Right rear tire/wheel issue

[devilsquid]

Good evening fellow Solera owners. My wife and I picked up our 2013 Solera on 28 April this year after doing the research on this forum and others. We are both in the Navy and are heading for retirement summer of 2013. We bought the Solera wanting to travel around this great country after we retire and have just returned from a week long inaugural trip. First off great motorhome, very livable with all of the features and comforts we were looking for while still being small enough for easy driving. During the trip we suffered a series of fortuitous problems. First the electrical plug connecting the Smart car to the Solera came loose and was ruined. Went to Camping World for a replacement and also bought the Good Sam roadside assistance plan (was on sale, good deal). Back on the road made it to Cabelas just into Idaho. From my Marine Corps helicopter aircrew days I did a walk around the rig (I do this everytime we stop) while my wife headed into the store. I noticed that the outside right rear tire looked and was flat. We did our shopping, I told my wife, and called Good Sam. Meanwhile we noticed a fluid collecting under the flat...felt like oil, smelled like gear oil...not good. We got the spare on, my wife found R'nR RV Center not far way and got the issue fixed. Thank you R'nR, great service. It was a blown axel seal (the repair tech thought it was installed improperly...should not have failed with only 3400 miles on the clock). The flat caused us to find the failed seal before it found us the hard way. Has anyone had this happen? The last problem we had was a funny little light that came on coming down Steven's Pass...DEF low light. One would think that all fluids necessay for safe driving would have been topped off. Found some at a truck stop, added it, got back on the road, still has the warning light. Again has anyone had this happen? We have an appointment this week at Mercedes to see what is wrong. Sorry about the length of this but we did have a very eventful shakedown cruise in our Solera.

[TURBS]

Did you fill the def tank?
Sometimes they need to be full before light goes back off.
I've also seen the sensor stick and eventually come loose.
Sorry couldn't be of more help!
By the way welcome to the forum and congrats on your pending retirement!

[JLeising]

The DEF light also came on on our new 2012 Solera on our first trip. Came on at about 4300 miles on the odometer. Had the DEF tank re-filled; took 9 quarts. Owner's manual and note under hood both say add 2 gallons minimum. When I restarted, the DEF light stayed on. Checked the manual - says can take 20 seconds to re-set. Waited, light stayed on. I stopped, shut down, turned the key until the indicator lights illuminated but did not start the engine until the lights (including the DEF light) went out. The light stayed out when I re-started.

Also had a right rear outer tire deflation issue. Mine went flat after driving and parking overnight. Re-inflated and monitored - no air loss for two days. Drove about 30 miles, camped - flat again the next morning. A mechanic at a Ford dealer who worked on RV's determined the (yellow airless) valve extender was apparently whipping around enough at speed to press the core into the tire valve sufficiently to release air - and stay that way overnight, deflating the tire. I had him replace the valve and extender (with a conventional one) on that tire; tied all the extenders to the wheel covers with wire ties. No more problems.

Congrats on your retirement and on your new Solera!

[Poppy Bill]

I have not had any of these problems but I had a D3 come up on my dash. I was at the races at TMS when Ileft 3 days later it was D7. To make a long story short I went into Freightliner the next day they put it on the laptop and the program said I had 44875 kilometers on the oil. Actual mileage was 3017 miles.they reset the computer. It is 2011. Sorry to hear about your problems but thought you might want a haeds up incase you have a similar problem.
Thanks for your service to our country.

[reinerka]

Our DEF came on at our 8500 miles and with 5 gallons added no issues since (12k now)

Reiner

[devilsquid]

I have heard from Mercedes concerning the blown axel seal. I had the seal replaced at the first place we found that could do the job (about 3 miles from where the seal failed). There was a Mercedes dealer 5 miles down the road but they could not fix our Solera (said they were not set up to fix something that large???) anyway they told us that the nearest Mercedes dealer that fixes MB Sprinters was in the Seattle area...400 miles away. That dealer once we got home copied our repair bill and forwarded it to the regional service manager who denied the claim. I guess that Mercedes does not stand behind their product. It's a 2013 Solera with a little over 3000 miles on the clock and the situation prohibited us from getting it to an authorized repair facility (I don't know about you but I wouldn't want to drive it with a blown seal a couple of miles let alone 400). I and my local dealer thought that it was a no brainer...they told me to try to make the claim again through the dealer where I bought the Solera. We shall see. Oh by the way the DEF light finally went out about 10 minutes before I got it to the dealership.