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Greetings all from the San Francisco Bay Area! Long intro post ensues... you are warned!
Just picked up a clean (after washing off months of neglect and an inch of brake muck), bone stock '03 R230 and reacquainting myself with the Mercedes brand after ten years being away from my '01 E-class (the one with the biiig V8.)
Friend of a friend owner was parting with it - at a very reasonable price - because he's moving from the area and didn't want to take the problems with him.
Problems? Well, stop me if you've heard this solution before: I've already ordered the ubiquitous and notorious cement mixer sounding bearing for the supercharger pulley along with aluminum pulley upgrades and belts. While I'm in there, will service the blower and see what else it needs as I bring it to a good baseline.
As an aside, some of you might know me (well, I know of at least one member here who does....laff!) as one of the mods on the my350Z forum. Been around Zs since the Gen 1 240Z (with a notable absence while raising my kids in a big Infiniti and the aforementioned Benz.)
You might notice the similarity between these two pics:
These were taken at one my favorite spots in the area, Hwy 9 (above Saratoga, CA, near Hwy 35). I run my Z cars up in the Coastal mountains as often as 2-3x a week and then again, sometimes not at all. Depends on my need for g's.
Disclaimer: I am a very conscientious driver and do not endanger others by only running as far as I can safely see what's what; and, I'm also a cyclist so know that they can lurk around every bend. Just had to say that lest people think I'm an inexperienced, testosterone fueled child-man with nary a regard for safety. Quite the contrary.
Back in an earlier life, I worked for Datsun Parts/Datsun Competition and raced a couple of Datsuns and a rented FF in SCCA, so no stranger to the track. Alas, before the call of marriage, child rearing, career, and that evil thing called "mortgage".
Back to cars (finally).... I took the SL up the hill on my second day of ownership for a shakedown run and wow, "pleased" is an understatement; despite my keeping it civilized from fear of fully seizing the blower pulley. Wasn't long before feeling familiar enough with the car to push it a bit and great to report that it's exceeded my expectations of its handling prowess. (The P.O.'s dealer repair/replacement of the entire ABC is a plus. )
No plans to upgrade at this point. Going to baseline the car, put on the other AMG wheels (stock 5-spoke) I just picked up and go from there.
Anyhow, you'll pardon my long windedness but eventually you'll see that I do try to make my posts informative and with a light hearted attempt at humor. But as I acclimate myself back into Mercedes ownership, mostly going to soak up information. (Thanks in advance for endulging me.)
If anyone's in the Silicon Valley area that wants to talk shop (about cars, not tech, thanks, get enough of that in my consulting gigs here), PM me, we can meetup at Alice's.
Grats on the pickup and welcome back to the brand. Great fast roadster and there are some amazing twisties in north bay that she'd be an absolute blast to drive through. I know there used to be a rather large MB contingent up in the bay and we used to try to organize drives when I was up there. I believe the Treasure Island meet still goes on.
I know you mentioned you want to keep her stock, but let us know if you want to modernize her a bit with some new whiter LED/HID lights. As you'll probably remember from your E class if you've updated, you'll need canbus enabled lighting vs the normal regular stuff.
Last edited by AZN Optics; 08-25-2016 at 04:50 PM.
Michael, also appreciate the light upgrade offer. Honestly, haven't even driven the thing after dark yet. But once I finish the mechanical baselining, I'll sit down and figure out where this car needs to go. Performance lighting is always a good start!
Speaking of mechanical stuffis. My day went like this.... got up (a chore unto itself at times). Went to meet a client. Came home and put strap wrench on blower hub and 24mm socket on the nut.
Ehhhhhhhhh....... the strap wrench wasn't enough to break the bolt free. That is, I could only use one hand on the breaker. So off to the hardware store for some mondo hose clamps and also the makings of an extremely specialized tool: a bearing pusher outer (see below).
Pics tell the rest of the story:
Pretty nasty looking and sounded like cement mixer just with hand rotation.
Forget using a strap wrench, Mickey Mouse works miracles! Broke the bolt loose with one good pull on the breaker bar and without even using the 5 foot pipe I had at the ready.
Short time later with a couple of bricks and specialized tool (shown at top). Bad bearing ready for the bin.
And just a little bit ago, all cleaned up and ready to be hidden (lest my wife comes home and sees it on the kisshun counter.)
But ya, all the disassembly, cleaning and readying for re-assembly took me less time than assembling the "bearing press"! Laff.
Will button it all up tomorrow because USPS just delivered the bearing and it's now in the freezer. I'll get up and put the pulley in the oven and it'll be all ready to go in time for a nice morning run up in the hills.
I should note that I reviewed a thread here on MBWorld and a vid on YouTube on this procedure beforehand. Thanks for the help, went really quick and easy.
Yes, I'm obsessing with yet another post but just wanted to share my mid-day test drive on the "new repair". Well, had to cuz how else am I going to rate the repair guy on Yelp?
Welcome to MBWorld! Great pictures, thanks for sharing.
Thanks, appreciated.
