SL/R129: 92-500SL dies wont start when hot
07-12-2018, 12:05 PM
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SL500
92-500SL dies wont start when hot
92-500SL runs fine cold as soon as it gets warm while driving has no power, bogs down, dies, wont start - have it towed home - the next day runs fine - everything has been replaced in the last 5 years - 2 years ago had fuel distro rebuilt and has run fine - it is stored winters and started up and ran for 20 minutes once a month -- went to drive it yesterday - it died wouldnt start had to have it towed home - started fine this morning - can't figure it out..
NOTE: this is more than a fuel delivery issue it revs runs fast down the street, has good fuel pressure, fuel pump ok, so please no simpleton answers .. Over-Voltage Protection Relay and fuse is good, etc. all sensors are sending the correct voltages ..
SYMPTOMS: As the engine gets hotter it runs worse and worse, and the fuel gets richer you can smell it in the exhaust and the cat.converters start heating up, and then the engine loses power starts popping when trying to accelerate as though the engine were running on 4 cylinders but spark and coils have been checked, coils interchanged, compression check is good when both hot and cold, -- final, if driving when the engine revs down to idle speed it will just stop running and refuses to start - turns over with a lot of popping sounds -- my next move is to replace the cam/crank sensor -- i've read a bad coil inside the sensor can open up as the sensor gets hot ..
I have been all over the forums - I see a lot of Mercedes have this exact problem and no one really finds a solution to the problem -- I have replaced everything electromechanical under the hood in the last 5 years , and the problem keeps coming back .. their is one component somewhere that is failing when the engine or engine area gets hot .. some intermittent sensor quits working when everything gets hot, but now its doing it when the engine gets warm, it doesnt even have to get really hot anymore , the symptom is getting worse .. this time I had to have the car towed home from 4 miles away and a friend and I pushed int onto the garage, and it still wouldnt start.
Left the car sit over night, the next day it started just fine and it ran like a smooth machine and reved-up well, and drove up and down the street fine.. and if I just leave it sit it will idle for a long time just fine -- but once it gets hot, it will begin to stammer, stutter, and bog down once it is put into gear, and acts as if there is no power at all, eventually it will just stall, and not restart. it has all new coils spark plugs wires, injectors and seals, all voltages on all sensors are where they need to be, all vacuum lines have been checked, all vacuum lines were replace 5 years ago, the car is babied and kept in a nice dry 3 car garage next to the other 2 cars that are driven daily ..
I need an expert Mercedes person to solve / tell me what the mystery problem is - because like i said, across many forums and car repair questions - ths is a big common problem with many Mercedes - even relatively new ones -- and many Florida Mercedes are being sold on auction sites because of this same problem.
NOTE: my last Mercedes 89 - 420SEL had a similar problem but not as bad , I could drive it fine, just a very rich exhaust and became more difficult when it got hot - because mercedes in general need a rich air fule mix to start but its suppose to lean out as it heats up .. but many dont. after 6 months of replacing mini computer modules and claining carboned up air intake parts .. a fellow friend who owned 4 vintage mercedes brought his very old german mercedes mechanic over to look at my 420SEL the gruff german said the engine was running to ruff, and asked me to get him a screw driver, he wacked the overvoltage protection relay and the engine immediately smoothed out, so the next day my friend brought me over a new relay and it ran fine -- until one cold 0F day while backing up out of the driveway REVERSE went out on the transmission - another common problem to Mercedes Audi and BMW autos.
I took the relay apart and a ground solder pin had come loose and as it got hot the pin made less and less contact to the circuit inside the relay - I have since found a similar situation an a volvo 420 relay under the glove box - and my 96 chrysler town and country, the ground pin to all of the dashboard display panel had loosened out of the solder .. so smacking the dashboard would bring everything back on line -- but there is a control chip on that panel that would cause the car not to start or to die if it lost ground connectivity .. once I took the entire dash apart and looked with strong magnifiers at the control panel i found the loose ground pin and simply resoldered it , and never had another problem with the town and country until the 3rd transmission went out and then I junked it for $300.
Once we find out what the problem is that many other Mercedes with the exact same problem have, the problem can be remedied once and for all.
NOTE: this is more than a fuel delivery issue it revs runs fast down the street, has good fuel pressure, fuel pump ok, so please no simpleton answers .. Over-Voltage Protection Relay and fuse is good, etc. all sensors are sending the correct voltages ..
SYMPTOMS: As the engine gets hotter it runs worse and worse, and the fuel gets richer you can smell it in the exhaust and the cat.converters start heating up, and then the engine loses power starts popping when trying to accelerate as though the engine were running on 4 cylinders but spark and coils have been checked, coils interchanged, compression check is good when both hot and cold, -- final, if driving when the engine revs down to idle speed it will just stop running and refuses to start - turns over with a lot of popping sounds -- my next move is to replace the cam/crank sensor -- i've read a bad coil inside the sensor can open up as the sensor gets hot ..
I have been all over the forums - I see a lot of Mercedes have this exact problem and no one really finds a solution to the problem -- I have replaced everything electromechanical under the hood in the last 5 years , and the problem keeps coming back .. their is one component somewhere that is failing when the engine or engine area gets hot .. some intermittent sensor quits working when everything gets hot, but now its doing it when the engine gets warm, it doesnt even have to get really hot anymore , the symptom is getting worse .. this time I had to have the car towed home from 4 miles away and a friend and I pushed int onto the garage, and it still wouldnt start.
Left the car sit over night, the next day it started just fine and it ran like a smooth machine and reved-up well, and drove up and down the street fine.. and if I just leave it sit it will idle for a long time just fine -- but once it gets hot, it will begin to stammer, stutter, and bog down once it is put into gear, and acts as if there is no power at all, eventually it will just stall, and not restart. it has all new coils spark plugs wires, injectors and seals, all voltages on all sensors are where they need to be, all vacuum lines have been checked, all vacuum lines were replace 5 years ago, the car is babied and kept in a nice dry 3 car garage next to the other 2 cars that are driven daily ..
I need an expert Mercedes person to solve / tell me what the mystery problem is - because like i said, across many forums and car repair questions - ths is a big common problem with many Mercedes - even relatively new ones -- and many Florida Mercedes are being sold on auction sites because of this same problem.
NOTE: my last Mercedes 89 - 420SEL had a similar problem but not as bad , I could drive it fine, just a very rich exhaust and became more difficult when it got hot - because mercedes in general need a rich air fule mix to start but its suppose to lean out as it heats up .. but many dont. after 6 months of replacing mini computer modules and claining carboned up air intake parts .. a fellow friend who owned 4 vintage mercedes brought his very old german mercedes mechanic over to look at my 420SEL the gruff german said the engine was running to ruff, and asked me to get him a screw driver, he wacked the overvoltage protection relay and the engine immediately smoothed out, so the next day my friend brought me over a new relay and it ran fine -- until one cold 0F day while backing up out of the driveway REVERSE went out on the transmission - another common problem to Mercedes Audi and BMW autos.
I took the relay apart and a ground solder pin had come loose and as it got hot the pin made less and less contact to the circuit inside the relay - I have since found a similar situation an a volvo 420 relay under the glove box - and my 96 chrysler town and country, the ground pin to all of the dashboard display panel had loosened out of the solder .. so smacking the dashboard would bring everything back on line -- but there is a control chip on that panel that would cause the car not to start or to die if it lost ground connectivity .. once I took the entire dash apart and looked with strong magnifiers at the control panel i found the loose ground pin and simply resoldered it , and never had another problem with the town and country until the 3rd transmission went out and then I junked it for $300.
Once we find out what the problem is that many other Mercedes with the exact same problem have, the problem can be remedied once and for all.
Last edited by 92-500SL; 07-14-2018 at 11:57 AM. Reason: MORE relavant information
07-14-2018, 09:06 AM
#2
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An engine needs four things to start: (1) compression, (2) timing, (3), fuel, and (4) spark. Since it can start at times, I believe compression and timing may be ruled-out. That leaves fuel and spark. I presume you know how to check if each cylinder is receiving spark, so I recommend you do that first.
10-10-2018, 09:59 PM
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1992 500sl
92-500SL runs fine cold as soon as it gets warm while driving has no power, bogs down, dies, wont start - have it towed home - the next day runs fine - everything has been replaced in the last 5 years - 2 years ago had fuel distro rebuilt and has run fine - it is stored winters and started up and ran for 20 minutes once a month -- went to drive it yesterday - it died wouldnt start had to have it towed home - started fine this morning - can't figure it out..
NOTE: this is more than a fuel delivery issue it revs runs fast down the street, has good fuel pressure, fuel pump ok, so please no simpleton answers .. Over-Voltage Protection Relay and fuse is good, etc. all sensors are sending the correct voltages ..
SYMPTOMS: As the engine gets hotter it runs worse and worse, and the fuel gets richer you can smell it in the exhaust and the cat.converters start heating up, and then the engine loses power starts popping when trying to accelerate as though the engine were running on 4 cylinders but spark and coils have been checked, coils interchanged, compression check is good when both hot and cold, -- final, if driving when the engine revs down to idle speed it will just stop running and refuses to start - turns over with a lot of popping sounds -- my next move is to replace the cam/crank sensor -- i've read a bad coil inside the sensor can open up as the sensor gets hot ..
I have been all over the forums - I see a lot of Mercedes have this exact problem and no one really finds a solution to the problem -- I have replaced everything electromechanical under the hood in the last 5 years , and the problem keeps coming back .. their is one component somewhere that is failing when the engine or engine area gets hot .. some intermittent sensor quits working when everything gets hot, but now its doing it when the engine gets warm, it doesnt even have to get really hot anymore , the symptom is getting worse .. this time I had to have the car towed home from 4 miles away and a friend and I pushed int onto the garage, and it still wouldnt start.
Left the car sit over night, the next day it started just fine and it ran like a smooth machine and reved-up well, and drove up and down the street fine.. and if I just leave it sit it will idle for a long time just fine -- but once it gets hot, it will begin to stammer, stutter, and bog down once it is put into gear, and acts as if there is no power at all, eventually it will just stall, and not restart. it has all new coils spark plugs wires, injectors and seals, all voltages on all sensors are where they need to be, all vacuum lines have been checked, all vacuum lines were replace 5 years ago, the car is babied and kept in a nice dry 3 car garage next to the other 2 cars that are driven daily ..
I need an expert Mercedes person to solve / tell me what the mystery problem is - because like i said, across many forums and car repair questions - ths is a big common problem with many Mercedes - even relatively new ones -- and many Florida Mercedes are being sold on auction sites because of this same problem.
NOTE: my last Mercedes 89 - 420SEL had a similar problem but not as bad , I could drive it fine, just a very rich exhaust and became more difficult when it got hot - because mercedes in general need a rich air fule mix to start but its suppose to lean out as it heats up .. but many dont. after 6 months of replacing mini computer modules and claining carboned up air intake parts .. a fellow friend who owned 4 vintage mercedes brought his very old german mercedes mechanic over to look at my 420SEL the gruff german said the engine was running to ruff, and asked me to get him a screw driver, he wacked the overvoltage protection relay and the engine immediately smoothed out, so the next day my friend brought me over a new relay and it ran fine -- until one cold 0F day while backing up out of the driveway REVERSE went out on the transmission - another common problem to Mercedes Audi and BMW autos.
I took the relay apart and a ground solder pin had come loose and as it got hot the pin made less and less contact to the circuit inside the relay - I have since found a similar situation an a volvo 420 relay under the glove box - and my 96 chrysler town and country, the ground pin to all of the dashboard display panel had loosened out of the solder .. so smacking the dashboard would bring everything back on line -- but there is a control chip on that panel that would cause the car not to start or to die if it lost ground connectivity .. once I took the entire dash apart and looked with strong magnifiers at the control panel i found the loose ground pin and simply resoldered it , and never had another problem with the town and country until the 3rd transmission went out and then I junked it for $300.
Once we find out what the problem is that many other Mercedes with the exact same problem have, the problem can be remedied once and for all.
NOTE: this is more than a fuel delivery issue it revs runs fast down the street, has good fuel pressure, fuel pump ok, so please no simpleton answers .. Over-Voltage Protection Relay and fuse is good, etc. all sensors are sending the correct voltages ..
SYMPTOMS: As the engine gets hotter it runs worse and worse, and the fuel gets richer you can smell it in the exhaust and the cat.converters start heating up, and then the engine loses power starts popping when trying to accelerate as though the engine were running on 4 cylinders but spark and coils have been checked, coils interchanged, compression check is good when both hot and cold, -- final, if driving when the engine revs down to idle speed it will just stop running and refuses to start - turns over with a lot of popping sounds -- my next move is to replace the cam/crank sensor -- i've read a bad coil inside the sensor can open up as the sensor gets hot ..
I have been all over the forums - I see a lot of Mercedes have this exact problem and no one really finds a solution to the problem -- I have replaced everything electromechanical under the hood in the last 5 years , and the problem keeps coming back .. their is one component somewhere that is failing when the engine or engine area gets hot .. some intermittent sensor quits working when everything gets hot, but now its doing it when the engine gets warm, it doesnt even have to get really hot anymore , the symptom is getting worse .. this time I had to have the car towed home from 4 miles away and a friend and I pushed int onto the garage, and it still wouldnt start.
Left the car sit over night, the next day it started just fine and it ran like a smooth machine and reved-up well, and drove up and down the street fine.. and if I just leave it sit it will idle for a long time just fine -- but once it gets hot, it will begin to stammer, stutter, and bog down once it is put into gear, and acts as if there is no power at all, eventually it will just stall, and not restart. it has all new coils spark plugs wires, injectors and seals, all voltages on all sensors are where they need to be, all vacuum lines have been checked, all vacuum lines were replace 5 years ago, the car is babied and kept in a nice dry 3 car garage next to the other 2 cars that are driven daily ..
I need an expert Mercedes person to solve / tell me what the mystery problem is - because like i said, across many forums and car repair questions - ths is a big common problem with many Mercedes - even relatively new ones -- and many Florida Mercedes are being sold on auction sites because of this same problem.
NOTE: my last Mercedes 89 - 420SEL had a similar problem but not as bad , I could drive it fine, just a very rich exhaust and became more difficult when it got hot - because mercedes in general need a rich air fule mix to start but its suppose to lean out as it heats up .. but many dont. after 6 months of replacing mini computer modules and claining carboned up air intake parts .. a fellow friend who owned 4 vintage mercedes brought his very old german mercedes mechanic over to look at my 420SEL the gruff german said the engine was running to ruff, and asked me to get him a screw driver, he wacked the overvoltage protection relay and the engine immediately smoothed out, so the next day my friend brought me over a new relay and it ran fine -- until one cold 0F day while backing up out of the driveway REVERSE went out on the transmission - another common problem to Mercedes Audi and BMW autos.
I took the relay apart and a ground solder pin had come loose and as it got hot the pin made less and less contact to the circuit inside the relay - I have since found a similar situation an a volvo 420 relay under the glove box - and my 96 chrysler town and country, the ground pin to all of the dashboard display panel had loosened out of the solder .. so smacking the dashboard would bring everything back on line -- but there is a control chip on that panel that would cause the car not to start or to die if it lost ground connectivity .. once I took the entire dash apart and looked with strong magnifiers at the control panel i found the loose ground pin and simply resoldered it , and never had another problem with the town and country until the 3rd transmission went out and then I junked it for $300.
Once we find out what the problem is that many other Mercedes with the exact same problem have, the problem can be remedied once and for all.
10-10-2018, 10:01 PM
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1992 500sl
my email is mschwedt@verizon.net
11-25-2018, 02:48 PM
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SL500
I got my 500SL running sort of well about 3 weeks ago -- I had to replace the distributor caps, rotors, rear distributor dustcups which cost $175 each at MB Dealer, then found them available later after the fact at 2 european parts places for $72 each, and replaced the HiVoltage ignition coil wires that go from the coils to the center pole of the distributor caps -- and replaced a very hard to remove rusted in place cam seal behind the distro dustcap on the passenger side that was leaking oily condensation into the distributor cap -- it took over 6 hours - took three hours to get the old rusted one out and many attempts to get the new one in - its supposed to go in dry and it wouldnt go, finally slicked everything up with WD40 and it went right in.. so didnt attempt to replace the drivers side cam seal yet -- will do that over the winter in the garage or next spring -- as the car is going into storage for the winter today.the drivers side distributor and rotor was all torn up internally including the dustcap behind the the distro -- the previous owners DIY replacement of the parts was the cause, he cross threaded one of the machine screws that attaches the rotor to the cam/rotor adapter and also messed up the threads on the rotor adaptor-- the head of a machine screw must have popped off from him over torquing the screw trying to force it into the part not knowing that it was cross threaded, when the stressed screws head popped off it tore up the dust cup, rotor and the inside of the distributor cap -- so I took an old machine screw and put it into the rotor adaptor from the rear to straighten out the crossed threads from the front and moved it in and out a few times with some WD40 lubricant and then I was finally able to put the new machine screw in from the front side of the rotor into the rotor adaptor correctly .. the passenger side distributor had a thick oily like condensation on the inside of the distributor cap from the rusted in place, leaking cam seal.then I found out that the driver side coil wire to the distributor's inside metal conductor had been eaten away from the high voltage spark because it was never properly seated all the way down onto the distributor -- it was sitting just high enough where the spark was jumping from the wire to the center pole of the distributor .. and in 4 years time the spark ate away the thin metal contact connector on the cable .. same thing with the passenger side cable -- i remember reading that those HV coil wires will sometimes work there way up off of the coil from heat and cooling cycles, and the cover needs to be taken off to push the wire back down onto the coil , take a plastic wire tie and tie the HV-coilwires down to the coils-- well the drivers side HiVoltage coil wire was eaten away at the coil end of the HiVoltage wire because it had lifted up off the coil, so I replaced that one also...then it ran fine ... but now it lopes sometimes when cold or when hot between 600rpm & 1200rpm , I shut the engine off and restart it and then it idles fine around 600rpm I tried to lean it out with the fuel distributor's idle control screw to get a pulse width reading of 70% that I read was the ideal rate, but that seems to be too lean for my vehicle, and my muscle car owning mechanic neighbor said it is better to let a car idle a little fast and rich rather than too lean. so I'm at ~ 60% pulse width when idling at around 600-700rpm .. previously I had replaced the cam sensor and crank sensor but that didnt help because the new crank sensor was defective and didnt work so I sent it back and lost on shipping each way .. I repaired the old crank sensor wire my self to make it work -- I cut out the coaxial crank sensor wire where it had gone bad from being to close to a hot spot on the engine/ left side exhaust maniflod -- I soldered the core wire together then wrapped that in electrical tape then wrapped a ground wire over the core and soldered it all, then I wrapped tinfoil over that and then covered all of it in 3 or 4 layers of vinyl electrical tape .. and it worked fine again.Now I have a chime sound that keeps sounding off whenever the wheels are rolling indicating the top isnt locked down?I put the hard top on for the winter for putting it in storage but it wont lock down all the way in the rear -- the rear locking hydraulic cylinder on the passenger side is now dumping hydraulic fluid on the floor behind the rear right wheel because the seal inside the cylinders has deteriorated and the left side wont lock down after having the left side hydraulic cylinders rebuilt last spring by Klaus at TOP HYDRAULIC in Oregon .. so now I have to atleast have the right side rear locking cylinder rebuilt, but have to investigate more as to why the hard top wont lock down even manually -- the hard top hasnt been on the car in 15 years, and the previous owner didnt store it covered up well, so it was covered in 15 years worth of garage dust and the paint is scuffed from where things were rubbing up against it while it was stored in the corner of his garage -- as he never used the hard top after his sister gave him this arizona car about 15 years ago. so I have to deal with that also.and the SRS system light is constantly on now, its been blowing fuses number 6 and number 9, the