New here, but have owned a bunch of MBs
Thread Starter
Junior Member
Joined: Jan 2022
Posts: 28
Likes: 5
2003 S5004matic (220)
New here, but have owned a bunch of MBs
Hi everyone.
We have had a bunch of MBs over the years and tolerated a lot of problems.
First, my wife got a 2001 SLK 320 that over heated as soon as we got it home. Turned out to have a dead electric radiator fan in a brand new car. After that was fixed, I drove it and it had a myriad of problems, so bad that the dealer basically traded it for a 2002 that was pretty reliable until it was coming out of its warranty period of 5 years. I traded it in on a 2007 BMW 335i convertible, which I still have--I have been insanely lucky with this car as it recently had its first major problem, the ABS pump failed. It's now fine again.
We then bought a 2001 S500. For some reason, I never really clicked with that car. It was dark blue with dark wood. It got stuck in snow so we bought snow tires for it, but then decided to trade it in on a 2003 S500 4matic. For whatever reason I liked that car far more, from everything from the color, a light silvery blue, to the lighter wood. We still have this car and it's my hope to resolve battery drain problems so we don't have to trade/sell/donate it. Because on the road it is still super-comfortable, powerful, and sure-footed.
We also got, for all kinds of general uses, an ML500 SUV, replacing a 2000 Ford Explorer that was a POS (It was a terrible disappointment because we had leased a 1997 Mercury Mountaineer, the Explorer's twin, originally for 2 years, extended to 3, that is still the only car we've had that never had a single, not one, bit of warranty work or recall.) We FINALLY traded the ML500 in on a 2019 Chevy Traverse. By that time the head unit on the ML had failed -- seems to be a real problem for MB. I replaced the PS pump myself, as well as the rear rotors, pads and sensors, and the serpentine belt. The stealership gave me an estimate of all repairs, including sway bars of nearly DOUBLE the book value of the ML! Still it was a solid vehicle that served us for 16 years.
Meanwhile, my wife had fallen in love with an SL600 (I don't remember the year but it was one of the last with the removable winter hard top that you stored over the summer). It was a demo, sea turquoise with a camel interior. Lots of power, but handling was more like a Caddy or Lincoln than a sports car. Then, after a couple of years, the brakes would fail at unpredictable times. The dealer couldn't/wouldn't find the cause and, essentially, claimed my wife was crazy (Doctors to that to women all the time, rather than simple admit they don't know). Meanwhile, rather than fixing that, they'd do ALL the other things that didn't matter if the car was unsafe and stick us with a big bill.
So she traded it for an SL55 AMG. What an amazing car! Comfortable, powerful (489 ponies), and with active body control that overcame the wallowing of the older SL600 so it handled amazingly! Wow!
But, uh-oh, the electronics would fail on it and all the bonuses it had would go away and it would have to limp to the dealership. It spent more time flat-bedded and in their shop than in our garage. Finally, they bought it back (MB should have under our state's Lemon Law) for a new SL55 AMG. Again, fabulous when it ran--we'd still have it had it been reliable, but it wasn't. She traded it in for a BMW M6.
The M6 was a beast, in sound and performance. She LOVED it, I hated it. I could never find a comfortable seat position, and if you didn't know how to handle it and precisely brake and feed it gas, its automatic clutch would drop the car into neutral going around turns. Scared the you-know-what out of me. It had a extraordinary number of power, sport, and handling modes that finding the right one like a needle in a haystack, but in full manual mode it made 500hp. Yet its shifter had to be replaced under warranty twice, and when she had a blowout across the Hudson River, in another state, there was no spare, no run-flats, and the BMW dealer (in fact none in the NY/NJ/CT metro area) had the correct tire. Took 2 days to get it drop-shipped. So we traded that for a chipped-up Volvo S60 T6 AWD that she simply hated. It was practical, but there was a noise from the A/C unit and, again, the "stealership" claimed she was crazy--until there was a Volvo recall. She could never get comfortable in the seat, but while I could and I enjoyed driving it (except for the byzantine electronics in the center console), especially since it ws the best snow car we ever had (excepting my 4WD pickup) it went, too.
So after this long, boring, meandering story, we're back to the 2003 S500 with a parasitic battery drain that 2 specialty shops already couldn't find. I've learned there's something called a MOST bus that services the radio, cd changer, phone, voice control, NAV, and emergency call-in to MB that MAY be the cause. But all those function have been disabled and all but the call-in have been replaced by an after-market Alpine head unit. There's also a possibility that one of the 3 or 4 SAM units is faulty, but there's also a very, very slow leak in the air suspension system. I'm trying to find some way to save this car because it has such great history for us, and is/was such a great car.
We have had a bunch of MBs over the years and tolerated a lot of problems.