Quick updates.... (I'd start my own "build thread" but really don't see this car getting too much more stuff.... other than mileage. )
Needed new rear tires and was up in the air on the original 22-vane wheels anyways, so I took the easy way out going from this:
Back to non-upgraded wheels:
With near new Michelin Sport A/S (9/32nds) - all for less than the cost of a pair of new Michelin PSS 285/35s which I have on the original rears.
And yes, I know... no caps on. I intentionally left 'em off to avoid having to remove the wheels to take the aged original caps off. When I get the new replacements I ordered, I'll just pop 'em on. Forethought. Laff.
In the meantime, I am still marveling at how *relatively* inexpensive nice OEM wheels are for Mercedes vis a vis any of the "real" (not reps) wheels cost for my Z cars!! A nice set of OEM Nismo wheels will easily cost $1500/set just for the wheels. (Ask me how I know that. Wink.....)
Contrast that with this re-con OEM SL550/600 9.5 rear wheel (I bought a pair)...
...at avg. price of $130/wheel!
No, they're not forged like any of my Rays/Volks on my Zs but hey, these are the wheels they put on 160mph Benzes so that works for me.
Only difficulty is finding a pair of front 8.5s at that reasonable price. (Tons of rears all over the place!) Looks like I might just square up the wheels F/R with 9.5s while running staggered OEM size tires to keep the ABC, ESP and all the other alphabet soup gadgets on the car happy.
I test fit the 9.5s up front and found no clearance issues (wheel only)...
...and the size and minor offset diff pushes the tire out < 10mm and backside reduction of 15mm. Looks like I should easily clear the upright with stock 255/40 tire. Anyone know otherwise?
Not moving on that just yet anyways, "new set" works fine. For now.
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Next up: fix that munged front bumper/fascia. My body guy awaits my arrival with open cash register.
That followed by a brake re-do. Quick poll: Recs for brake pads? Usage: street, hill running, no track. Pads I use (to give idea of what level pads I typically use): Cobalt Friction (track only), Carbotech Bobcat, StopTech Sport, EBC Red, Project Mu HC800...). Any input appreciated.... still new to Mercedes "hot tips". TIA.
I love the Akebono pads. Very low dust. Try Rockauto for rotors. Cheap as hell! Dab a little black paint on the visible spots and you are set.
Great, thanks for the tip, compaddict. Akebono makes the brakes/pads on the Sport/Nismo 370Z which I had and they're the hot tip upgrade for non-sport or earlier 350Z so that recommendation definitely has cred with me! Will look into it!
Well, a month goes by since I last mentioned anything and it's been semi-eventful.....
Notice a thunking noise behind me, particularly when stepping on brakes/coming to full stop. Methinks, "Sure sounds like gas slopping around in the tank. I wonder if there's a tank baffle loose or something." Fill the tank, sound goes away. Consult the almighty Goog....
"Gas tank baffle" - Known issue.
Score one for my diagnostics prowess. Take away point for the ire I'm feeling. What the...???? Gas tank baffle? Psh.
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Then, wife texts me one day when she took the car when I needed her SUV to go pick up some tires/wheels. "What does 'SRS' mean on the dash?"
Aside from telling her the airbag was going to blow up in her face (not appreciated, BTW), told her not to worry.... "just drive home and I'll deal with it".
More consultation with Da Goog.
I knew what the SRS light meant but was curious on trouble shoot and re-set. Found that SRS light cannot be shut off even AFTER problem found and fixed. Problem might be identified by using Super Steroided Mondo PROPRIETARY OBD II Scanner with "Mercedes specific" software - that which can get into all of the alphabet acronymic sub-systems, e.g. ABC, SRS, ESP, CS (Campbell's soup), etc..
Well, of course... The high end Inova scanner I have that works on dang near every other car I've owned since OBDII came out -doesn't work on MB. Figures.
So I buy this...
Plug in and get acquainted with the unit. Finally go to delve into the SRS (airbag) sub-system. Hmmmm, no standard P-codes show up.... they're all six digit alpha numeric codes that light up the "Code not in database" msg and with no seeming corresponding table to tell me what they are.
So, to test for a true fault, I went to de-code the warning light. Shuts off momentarily upon being asked by the scanner. Then comes on moments later. True fault present.
Unplug in frustration.
"I'll deal with it later."
Oh, and by the way..... another "KNOWN ISSUE" judging by all the posts on it and the how-tos on how to shut it off.
That's where it's at right now.
Gotta deal with the tank problem and I'm not going to use any of the Mickey Mouse hack fixes I've seen on the interwebs. Gonna just replace the dang tank.
Anyone have a procedural on this? All of the posts I've seen everywhere seem to tell me to basically disassemble the entire back half of the car including the roof mechanism. Psh.... might just farm this one out.
Do I sound frustrated? Nahhhhh, part of the challenge... knew what I was getting into when I "stole" the car because of it's problem with the supercharger pulley.
But "annoyed"? Why, yes...
Thanks for listening to my rant. Feel better already. Hahaha.
08-24-2016, 09:33 PM
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