speedometer suddenly quit working. and either the brake pad sensor or ABS rotation sensor lights up on the dashboard when stepping on the brake hard or when going in reverse, either because the front ABS / wheel rotation sensors arent syncing up with whatever in the rear senses wheel or drive shaft or rear end rotation, and maybe also because the brake pads are really thin.which I found out the brake pads are nearly worn out when I took off the front wheels to get at the ABS rotation sensors and found them clogged with black magnetized iron dust -- a long time MB DIY mechanic on the BenzWorld forum said to clean the ABS sensors 1st .. its something owners and dealership mechanics miss doing he said .. so I found them to be loaded up with magnetic iron dust and dirt -- i had the rotors and hubs spinning freely & up off the ground in the air and spun the rusty inductors while i sprayed them down with WD40, then using a magnetic wand behind a shop rag I spun the inductors past the cloth covered magnet 5 or 6 times on different areas of the cloth covered magnet until there was very little grime coming off the inductors, and cleaned the ABS sensors off really well with a rag and WD40 too, and now the ABS dash light is out, and the other lights only comes on when i step on the brake really hard, which might be the worn out brake pad sensors going off .. but neither should have an effect on why the speedometer quit working unless the rear wheel rotation sensor also quit working ... as the blown fuse to the soft-top/hardtop-unlocked-chime, and then the electric windows wouldnt work either, the speedo wasnt working after the fuse blew and the chime went silent, I replaced the fuse, the chime sound came back the electric windows were working again, but then the speedo wasnt working ,, which i find to be odd .. because before the hard top/soft top fuse blew, everything was working fine and the chime was sounding .. now everything is back to working except the speedo .. so where i am at now is why wont the hard top lock down and making the chime sound indicating the hard top isnt locked down, when it is locked down because I locked it down manually, the SRS light stays on, and i checked the wiring to the passenger side airbag , its good,
someone else in a forum regarding the SRS dash light staying on said that there are contact rings on the steering column for the steering wheel air bag that gets corroded and the contact rings on the column need to be cleaned up with emery cloth or sand paper so that the circuit can once again make contact with the drivers airbag in the steering wheel -- so will have to check that out too in the spring..so need to replace brake pads next spring and the tires, which i discovered were completely bald on the very inside of the tire where you cant see it, so the caster and camber of the wheels might be off too causing the tires to wear out unevenly just on the very inside edge of the tire .. I discovered that when taking the wheels off to clean the ABS sensors -- and the person who put the new tires on 10 to 15 years ago when his sister owned the car in arizona must have used an impact gun to put the wheel stud bolts on because i had to use a really long breaker bar to break the bolts loose and one bolt snapped off and the threaded part is still in the wheel hub, and many of the other chromed bolts had the threads missing on the tip of the bolt, due to them being way over tightened when they were put on most likely with an over-torqued impact gun, so I bought a new set of 20 chrome lug bolts on ebay from LA WHEELS in California so hopefully the threads on the hubs are made of a better steel than the bolts, and I can just put on a new set of bolts all the way around, but finding the right bolts is being difficult - the only place that seems to have the chromed bolts is LA WHEELS in California - because this car was special ordered with the 600SL package including custom MB wheels that are not the standard 8 inches wide but are 9.5 inches wide .. the emblems on the car say 600SL and V12 .. even though its a V8 the very wealthy now deceased owner who bought it for his wife 26 years ago paid $90,000 cash for this car, he ordered the 600SL package but with a 500SL engine in it.. he just wanted the status of people thinking that it was a V12 600SL , go figure.the tranny was rebuilt by the previous owner 5 or 6 years ago because reverse went out in it, and at that time the rear main seal was replaced, but some how the last 2 to 3 inches of the tranny dipstick was broken off, so i ordered a new dipstick for $35 only to discover the tranny fluid was low .. by almost a gallon, so this new tranny has been being driven for the last 5,000 miles being almost a gallon low.the previous owner wasnt one to do good vehicle maintenance on any of his cars, he just drove them until something went wrong -- he actually blew a new engine on a new blazer years ago because he never did the factory recommended oil change for new vehicles, so had to pay for a new engine because he never took it to the dealer to have the warrenteed oil change done to keep the warrantee good and ended up blowing the engine from never ever having changed the oil, then one day i was with and his power steering pump was squeeling - he said it had been doing that for weeks, he had no clue what to do, i discovered for him that the PS resorvoir had run dry, so we drove the car to auto zone 2 miles away to put in powersteering fluid .. so when i got this MB from him a year ago the brake fluid res. was almost dry, the powersteering res. was less than half full the windshieldwasher res. pump rubber grommet was dry and cracked and leaking fluid out the bottom by the pump and the engine oil hadnt been changed for atleast 5 years / 5,000 miles and the trans was almost 1 gallon low after the rebuild .. so the first thing i did was change the oil and filter and bring all fluids up to where they needed to be .. and replaced the dried rubber gromet on the windshield washer res. and he used to take his grand kids for joy rides in the car with the top down .. so in that back compartment area behind the front seats, the old brittle plastic vanity covers behind the seats that cover up most of the seats metal functioning parts are all broken up from the kids stepping on them, and he never cleaned the carpeting in the car either, so it is all dirty and stained with grime and food, and the