Fuel pump failure on the 2008 Mercedes Benz E350
1 injury 1 of the 19 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
When fuel pump failure gets reported
Owners of the 2008 Mercedes Benz E350 report fuel pump failure at a median of 130,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 105,000 miles and a quarter after 150,000 miles, from 13 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 85,000 miles. It is the 4th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 75,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 150,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 79,000 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.
0% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 73,000 miles | 102,607 miles | 128,000 miles | 149,385 miles | 152,000 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 1 an injury is mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $600–$2,600 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 6 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2010, at a median of 50,000 miles, and latest on the 2008 at 130,000 miles.
By volume the 2007 carries the most reports, with 36; the 2008 has 19. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
I own a 2008 mercedes e350 4matic. After a trip, with the car sitting at the airport for a week in warm weather, I entered the car and noticed a strong gasoline odor. I vented the car and drove home. The odor remained. Subsequently I had the car put on a lift and there was a stain coming down around the sides of the gas tank. I also removed the rear seat and noticed that the seat foam was saturated with a gasoline smell directly above the access panel for what I believe is the fuel pump assembly. I understand from local mechanics that this may be a frequent occurrence with mb e series cars. This leads to a very dangerous situation in terms of potential fire/explosion as well as excessive evaporative emissions. Mb usa stated that they do not have an active recall campaign for this problem. *tr
Tl* the contact owns a 2008 mercedes benz e350. When the contact refueled the vehicle and parked it inside the garage, a fuel odor was present. The failure occurred numerous times. The vehicle was taken to the dealer who stated that the fuel pump and sensor failed. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 65,000.
I purchased this used car and parked in my garage-came out about an hour after parking and noticed a very strong raw gasoline smell coming from the drivers rear inside the compartment. I removed the back seat and the fuel tank seal is leaking. Took the car to a repair shop to confirm and they agreed that the fuel pump, sending unit and tank seal are leaking fuel and are an explosion/fire hazard-need to correct this asap. They told me that this is a very common problem on this model car and that they have a lot of people come in with gasoline leaking from the same place. Very dangerous situation that mercedes needs to step up and repair.
Also reported on the 2008 Mercedes Benz E350
Fuel tank, filler or EVAP failure
Other fuel system problem
Fuel leak or fuel odor
Other body or interior problem
Other wheel or tire problem
No-start or intermittent start failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 19 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does fuel pump failure happen on the 2008 Mercedes Benz E350?
Across 13 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 130,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 105,000 miles and a quarter after 150,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is fuel pump failure on the 2008 Mercedes Benz E350?
19 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 4.0 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed