My Smart Died while driving!

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Permalink Reply by David Cooper on January 8, 2010 at 5:59pm

6 months 3k dollars it was fixed
harnass starter etc

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Permalink Reply by Herb Bell on January 19, 2010 at 4:08pm

This may not be as dumb as it sounds! I've also had a weird starting drill, often having to turn the ignition off and on again to make the starter engage. Recently, I installed an OBDII tester that's also a dual trip meter, tach, speedometer, instant MPG and overall MPG meter. The instant MPG function indicated heavy fuel usage (16 gal/hr. at IDLE) right after startup (car not moving yet). Soon after I started rolling, the fuel usage dropped way down to 0,2 Gal./ hr. at the first stop sign. When warm, the fuel usage went to 0.1 gal/hr. at idle.

I'm definitely going to try the Heavy Brake Application prior to ignition and watch the meter to see what happens to fuel usage. Maybe this involves the "hill-holder" feature.

Thank you for the suggestion.

Herb

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Permalink Reply by Seumas Warren on January 20, 2010 at 12:30pm

Well so far now with 20,000 miles on my smart and oil changes every 5,000 miles everything has been working fine. Except, my last oil change I did last week on Thursday I saw grease leaking from what looks like a cv joint. Not sure what they call it on the smart, but I will take a photo when I get home today and post it. Also when driving really slow and or slowing down say to go over a speed bump, when the clutch kicks in to take the car out of gear there is a slight noise like when you don't throw the clutch all the way out in a regular car and the gears just barely touch. Hard to describe the noise but it is like unsmooth shifting. Me thinks I better do two things before I hit 24,000 miles. One, take my smart back to the dealer for repairs and to find out what the heck is going on with my transmission, and two, buy the extended warranty :\

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Permalink Reply by Herb Bell on January 20, 2010 at 9:33pm

Oi!

Seumas, I tried the heavy brake application yesterday and soon got the yellow triangle " ! " light without any benefit. The transmission even got stuck in "P" and I couldn't shift to "D" until after shutting off the ignition and re-starting. I won't try the heavy braking thing again! The yellow warning light ( ! ) went out upon re-starting. The extended warranty is beginning to look better all the time. I may even take my own advice and kill a lot of the "safety" electronics to see what happens.

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Permalink Reply by Seumas Warren on January 22, 2010 at 6:52pm

Here is the part that is leaking grease on my smart, it looks like a grease seal has gone bad.

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Permalink Reply by Herb Bell on January 23, 2010 at 11:32pm

Oh Boy! And under 20K miles to boot! Did you consider adding a seal-swelling fluid to your Smart's differential before going for the repair?

I can't say this is NOT typical with Mercedes products, because it is. With my wife's 2002 Mercedes C230K, we went through a series of part failures early during ownership (infant mortality?). The first thing that went was the battery (sound familiar?), then the power steering totally fragged itself, requiring complete system replacement. Soon the lamps began to go, one by one. The rather delicate folding coffee-cupholder went three times, but has finally settled down. Along the way, an engine oil-seal gave up the ghost. The Air Conditioning system soon began to leak as well, and was "repaired" twice. These things all occurred within the 4-year warranty period, but that wasn't the end of it. Right after the warranty had expired, we took the car in for service, expecting to pay only for the service. Instead, there was a list of needed repairs handed to us, including their expressed need to replace the front brake discs (at just over 40,000 miles! The brake job alone would have cost close to $1,000 (just one axle!) and the A/C had failed to cool again, another expensive fix. In the meantime, the electric roof had stopped working. We had them repair the roof problem (a fuse) - it was "just" $100.

Luckily, I know how to do brake jobs and how to refill A/C systems, both of which I suspect were just "money-grubbing" by the dealer, so we declined those fixes.

I refilled the A/C system myself with fluid that contained a leak-stopper. No more A/C problems since. The front brakes are still working perfectly almost a year later, and I bought and keep a complete set of disks and brake pads on hand toward the day these things fail (dash will light up to show excessive brake pad wear). We are both wondering whether the car's problems have all been ferreted out and fixed, and is we can now expect reliable operation for a few more years before there's the uptick of failures indicating the Car's useful life has come to an end.

In my case, I've pretty much lost confidence in the honesty of Mercedes when it comes to telling the truth about whether or not repairs are really needed. I wouldn't half mind paying their ludicrous repair rates if they were dealing honestly with me. Finally, I think the lousy reliability of German cars, and Mercedes products in particular, should come as no surprise to anyone who reads "Consumer Reports". Unfortunately, the Smart car is not only a German car, but is a Mercedes as well.

Herb

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Permalink Reply by Seumas Warren on January 26, 2010 at 9:34am

Well I plan to take it in and have it looked at as well as extend the warranty on my car. With so many little things that could cost so much I think it's worth it to get the extended warranty. I just hate shelling out a grand or so for another 2 years or 24,000 miles. Hell in less than a year I put 20,000 miles on mine.

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Permalink Reply by Herb Bell on January 26, 2010 at 12:30pm

A wise move, in my opinion. My Smart has 18,000 miles on it now, so I will most likely purchase a two-year warranty extension as well. What worries me more is that we will have invested in an "orphan" product, in which case there can be some doubt about how much such a warranty would be worth. This fear has already been expressed by others in this forum. Some reassurance from the new director of Smart would help us right about now.

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Permalink Reply by Seumas Warren on January 26, 2010 at 1:49pm

I feel they should push their product more, I have yet to see an advertising for the smart. More people would buy them if they knew about them. Then we wouldn't end up with an orphaned product. I will be attending an event in Orlando Fla this coming Saturday. Hopefully the exposure of so many of the little cars will act as advertising.

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