Tiny blisters on roof

[IJB]

Hi all
I am on here as part of the bubbly roof club. They are present on our 2020 v300D. We bought it from a dealer and were unaware this was a common problem so it was not until a friend whose ‘been through the roof replacement mill’ enlightened us that we looked and there were the blisters. Small but present. I’m seeing lots of varying experiences on the forum but is it likely to be a pointless exercise to chase MB for a replacement roof and all that aggravation?
Our MP goes in for a B service next week (to keep the breakdown continuity) and I have raised this roof issue. They seemed unaware of this issue with roofs but They have arranged for someone from a local body shop they outsource to to look at the roof on the day. What do people here advise. Push for warranty roof replacement or repair / paint the affected areas. It seems from a few of the posts that the blisters return on the replacement roofs. I am assuming that if our MP three year warranty has ended, then we are still covered by our MB one year warranty as we bought it in December. Your thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[Grahammf]

Hi all
I am on here as part of the bubbly roof club. They are present on our 2020 v300D. We bought it from a dealer and were unaware this was a common problem so it was not until a friend whose ‘been through the roof replacement mill’ enlightened us that we looked and there were the blisters. Small but present. I’m seeing lots of varying experiences on the forum but is it likely to be a pointless exercise to chase MB for a replacement roof and all that aggravation?
Our MP goes in for a B service next week (to keep the breakdown continuity) and I have raised this roof issue. They seemed unaware of this issue with roofs but They have arranged for someone from a local body shop they outsource to to look at the roof on the day. What do people here advise. Push for warranty roof replacement or repair / paint the affected areas. It seems from a few of the posts that the blisters return on the replacement roofs. I am assuming that if our MP three year warranty has ended, then we are still covered by our MB one year warranty as we bought it in December. Your thoughts would be appreciated.

Our 2018 MP was well out of warranty but Mercedes replaced the roof cost free in January this year. It was a struggle as our local dealer knows nothing about MPs but we were persistent! So far so good. It is only a cosmetic problem as far as I’m aware and ours wasn’t particularly bad.

 

[The Rocket]

Hi all
I am on here as part of the bubbly roof club. They are present on our 2020 v300D. We bought it from a dealer and were unaware this was a common problem so it was not until a friend whose ‘been through the roof replacement mill’ enlightened us that we looked and there were the blisters. Small but present. I’m seeing lots of varying experiences on the forum but is it likely to be a pointless exercise to chase MB for a replacement roof and all that aggravation?
Our MP goes in for a B service next week (to keep the breakdown continuity) and I have raised this roof issue. They seemed unaware of this issue with roofs but They have arranged for someone from a local body shop they outsource to to look at the roof on the day. What do people here advise. Push for warranty roof replacement or repair / paint the affected areas. It seems from a few of the posts that the blisters return on the replacement roofs. I am assuming that if our MP three year warranty has ended, then we are still covered by our MB one year warranty as we bought it in December. Your thoughts would be appreciated.

Mercedes Benz are holding Westfalia to account and they were brilliant in sorting the problem for me, despite buying the vehicle second hand four years old from a private sale. Pursue through Mercedes dealer.

 

[RichnNat]

Hi all
I am on here as part of the bubbly roof club. They are present on our 2020 v300D. We bought it from a dealer and were unaware this was a common problem so it was not until a friend whose ‘been through the roof replacement mill’ enlightened us that we looked and there were the blisters. Small but present. I’m seeing lots of varying experiences on the forum but is it likely to be a pointless exercise to chase MB for a replacement roof and all that aggravation?
Our MP goes in for a B service next week (to keep the breakdown continuity) and I have raised this roof issue. They seemed unaware of this issue with roofs but They have arranged for someone from a local body shop they outsource to to look at the roof on the day. What do people here advise. Push for warranty roof replacement or repair / paint the affected areas. It seems from a few of the posts that the blisters return on the replacement roofs. I am assuming that if our MP three year warranty has ended, then we are still covered by our MB one year warranty as we bought it in December. Your thoughts would be appreciated.

Hi

I am very doubtful that an MB shop will not have heard about the roof issue, as its such an expensive mistake. You are right in that the warranty from your MB purchase should cover the roof, but you will need to keep the pressure on with regards to it. We have been through this but were one of the lucky ones. They acknowledged it, sorted it and returned it within about three weeks. Will it return, who knows. If I am cynical then I might suggest the repeat offenders may have been older roofs from stock.

However, the facts are that MB know about it, have repaired many, have messed about many more before relenting, and in some cases haven't been such a great dealership. If you cant get anywhere with the dealer go straight to MB HQ in the UK and get started on customer services. It shouldnt however detract from what is an amazing piece of engineering and we have done just short of 40,000 in two years which, apart from the roof has been faultless.

Rich

 

[Greens_Peace]

I have just been through the process of buying a '21 used Marco Polo, and then rejecting it. I was unaware of the blister problem when considering this particular campervan, but having got the vehicle home I found the roof absolutely covered in these tiny blisters, some of which had 'burst' leaving pits in the GRP. The previous owner must have been aware, but chose not to have the roof replaced under warranty. A used Mercedes Warranty excludes bodywork, although there was mention that the paint warranty would cover such an issue, this was never confirmed though. There were other issues with the vehicle, the MBAC system although having just had a new Module fitted failed the day after I got home, and then the media/speakers wouldn't play anything without a constant popping/crackling sound.

On returning the vehicle the dealership did all they could to persuade me, that all these issues were fixable, and to some extent I knew that to be true. However the joy of owning such a vehicle had very quickly been sucked out of us, so I asked for my money back, which they have returned without any hassle.

I did have a very interesting conversation with the Dealership service manager about the roof issue. I queried that if Mercedes-Benz, Westfalia, knew about this problem and seemed to have done so since at least 2019 (that's when I find reports of it on this forum) why hadn't they resolved the problem. As many of you will know or will have read, it is caused by the unpainted GRP roof panels not being stored in a dry atmosphere so when they are taken into the paint shop and painted prior to fitting, the moisture in the GRP gets locked it, in time this moisture reacts to heat or cold hence the blistering. Apparently the 'cure' for this, and this is what the Dealership told me that they would do, is to take the unpainted replacement roof and place it is a paint shop drying oven the day before it is to be sprayed and 'bake' it dry. They then paint it as normal, they assured me that this process would mean that the blisters would not return, which certainly made sense to me. So those who report that they have had more than one replacement roof, clearly the Dealerships that they used were not following this process.

For the time being my dream of Marco Polo ownership is on hold, the V300 we bought certainly was a great drive. But it would appear the Marco Polo comes with issues, both the roof blisters, and the MBAC system failing, both being popular topics on this forum.

 

[Steve B]

Each to their own; I'm coming up to 6 years of ownership and have had the roof replaced, and its still OK. The other issues I've had are not so significant that I've wanted to sell on. We've used it as a van, car every day, safe haven during covid when you could legally travel and the main thing - the high end camping. So happy with our lot.