Very expensive .......
Whilst driving back up to Scotland from down near London, the ABS warning light came on but nothing else seemed amiss ..... so I continued my journey. Just as I was entering Inverness I lost all drive! Got towed to our MB dealers in Inverness and have been advised that the offside rear half shaft had sheared and, as I had continued to drive (although wagen felt ok to me ....), the differential has also failed. ABS light came on when the half shaft actually failed - lateral movement snagged the sensor which also needs replacing. Am now facing BIG bill to sort ....... 
Does anyone have any helpful suggestions? My mechanical skills do not extend to this sort of work so I suspect that MB will be doing it. The parts are apparently available from Germany.
Vehicle is a G500 SWB (1999). It's in good overall condition and has done only 73,000 miles.
Chassis no.: WDB4632402X118101
All sympathy gratefully accepted .....
Huw
Huw
Can you send me an email with the estimate on it from the MB garage?
I will see what i can do...
I will PM you my email address
Gav
Can you be more elaborate in the description of the failure? Has the shaft or differential sheared, broken, failed, how?
By my initial thoughts, I would suppose given this failure, you should have drive maintained by the front axle; the loss of total drive is puzzling to me.
If it is sheared parts you are suffering, try to source a second hand axle from the recycling centre in Germany; useless as they are, you never know. a new unit, I am guessing would be over £2500. Repairs including parts could be slightly less, almost similar.
If it is at possible, should you opt for another unit try to hang on to this one.
As Gav has already mentioned, it would be interesting to learn what parts your dealer is suggesting, be it by PM if you feel it.
I can offer sympathy but not much else of use to you. I do hope it doesn't cost you a fortune to sort out
Hi Huw
That all sounds expensive ! Although I find it strange that your half shaft would shear just driving along a tarmac road, unless you had your rear difflock engaged?
If you were driving for some distance on tarmac with the diff locked then this would put all sorts of stress on the diff and halfshaft and I could understand something breaking but I presume that you were not doing this.
Even if the halfshaft was to shear I am not sure how this would damage the diff so much that you would need a new one. Also since the halfshaft is contained in the axle housing I am not sure how it could interfere with the abs sensor.
My initial suspicions would be with the cv joint failing since that is the weakest point in the drive line although if MB say it is the half shaft then you have to assume they have done a proper check and stripped it down. Otherwise how else could they have diagnosed that you need a new diff?
If you want a second opinion then I can reccommend Oggs of Aberlour who are still fairly local to Inverness. Mike Ogg specilizes in LandRover but is an expert on 4x4 systems and has recently been working on a fleet of Pinzgauers. He is an honest bloke so at least you will not get shafted for work you don't need.
http://www.oggsofaberlour.co.uk/
Let me know if I can be of any further help.
Doug.
Rakesh, it is possible that all drive was lost because if the centre diff was not locked then drive would be transferred to the wheel with the least resistance, in this case it would be the one on the rear with the broken half shaft (assuming it could spin freely in the axle tube) .
Even although the 463 has permanent four wheel drive it is possible to have only one wheel recieving power if the centre diff is not locked. Even then it is possible that only one wheel on each axle will recieve drive unless the front and rear diffs are locked as well, giving true drive to all four wheels.
If you ever put one wheel of your G on ice or in the air with open diffs and accelerate then that wheel will spin but the other three won't move because the diffs allow the drive to take the path of least resistance.
Thank you Doug, for spelling it out for me. It makes sense to me now, I had not given deep thought earlier, got other things bugging me. But I see the picture now, Thanks.
Huw,
Its them 1999 G500's dodgy at the best of times! 
(Only joking)
Sorry to hear that your half shaft has gone, and it will be expensive to fix. Mine did the same thing back in 2011, (115351 Miles) first I noticed it was difficult to get into gear, then I noticed the gears were 'sticking' then one trip down the M4 a big bang , no power to the wheels but engine still going, When I tried to put it back from neutral to Drive, big noise of grating. So got MB to pick me up and diagnosed the problem.
The final invoice was:
MN910113 010003 NUT 1 x £0.90
MA463 410 07 02 166610/propeller shaft 1 x £884
MA463 542 07 17 166448/ Sender Unit 1 x £180
Lab: £361.80
and get this - Investigation charge to find cause of breakdown £270 and replacing a sensor £270!
