2022 MERCEDES-BENZ Sprinter 2500

I have a 2022 Mercedes Sprinter with the M274 engine. At approximately 139,100 miles the check engine light came on and my driver was stranded on [XXX] . I took the vehicle to Mercedes-Benz of Kansas City South for diagnosis. I was told that the #4 piston cracked and scored the engine wall. I was quoted $23,820.12 to replace the engine long block. When I asked about trading the vehicle in, they offered me $2,000 for it if I was willing to purchase another vehicle from them. I did some research and there is currently a class-action lawsuit for this exact issue. In reading the comments of various class-action lawsuit websites, this seems to be a manufacturing issue that Mercedes knows about, but is doing nothing to fix the issue. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

The engine fan fell off, broke off, sheered off at the bolt that attaches it to the engine. The van is brand new this happened with less then 3000 miles on it. We realized an issued when the van gave a warning to stop immediately and turn off engine. This warning came on 3-4 times as we tried to ascend the pass. We had not place to go on this road. We pulled off several times waiting and hour to let it cool just to travel 3 miles.We just thought we may be running to hot. It was warm out, on an incline on Logans Pass in Glacier national park. Once we coasted out of the park after several hours of this situation and were able to safely get under and look we discovered the fan was dangling in the engine compartment. We contacted a dealer in Billings who told us they have seen several of these. We have read several sprinter van forums and Facebook pages where numerous people are reporting the same issue. The Missoula Mercedes Benz dealer replace the pully, the belt and the fan. The said they were going to replace the water pump, but did not. We requested the parts from them and they would not allow us to have them. We requested pictures of the parts and they still have not been supplied to us. We have a few pictures of the damaged bolt. The service tech was initially just going to rethread the bolt. This a know problem by Mercedes Benz, Winnebago and they are taking no measures to correct it. Repaired it putting the same parts back on. What is to ensure this will not happen again. We were in a remote area of Northern Montana with limited service. We were essentially stranded there for three days.

At least 5 occurneces, all at elevations above 7000' and in moderately warm weather. After normal engine start, put vehicle in reverse, able to roll out of parking spot, but throttle completely unaffected by accelerator position. Leaving vehicle in a dangerous position. Putting back in park, vehicle can rev to 5000RPM, but back in R or D, no throttle response. Eninge OFF/ON several times seems to clear the issue which appears to be software related. No indications or faults were given on the dashboard. The situation is potentially life threatening, and has been reported on multiple occasions on Sprinter Online forums. This needs a recall and fix.

Upon starting the van (brand new, less than 300 mi driven) everything functions normally in P, however as soon as I shift into D, there is no power and the gas pedal is completely unresponsive (Can push pedal to the floor and still 0 RPM). This issue happens randomly, though the common factor that myself and many others have experienced is being at altitude >5000ft (quite common in western US). There are no warning/error indicators and service dashboard looks clean. The only fix appears to be restarting the engine or waiting for it to idle for 5-10min to "warm up" even though this happens in both cold (20F) and warm (70F) weather. This is very dangerous as I will start up the van, and roll out of the driveway/parking lot/etc and then when I go to accelerate the power dies leaving me stranded in the middle of the road with no ability to get the van moving apart from turning it off and restarting it. An odd thing is when this occurs, if I shift back into P (from D) then the engine comes alive again and I can rev >3k RPM while in P, but as soon as I shift back into D the power is gone and I'm back at the 0 RPM issue. This issue seems like some kind of sensor malfunction that occurs randomly at altitude and likely due to Mercedes' lack of testing at altitudes commonly found in the USA.

The vehicle will lose power at high altitudes. I will push the gas pedal all the way down and the RPMs do not move nor does the vehicle move. This has left me in dangerous situations at intersections. I have spoken with a Mercedes dealer in Denver and they have multiple reports of this problem. The vehicle only has 1800 miles and this has happened multiple times at altitude.

At elevations above about 6,500ft, the Sprinter is essentially immobile or becomes intermittently unresponsive to the gas pedal when it is depressed. This happens routinely at elevation and has led to unresponsive acceleration while driving. The unresponsive accelerator has compromised safety when trying to pull out onto roads. This issue has occurred frequently to other Sprinter owners in similar conditions. No warning lights, lamps, or messages appear or are associated with this issue. This issue appears difficult to replicate at Mercedes dealerships/service centers as they are all below the affected elevation. When describing the issue to a MB service representative, I was told it was “normal”. Though an unresponsive accelerator should not be written off and discarded as normal when it has the easy potential to inflict harm its passengers.