floor under the seats was littered with coins and mcdonalds french fries and wrappers because he never vacuumed or cleaned out the interior of the car, he just drove it ..the drivers vanity mirror cover is broken off, the seat moving forward and backward switch module on the drivers door is broken loose, the passenger side reading light module above the rear view mirror is missing .. this damage was done when he replaced the above the windshield soft top leaking hydraulic cylinders a few years ago, about a year or two before i bought the car from him .. in fact I helped him for 5 years to get all the bugs out of this car the first time, as it hadnt really been driven much when his sister gave him the car as it was already developing problems 15 years ago ..so I wasnt expecting this 115km vehicle to be having so many problems now, as I thought we had resolved most problems, because he had the tranny rebuilt new exhaust and cats and 02 sensors put on it, he replaced the ignition control module, the idle control module the over voltgage protection relay module, and as mentioned before, he replaced all the distributor caps and rotors himself about 5 years before and did a poor job of doing it, and lastly he sent out the fuel distributor to have it rebuilt at a cost of $700 because after 22 years the internal rubber Orings had deteriorated, after the fuel distro was rebuilt it ran really well with no problems -- until I bought the car from him after it sat in storage for the last 2 years and was hardly ever driven by him because he had hit a pot hole with a low air in the right rear tire, as he never checks his tires for air pressure in any of his vehicles either -- so now the right rear tire goes flat within a week so he stopped driving the car 2 years ago because he never had time to keep the 15year old tires inflated .. and he didnt want to bother putting on new tires, because he didnt drive it but 5 miles to work and back in the summer .. .. the guy has never been that good of a mechanic, although he thinks he is .. as i said , he has a bad habit of not maintaining cars and just drives them until something goes wrong .. and until the tires go bald, or the brakes squeel or the oil light comes on, or when someone has to point out problems to him .. other than that he is oblivious to those sort of things, because his focus is always on maximizing profits in his business, so home maintenance and car maintenance and everything else is out the window, as he only concentrates on his $350k/yr entrepeneurial business that he started about 15 years ago .. that my father a retired machinist by trade, helped him make the proto types, and then one day about a year later he never notified my father that he didnt require my fathers services anymore, ..because he went and had molds made to have the parts made from high tensile strength carbon fiber injection molding .. for his Creators Stained Glass patented products, the beginning protypes were actually created and machined out of aluminum by my father in his garage where he had a lathe and a drill press , but my father was never given any real credit for doing all of this for him, as he likes bragging to everyone for the last 15 years that he designed it all, but he wont say that in front of me, because he knows that my father is the one who came up with the prototype design and machined the parts out of billet aluminum stock with pressed in chrome rods .. now its all plastic parts with pressed in brass or steel bushings were needed.I digress ..so after spending almost $1,000 in parts this past 9 months i finally got the 500SL running again, and now it needs more work, brakepads and tires .. and some scuffs and small dings in the paint to be rectified, and interior plastic parts replaced and the entire interior cleaned, and a small timy tear between perferation holes in the the perferated butterscotch leather seat of the passenger seat repaired that wasnt there 3 years ago, when i last drove the car for the entire summer, I was driving the car for the entire summer 3 years ago as my reward for helping him fix the car -- as he bought a 30 ft pontoon boat and wasnt intersted in the MB anymore so three years ago i drove it to car shows for the entire summer trying to sell it for the $20,000-$15,000 he thought it was worth .. only one guy was mildly interested in buying it because his wife wanted it really badly, but he eventually passed on it, actually the paint and no rust body and the completely replaced engine compartment electronics and rebuilt transmission makes it worth probably around $10-12,000 as it also has its original hard top too and the canvas butterscotch convertible top was also replaced about 10 years ago too and is in very good condition.so it sat in his garage in storage for most of the 3 years, and his wife finally told him that it had to go, he had to sell it, so over the last 3 years he kept dropping the price to me from initially $8,000 3-4 years ago, to $5,000, and I bought it last year for $4,000, and when taking it out of storage this past spring i got 4 miles down the road going to have new tires put on it and it died, so i never got the new tires on it and had to have it flat-bedded back to the garage for $120, and this is when this whole new crop of problems had occured .. i even bought a used ignition control module off of ebay for it but that wasnt the problem either .. I thought to myself, no way could new ignition parts go bad in 4-5 years / 5,000 miles .. so that was my last concern .. I didnt realize that he had done a poor job of installing the new ignition parts, and the ignition work he did to it, all failed at relatively the same time.I should have checked his new ignition parts he put on first and saved myself about 2 months of headaches -- also it took about another 2 months in spare total time to remove the leaking/faulty soft top hydraulic cylinders on the left side of the vehicle, send them out for rebuilding and reinstalling them, as they are very difficult to get at to remove and it takes more than one set of hands to do it , so during the summer i had my petite 13yo daughter helping me with her little body and hands getting into the tight places I couldnt get to .. without her help I wouldnt have been able to do it all on my own.the saga will continue next spring, when I prep this car to get rid of it .. its been too big a headache and now i'm over owning it ..
