Anyone having problems with the SL upholstery leather lifting espc. around the windshield and door frames? I was told it's not covered under Starmark Warranty...and they (dealer-Autohaus Mercedes, to be exact) do not "repair". The parts will have to be replaced. It will cost $1700 - 3 little (less than 3") lifts.

It's a '98 with less than 11k miles, just bought in May '02. You'd think MBs interior would last longer than that AND MB should accept the responsibility when it does not...

Any thoughts???

 

phooey!!
...guess i'm the only one with this problem...

 

The leather is glued to the underlying trim, so my guess it's the sunshine which is causing the glue to give up. Is it black? If so, it will get very hot in the Florida sun.

No need to replace with Mercedes parts. Go to an auto trim shop who take pride in matching existing with replacement materials for a fraction of the price. It's important to note Mercedes never repair anything, only replace. One of the switches in a seat adjuster in my car has broken, of course, you have to buy the whole unit.

 

I second that. A good upholstery shop will do it for a fraction of the cost. I'm looking at having some re-dye done on the interior of my wife's sl600 and that's where I'm going.

 

Thank you for the replies

 

My SL came from Florida. Black on Black.

I see the leather lifiting off on the hardtop side pillars and also on the sides of the back window.

It almost appears that there was not enough original material to "wrap" around these pieces. Probably just needs a new glue job as the leather itself is in fine shape.

I have to get the back three windows replaced on the soft top and am going to have the same upholstery company fix the hardtop issues.

Not sure if I could just glue them back in place myself. Would not even know which glue to use.

Mike Swinford
www.mikeswinford.com

 

Don't let people tell you you can't replace the soft top windows. The fabric section separates front and rear and it's relatively easy to remove just the rear section to replace the windows. I had mine done on my SL600, very pleased with the results.

As for your leather, it sounds like it has shrunk from the years of being exposed to the Florida sunshine.

 

blueSL-

I know we have had this discussion on the softop. The local upholstery shop quoted me $1000 to replace just the rear three window part. they told me that they could not just replace a single window as it required a sewing arm that is very long.

You may be right about the leather shrinking somewhat.

Thanks for the reply.

Mike

 

Is that to replace the whole rear section? If so, I think that's expensive. I paid £300 = $480 to have my three windows replaced.

They just take off the back section of the hood, leaving the frame on the car, remove the old windows and sew in the new ones in. Sure, it's not the job of a moment but most of the cost is labour, the materials are inexpensive and they do have the machine to do the job.

I was very pleased with the job Trimmania in Reading UK did and I'm sure these guys could do the work for you and send it back for much less than $1000 + sales tax. They did mine in 2 days.

 

That is to replace to entire rear section. Not just the windows.

The rear section is about $500 and according to one of the retailers who sell the top it is a 10 hour job.

I would rather pay the extra $$ to get it done locally in case there is any problems. I would still have to pay an installer to remove and refit if I was to send it off.

Mike

 

Still alot to pay though, as a percentage of the value of the car. It does worry me how much the R129 and especially the R230 are going to cost to maintain as they get older.

The issue of replacing just the rear section of the hood is one of colour and texture match. 10 hours is typically the labour time for replacing the whole hood, the rear comes off much quicker than that.