer said 'never heard of it'. ) . The issue become more dangerous and expensive as well, when less mechanically inclined people just keep driving until something smells or makes terrible noise etc. , often resulting in a middle of the road complete breakdown and seize of the engine.

Crankshaft pulley failure.

1999 m-b Ml320 - harmonic balancer failed, rendering power steering and all other serpentine belt driven accessories inoperative while in motion. Damaged engine front cover, timing cover, oil pan and associated parts.

Crank shaft pulley wheel flew off.

98 mercedes Ml320 with 75,000 miles harmonic balancer went up and destroyed half of the engine which cost over $5,000 in repairs. Mbusa said they had no previous complaints and that I was responsible for all repairs since it was out of warranty. I have since found out that this is a known problem for these vehicles/engines that mb is trying to cover up.

The consumer pulled into the driveway where both lights had come on at the same time and had become unable to steer the vehicle. The battery light came on, because the belt came off the alternator, power steering, and the ac, which made the vehicle difficult to steer.

Belt tensioner failed at 73886 mile,$308. 00. Harmonic balancer failed @80,772 miles. Lost power steering and all accessories. Replaced belt ,oil pan ,tensioner(again),harmonic balancer,oil ,oil seal. Mercedes paid for parts. I paid for labor $675. 00. Did tensioner fail first time because of balancer. Was balancer a known defect?.

1999 mercedes-benz Ml320 SUV. On Thursday, December 19, my wife was driving the vehicle when suddenly the "harmonic balancer" failed (became detached), causing a complete loss of power to the vehicle, resulting in a disabled vehicle and leaving my wife and family stranded. The "harmonic balancer" is the main pulley wheel which is attached to the crankshaft. This pulley wheel in turn drives all other belt-driven items, such as power steering pump, ac, alternator, water pump, etc. First, this item should be so resilient that failure is nearly impossible, and second, both the tow truck driver and the dealer who is repairing it stated that this type of failure is "not at all surprising or uncommon" on the mb Ml320 SUV. While no injuries or deaths occurred in this case, it seems that if this critical component were to fail at highway speeds, the resulting loss of power could cause a loss of control of the car. I will also add that we have very carefully followed all of the routine maintenance recommended by the manufacturer. If this critical component is subject to failure, a check should be part of the scheduled maintenance. But to be direct, the design of the "harmonic balancer" is faulty, and clearly should be recalled. The repairs are expensive (upwards of $1500) and the results are potentially deadly. Let's not wait for an injury or death to result before some action is taken on this! ts.

The serpentine belt had broken while driving at 45mph and caused the engine to overheat. Manufacturer was notified. The consumer stated that after the investigation per garrett engineering, the vehicle was determined to have a crank shaft pulley failure which caused the other systems to fail. The belts, altenator, and the cooling systems failed as a result of the pulley failure. This part was supposed to be covered under the 80k warranty, but has not been honored.

The crank shaft damper (harmonic balancer) came apart causing damage to the middle oil pan and the front timing cover.

Consumer complained about having problems with the pulleys making a hole in the oil pan. Manufacturer was not notified at the time of this call. The vehicle had an oil leak. The technician stated the leak was caused by a pulley which was hitting against the oil pan. The technician stated that if the oil pan was replaced the pulley will still hit the oil pan and cause a leak. The check engine light illuminated. The dealer replaced the mass air flow sensor.

The failure of the center pulley resulted in the engine belt coming loose. It resulted in all power mechanisms (power steering, power brakes failing). The steering was very hard to turn. The belt got ripped by the fan while it was working. The fan also stopped working and elevated the engine temperature. No visible indication of this on the dash panel. When I opened the hood, the metal pulley was sitting loose against the engine block. If the pulley had fallen down or hit the fuel line, it could have caused a serious accident. Mercedes dealership told me they have seen this problem before and it happens in hot weather. Mercedes has fixed this problem in later models but not letting owners of previous models know about this potentially serious problem. Ph **dimsii ivoq entry posted after 12/12/02 cut over to artemis**768016.