USMC Mustang
Member
My 2014 NCV3 diesel Sprinter is now in the shop for the fourth trip-cancelling repair in five years (19,800 miles) and now out of warranty. Seems like every time we head out on extended vacation, our Sprinter-based Roadtrek goes belly-up, forcing a return home to the local MB dealership. VIN is WDAPF4CD0E5841168. I live in Virginia; ZIP 20132.
I don't object so much to the fact that nearly any repair requires the dealership so much as that there are so few of them ('authorized' Sprinter repair) and it takes a week to ten days for each shop visit. Our most common issues relate to DEF, DPF, and NoX sensors (surprise!)
After a lot of research and review in this and similar forums, I see confirmation of dealership reliance necessitated by teach-back/teach-in, reprograming, code-clearing, ECM/ECU/TCM tunes and updates, marriage to the VIN, and similar MB-only constraints (forgive incorrect use of some of the terms). And it isn't as if you don't like the local shop you can simply bring your rig somewhere else. There isn't any somewhere else (local), which is especially problematic if on the road -- the reason we have this RV to begin with. Contrast those constraints with sporadic (anecdotal) news and reviews about bypass modules, remote coding/flashing, removal/bypass, etc., and I'm not sure what the ground truth really is.
So here's the question: Is there a way to cut the tether from the MB dealership for repairs? Can I bring this rig to a local repair facility without requiring a followup to MB for tuning/programming? Can I DIY repairs without a followup to MB? Is there or is there not a solution for removing the concrete reliance on a MB dealership? If not; why not? It just seems unlikely to me that thousands (tens of thousands?) of commercial fleet vehicles are tethered to their local MB dealership. There must be an alternative.
Thanks in advance for your advice and assistance!
I don't object so much to the fact that nearly any repair requires the dealership so much as that there are so few of them ('authorized' Sprinter repair) and it takes a week to ten days for each shop visit. Our most common issues relate to DEF, DPF, and NoX sensors (surprise!)
After a lot of research and review in this and similar forums, I see confirmation of dealership reliance necessitated by teach-back/teach-in, reprograming, code-clearing, ECM/ECU/TCM tunes and updates, marriage to the VIN, and similar MB-only constraints (forgive incorrect use of some of the terms). And it isn't as if you don't like the local shop you can simply bring your rig somewhere else. There isn't any somewhere else (local), which is especially problematic if on the road -- the reason we have this RV to begin with. Contrast those constraints with sporadic (anecdotal) news and reviews about bypass modules, remote coding/flashing, removal/bypass, etc., and I'm not sure what the ground truth really is.
So here's the question: Is there a way to cut the tether from the MB dealership for repairs? Can I bring this rig to a local repair facility without requiring a followup to MB for tuning/programming? Can I DIY repairs without a followup to MB? Is there or is there not a solution for removing the concrete reliance on a MB dealership? If not; why not? It just seems unlikely to me that thousands (tens of thousands?) of commercial fleet vehicles are tethered to their local MB dealership. There must be an alternative.
Thanks in advance for your advice and assistance!
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