Total just for half shaft £1,711.88 all done by Mercedes Brooklands back in June 2011 (PM me and I am happy to scan in and send you a copy of my invoice). I was quoted a far cheaper price to fix from an independent, though that was after I had had the work done happy to share if you want, but would entail bringing the G back down south.
I was surprised that the half shaft should go, as were the MB technicians so they photographed it and sent me a copy attached more for your information really. I am sorry I can not comment on your diff's, but it did not happen with mine, though part of the Investigation charge MB did do a full check on diffs and other parts all worked fine.
Spider1V
Hi Guys
From the part number and the pictures thats the Propshaft from the Gearbox to the Transfer Case.
Although expensive its in a different league to Huw's issue.
Huw has the Rear Axle Half Shaft inside the actual Rear Axle tube, the part that drives the wheel from the diff unit.
Cheers
Gav
Rear half shafts are from recall maybe 60 mm diametre solid steel within a rigid steel casing...the rear axle tube. These should be close to indestructible.
......... and thats why I stay away from the technical side of things....... oopps
Cheers for setting me straight Gav (as ever 
), Going to be interesting to here the continuation of poor Huw's saga. As PRW has commented they are tough pieces of mental. Now I am beginning to understand 'catastrophic' failure.
Spider1V
P.s You gonna be down in MK any time soon?
I am with Bigblock on this one, get another opinion.
I have broken the front right half shaft in 2004 on a trip in France, and yes I know it is on the front, but you would notice it immediately. In my case I could not find any mechanic in rural Southern France to fix it, and I had to fix it myself with a lot of help from GWOA over the internet.
I would be very surprised if that half shaft really is broken.
Me too..... Catastrophic failure of Diff housing???? Driving on a motorway, wouldn't be impressed with MB engineering if that was the case! Maybe though if it is that, it was caused by a bad repair in the past? Can you get some photos of it and post them?
or something has hit the differential housing, off road damage, debris on the road?
I am not sure how you would create a catastrophic failure of the axle casing.
I have seen a few bent ones that were being sold as military surplus in Canada. Apparently they were on Wolf G's that were dropped out the back of a Hercules with the wrong size parachutes on them and they fell to earth a bit to quickly!!
How do you break a solid steel axle tube or diff casing during normal use ? It will be interesting to see a few photos.
Hi SpiderIV
Wed 10th April is the next time i am down at MK
You about? Might have a spare hour mid afternoon...
Gav
Hi Huw
How are you getting on?
Did you get any pics yet?
Gav
Hope to get the G back early next week - I will be taking photos of axle and posting them for all to see ......
In the meantime, MB Mobilo have kindly provided a Range Rover 
for me to get about in. It's good that it's a 4x4 bearing in mind where we stay but I really don't like the way it drives (or the image - old RRs are better in this respect) and don't mention the 'blingy' interior which only gets worse at night with lots of distracting lights.
MB Mobilo? A Range Rover? Hmmm they are slipping.... its usually an ML/ S or an E for a G..... I hope all is going well, and if you get stuck in your RR you can engage the diffs.....
Spider1V
Have now got G back ... complete with new rear axle and a very damaged credit card ....
As promised, pictures of damage showing sheared half shaft are attached. MB technicians have only ever seen a similar failure with half shafts on Sprinters and really do not understand why this happened .....
In the cold light of day and having had a good detailed look at everything, I think the cause of the failure was a collapsed wheel bearing. Unfortunately this gave no symptoms beside the failure of the ABS sensor ...... no unusual noises etc etc .... Following wheel bearing collapse, the half shaft was rotating in the axle tube with very limited lubrication and eventually seized to the axle tube and sheared.
Thanks to everyone for your input as ever.
Huw
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Thanks everyone for your assistance so far.
After longer discussion with MB Inverness it seems that the cause of my woes is a catastrophic failure of the casing of the rear axle resulting in collateral damage to the differential, half shaft and brakes.
Complete new rear axle required plus assorted other parts ......
MB Inverness have agreed to take the matter up with MB HQ - not sure we'll get anywhere though.
Will try and post some piccies later.