First, my wife got a 2001 SLK 320 that over heated as soon as we got it home. Turned out to have a dead electric radiator fan in a brand new car. After that was fixed, I drove it and it had a myriad of problems, so bad that the dealer basically traded it for a 2002 that was pretty reliable until it was coming out of its warranty period of 5 years. I traded it in on a 2007 BMW 335i convertible, which I still have--I have been insanely lucky with this car as it recently had its first major problem, the ABS pump failed. It's now fine again.
We then bought a 2001 S500. For some reason, I never really clicked with that car. It was dark blue with dark wood. It got stuck in snow so we bought snow tires for it, but then decided to trade it in on a 2003 S500 4matic. For whatever reason I liked that car far more, from everything from the color, a light silvery blue, to the lighter wood. We still have this car and it's my hope to resolve battery drain problems so we don't have to trade/sell/donate it. Because on the road it is still super-comfortable, powerful, and sure-footed.
We also got, for all kinds of general uses, an ML500 SUV, replacing a 2000 Ford Explorer that was a POS (It was a terrible disappointment because we had leased a 1997 Mercury Mountaineer, the Explorer's twin, originally for 2 years, extended to 3, that is still the only car we've had that never had a single, not one, bit of warranty work or recall.) We FINALLY traded the ML500 in on a 2019 Chevy Traverse. By that time the head unit on the ML had failed -- seems to be a real problem for MB. I replaced the PS pump myself, as well as the rear rotors, pads and sensors, and the serpentine belt. The stealership gave me an estimate of all repairs, including sway bars of nearly DOUBLE the book value of the ML! Still it was a solid vehicle that served us for 16 years.
Meanwhile, my wife had fallen in love with an SL600 (I don't remember the year but it was one of the last with the removable winter hard top that you stored over the summer). It was a demo, sea turquoise with a camel interior. Lots of power, but handling was more like a Caddy or Lincoln than a sports car. Then, after a couple of years, the brakes would fail at unpredictable times. The dealer couldn't/wouldn't find the cause and, essentially, claimed my wife was crazy (Doctors to that to women all the time, rather than simple admit they don't know). Meanwhile, rather than fixing that, they'd do ALL the other things that didn't matter if the car was unsafe and stick us with a big bill.
So she traded it for an SL55 AMG. What an amazing car! Comfortable, powerful (489 ponies), and with active body control that overcame the wallowing of the older SL600 so it handled amazingly! Wow!
But, uh-oh, the electronics would fail on it and all the bonuses it had would go away and it would have to limp to the dealership. It spent more time flat-bedded and in their shop than in our garage. Finally, they bought it back (MB should have under our state's Lemon Law) for a new SL55 AMG. Again, fabulous when it ran--we'd still have it had it been reliable, but it wasn't. She traded it in for a BMW M6.
The M6 was a beast, in sound and performance. She LOVED it, I hated it. I could never find a comfortable seat position, and if you didn't know how to handle it and precisely brake and feed it gas, its automatic clutch would drop the car into neutral going around turns. Scared the you-know-what out of me. It had a extraordinary number of power, sport, and handling modes that finding the right one like a needle in a haystack, but in full manual mode it made 500hp. Yet its shifter had to be replaced under warranty twice, and when she had a blowout across the Hudson River, in another state, there was no spare, no run-flats, and the BMW dealer (in fact none in the NY/NJ/CT metro area) had the correct tire. Took 2 days to get it drop-shipped. So we traded that for a chipped-up Volvo S60 T6 AWD that she simply hated. It was practical, but there was a noise from the A/C unit and, again, the "stealership" claimed she was crazy--until there was a Volvo recall. She could never get comfortable in the seat, but while I could and I enjoyed driving it (except for the byzantine electronics in the center console), especially since it ws the best snow car we ever had (excepting my 4WD pickup) it went, too.
So after this long, boring, meandering story, we're back to the 2003 S500 with a parasitic battery drain that 2 specialty shops already couldn't find. I've learned there's something called a MOST bus that services the radio, cd changer, phone, voice control, NAV, and emergency call-in to MB that MAY be the cause. But all those function have been disabled and all but the call-in have been replaced by an after-market Alpine head unit. There's also a possibility that one of the 3 or 4 SAM units is faulty, but there's also a very, very slow leak in the air suspension system. I'm trying to find some way to save this car because it has such great history for us, and is/was such a great car.
Thread Starter
Junior Member
Joined: Jan 2022
Posts: 28
Likes: 5
2003 S5004matic (220)
2002 MB SLK 320 behind 2002 Yamaha FZ1, 2004 Yamaha FJR 1300 in background.
Last edited by YankTar; Jan 22, 2022 at 12:59 PM. Reason: N/A