someone else in a forum regarding the SRS dash light staying on said that there are contact rings on the steering column for the steering wheel air bag that gets corroded and the contact rings on the column need to be cleaned up with emery cloth or sand paper so that the circuit can once again make contact with the drivers airbag in the steering wheel -- so will have to check that out too in the spring..so need to replace brake pads next spring and the tires, which i discovered were completely bald on the very inside of the tire where you cant see it, so the caster and camber of the wheels might be off too causing the tires to wear out unevenly just on the very inside edge of the tire .. I discovered that when taking the wheels off to clean the ABS sensors -- and the person who put the new tires on 10 to 15 years ago when his sister owned the car in arizona must have used an impact gun to put the wheel stud bolts on because i had to use a really long breaker bar to break the bolts loose and one bolt snapped off and the threaded part is still in the wheel hub, and many of the other chromed bolts had the threads missing on the tip of the bolt, due to them being way over tightened when they were put on most likely with an over-torqued impact gun, so I bought a new set of 20 chrome lug bolts on ebay from LA WHEELS in California so hopefully the threads on the hubs are made of a better steel than the bolts, and I can just put on a new set of bolts all the way around, but finding the right bolts is being difficult - the only place that seems to have the chromed bolts is LA WHEELS in California - because this car was special ordered with the 600SL package including custom MB wheels that are not the standard 8 inches wide but are 9.5 inches wide .. the emblems on the car say 600SL and V12 .. even though its a V8 the very wealthy now deceased owner who bought it for his wife 26 years ago paid $90,000 cash for this car, he ordered the 600SL package but with a 500SL engine in it.. he just wanted the status of people thinking that it was a V12 600SL , go figure.the tranny was rebuilt by the previous owner 5 or 6 years ago because reverse went out in it, and at that time the rear main seal was replaced, but some how the last 2 to 3 inches of the tranny dipstick was broken off, so i ordered a new dipstick for $35 only to discover the tranny fluid was low .. by almost a gallon, so this new tranny has been being driven for the last 5,000 miles being almost a gallon low.the previous owner wasnt one to do good vehicle maintenance on any of his cars, he just drove them until something went wrong -- he actually blew a new engine on a new blazer years ago because he never did the factory recommended oil change for new vehicles, so had to pay for a new engine because he never took it to the dealer to have the warrenteed oil change done to keep the warrantee good and ended up blowing the engine from never ever having changed the oil, then one day i was with and his power steering pump was squeeling - he said it had been doing that for weeks, he had no clue what to do, i discovered for him that the PS resorvoir had run dry, so we drove the car to auto zone 2 miles away to put in powersteering fluid .. so when i got this MB from him a year ago the brake fluid res. was almost dry, the powersteering res. was less than half full the windshieldwasher res. pump rubber grommet was dry and cracked and leaking fluid out the bottom by the pump and the engine oil hadnt been changed for atleast 5 years / 5,000 miles and the trans was almost 1 gallon low after the rebuild .. so the first thing i did was change the oil and filter and bring all fluids up to where they needed to be .. and replaced the dried rubber gromet on the windshield washer res. and he used to take his grand kids for joy rides in the car with the top down .. so in that back compartment area behind the front seats, the old brittle plastic vanity covers behind the seats that cover up most of the seats metal functioning parts are all broken up from the kids stepping on them, and he never cleaned the carpeting in the car either, so it is all dirty and stained with grime and food, and the floor under the seats was littered with coins and mcdonalds french fries and wrappers because he never vacuumed or cleaned out the interior of the car, he just drove it ..the drivers vanity mirror cover is broken off, the seat moving forward and backward switch module on the drivers door is broken loose, the passenger side reading light module above the rear view mirror is missing .. this damage was done when he replaced the above the windshield soft top leaking hydraulic cylinders a few years ago, about a year or two before i bought the car from him .. in fact I helped him for 5 years to get all the bugs out of this car the first time, as it hadnt really been driven much when his sister gave him the car as it was already developing problems 15 years ago ..so I wasnt expecting this 115km vehicle to be having so many problems now, as I thought we had resolved most problems, because he had the tranny rebuilt new exhaust and cats and 02 sensors put on it, he replaced the ignition control module, the idle control module the over voltgage protection relay module, and as mentioned before, he replaced all the distributor caps and rotors himself about 5 years before and did a poor job of doing it, and lastly he sent out the fuel distributor to have it rebuilt at a cost of $700 because after 22 years the internal rubber Orings had deteriorated, after the fuel distro was rebuilt it ran really well with no problems -- until I bought the car from him after it sat in storage for the last 2 years and was hardly ever driven by him because he had hit a pot hole with a low air in the right rear tire, as he never checks his tires for air pressure in any of his vehicles