Valve guide disintegration at 25k and 22 months old. 3 weeks give or take to get the problem sorted out- new head under warranty

 

To view the polling results you just need to click on "view results" in the question box.

 

30k km and 20 months old. Waiting....

 

Hi Bogdan may I ask. Are you saying you have "the" engine problem. At 18.5K miles what's MB done to fix it. Also where are you.

Good luck.

 

I've modified the poll as it clearly was not properly functioning as people were unable to write against options such as mileage. It's now just yes or no. And any comments can be added in the usual way by way of a post.

 

A35, 34months old, 25,00 miles. Mis-fired on tuesday with engine warning light. Rac diagnosis, coil pack fault. Now waiting for new head and all other bits. Mercedes warranty fortunately. Need confirmation that the new bits are upgraded from original otherwise it will be sold as soon as it comes home, whenever that might be.

 

Good luck and keep us posted on how it goes.

 

I just had a CEL and the dealership says misfire but nothing else. The fault went away after it happened by restarting and nothing happened again. I do feel like my car does idle a little bit rougher though, especially with auto idle disabled and when the car isn't moving. It will get better as the car warms up after a 30 min drive but I'm not going to lie and say this cylinder head issue isn't on the back of my mind. I just need to know the warranty will cover it with new and improved bits, not just stuff that will happen again. Some part of me hopes this happens to everyone so they can actually start a recall and have every car fixed properly - is that bad? lol

 

Rough running, taking slightly longer to start a couple of times, then very lumpy and limp mode.
In the dealers now having a new head.
March 20 with 20k on clock and a has had a very easy life.

 

Mine has 12k kms, proper break-in procedure done and always up to temp for both engine/trans before sport+ or giving it the beans. Has had no issues or signs of issues other than one instance of a misfire CEL. Super rough idle one cold morning, felt like it was about to stall, turned it off and back on and was normal again. AMG tech checked it and said nothing else in logs other than one misfire, that happened around 7k. Been fine since.

 

My 2020 a35 had new head at 20K,
took 3 months but had a great loaner,
have 37K total now so seems ok,
yes I drive a lot.

 

Thanks for the information. I hope that was the last new head you will ever need.

 

I've just stumbled on this thread and it really doesn't fill me with confidence to keep a car like this beyond the manufacturer warranty period. To be honest, I don't have confidence to keep any new car beyond this period as I don't feel the modern era build quality is any where close to that of the past.

We pay a lot of money to drive a car with the pointed star badge on the front and it shouldn't be out done in terms of reliability by much cheaper Japanese and Korean cars.

 

While I fully understand your concern, 76% of cars have had no issues. But also look at this thread and the FB post at #127 AMG A35 - New Cylinder Head Please

 

I wonder if the type of engine oil could in some way contribute to this occurring on our cars. My car is a mid 2019 build with 9,000 miles on the clock and for both its services, I have supplied all parts, which included Castrol Edge 5W30 M oil. This oil is specified for Mercedes engines and matches my cars requirement.

 

In my two years of ownership, the car has been into the dealer twice. Once to have a faulty airbag loom replaced and a week ago to have a rear differential replaced. Other than these two failures, which incidentally did not cause a breakdown or my car to be unusable, this is by far the best performance hatchback I have ever owned.

The luxury, tech and performance characteristics are quite something and we really enjoy driving this car.

 

My 2020 11k miles A35 is in dealer this week for engine rebuild (perhaps new cyl head). Engine light came on amber and engine dropped to 3 cylinder misfire a couple of weeks ago (soft driving) but cleared when key of key on, ever since then low engine idle seems lumpy as ****, Rac guy could see the misfire on diagnosis tool but also comments on very high fuel injection m/g per stroke. This is my 2nd A35, the first one early 19 plate was taken back by MB after so many build quality issue's and weeks in the dealership.

 

Welcome to the forum and sorry to hear your problem.

You will see from the main thread on the A35 cylinder head the important thing is to get the work done thoroughly with a new head. From what I have seen the early examples of this problem had to keep persevering to get a proper fix, whereas now, touch wood, MB know the fault and ship out the parts needed for the fix to be done in one go.

 

36952 miles over three and a half years. No known mechanicals before parting company.

One brain reset on the driveway at home, when the transmission ended up in park with no indication.

The rest was an eventual catalogue of interior build quality issues and a failure to honour the warranty, which shouted, 'get out whilst the going remains good; the car, the franchise and the brand are not headed where I want to go'.

I've offloaded the A35 whilst the value remained inflated and the problems relatively minor.

I remember my Renaultsport Clio 182 was in better condition after five much tougher years. My current utility car, a 14-year-old Hyundai Getz, has also had no mechanical failures ... and far less rattles.

 

I dont think this affects a35 only. It's also tihe a250. I got a letter from mercedes and they extended my cylinder head warranty to 15 years and 240,000km. 2019 a250 4matic.

 

i know people with this problem in A 220 and A250 its all same engine... M260.

I have 58.000 kms and no problems with STAGE 1 and always use 98 OCTANE.

 

Can you share the letter you got from your dealer as we may need this support in Europe. Did your car actually have this failure, or did the dealer just reach out to you? Thanks.

 

From what I've read, it's just the valves breaking up. Is it anything to do with using E10 fuel? Just a thought.

 

You mean where people use standard grade fuel rather than high octane. I would be surprised if many reporting the fault were doing this. Except where it is not available. Most people with performance cars seem to stick with the correct grade, when we discussed this on the A45 W176 part of the forum.

 

In the poll the gap between those who have had the problem and those who haven't is narrowing but many factors could be a reason for this and not just that if you have the car long enough the fault will arise. But in addition to this we probably attract people with the problem to the poll more than without it.

 

I have the car since 11/2019. the STG1 did it at 27k kms in 12/21 now 58.xxxK kms.

 

It would be useful to get a handle on what's going on with the A35 engine and how many are effected and how long MB are taking to get the cars fixed I have a 2021 A35 AMG and it started running bad at idle or during acceleration. Just took it to the deal and they said they need to change the head and it will take 2 weeks. We shall see.

 

Hello I would be nice to know if the new 2023 version suffers with this problem or have they upgraded the head on the new one's, I am thinking of purchasing an A35 but this is putting me off big time cannot be doing with the hassle.

 

I Haven't heard of any late 2022 - 2023 PRe-FL cars having the cylinder issue, also I have come from A35 2020 to FL A35, and I can tell you the engine idles insanely smooth I couldn't believe the difference between the two, I always remember the first thing I noticed in my old A35 even when new was it never idled smooth.... If this is related to the parts change I've no idea.

 

The part number for the replacement parts had already changed so I would say MB have taken steps to stop it happening. Car build and registration dates may be some period apart but we seem to have stopped seeing posts of this problem cropping up on newer models.

 

Thank you for your reply

 

Purchased mine brand new on Dec 8th. 3 weeks and displays went blank and engine went into limp mode. It’s now been with the dealer service team for the past 3 weeks with little / poor communication from them. Beyond unimpressed, so no, they haven’t fixed the issue.

 

Dec 8 down under, brand new, so is it a facelift model?

Engine Limp mode doesn’t automatically mean cylinder head though….