either -- so now the right rear tire goes flat within a week so he stopped driving the car 2 years ago because he never had time to keep the 15year old tires inflated .. and he didnt want to bother putting on new tires, because he didnt drive it but 5 miles to work and back in the summer .. .. the guy has never been that good of a mechanic, although he thinks he is .. as i said , he has a bad habit of not maintaining cars and just drives them until something goes wrong .. and until the tires go bald, or the brakes squeel or the oil light comes on, or when someone has to point out problems to him .. other than that he is oblivious to those sort of things, because his focus is always on maximizing profits in his business, so home maintenance and car maintenance and everything else is out the window, as he only concentrates on his $350k/yr entrepeneurial business that he started about 15 years ago .. that my father a retired machinist by trade, helped him make the proto types, and then one day about a year later he never notified my father that he didnt require my fathers services anymore, ..because he went and had molds made to have the parts made from high tensile strength carbon fiber injection molding .. for his Creators Stained Glass patented products, the beginning protypes were actually created and machined out of aluminum by my father in his garage where he had a lathe and a drill press , but my father was never given any real credit for doing all of this for him, as he likes bragging to everyone for the last 15 years that he designed it all, but he wont say that in front of me, because he knows that my father is the one who came up with the prototype design and machined the parts out of billet aluminum stock with pressed in chrome rods .. now its all plastic parts with pressed in brass or steel bushings were needed.I digress ..so after spending almost $1,000 in parts this past 9 months i finally got the 500SL running again, and now it needs more work, brakepads and tires .. and some scuffs and small dings in the paint to be rectified, and interior plastic parts replaced and the entire interior cleaned, and a small timy tear between perferation holes in the the perferated butterscotch leather seat of the passenger seat repaired that wasnt there 3 years ago, when i last drove the car for the entire summer, I was driving the car for the entire summer 3 years ago as my reward for helping him fix the car -- as he bought a 30 ft pontoon boat and wasnt intersted in the MB anymore so three years ago i drove it to car shows for the entire summer trying to sell it for the $20,000-$15,000 he thought it was worth .. only one guy was mildly interested in buying it because his wife wanted it really badly, but he eventually passed on it, actually the paint and no rust body and the completely replaced engine compartment electronics and rebuilt transmission makes it worth probably around $10-12,000 as it also has its original hard top too and the canvas butterscotch convertible top was also replaced about 10 years ago too and is in very good condition.so it sat in his garage in storage for most of the 3 years, and his wife finally told him that it had to go, he had to sell it, so over the last 3 years he kept dropping the price to me from initially $8,000 3-4 years ago, to $5,000, and I bought it last year for $4,000, and when taking it out of storage this past spring i got 4 miles down the road going to have new tires put on it and it died, so i never got the new tires on it and had to have it flat-bedded back to the garage for $120, and this is when this whole new crop of problems had occured .. i even bought a used ignition control module off of ebay for it but that wasnt the problem either .. I thought to myself, no way could new ignition parts go bad in 4-5 years / 5,000 miles .. so that was my last concern .. I didnt realize that he had done a poor job of installing the new ignition parts, and the ignition work he did to it, all failed at relatively the same time.I should have checked his new ignition parts he put on first and saved myself about 2 months of headaches -- also it took about another 2 months in spare total time to remove the leaking/faulty soft top hydraulic cylinders on the left side of the vehicle, send them out for rebuilding and reinstalling them, as they are very difficult to get at to remove and it takes more than one set of hands to do it , so during the summer i had my petite 13yo daughter helping me with her little body and hands getting into the tight places I couldnt get to .. without her help I wouldnt have been able to do it all on my own.the saga will continue next spring, when I prep this car to get rid of it .. its been too big a headache and now i'm over owning it ..
its like owning a luxury boat that is a money pit -- the happiest 2 days for the owner is the day they buy it, and the day they sell it. same can be said about this Classic MB R129 500SL
11-25-2018, 03:57 PM
#7
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SL500
I had a list of what to do in 5 sections but then the website froze up and wouldnt post so not going thru all of that again.. sorry
build this or buy one and start checking fault codes ..
http://s71974.wixsite.com/mercedesplanet -- someone sells this type of tester and ships with printouts of all of the fault codes ..
http://www.mercedes.gen.in/mercedes-...4-r129-others/
http://manual.startekinfo.com/manual..._2/content.jsp
build this or buy one and start checking fault codes ..
http://s71974.wixsite.com/mercedesplanet -- someone sells this type of tester and ships with printouts of all of the fault codes ..
http://www.mercedes.gen.in/mercedes-...4-r129-others/
http://manual.startekinfo.com/manual..._2/content.jsp
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11-26-2018, 12:07 PM
#8
Banned
I use a computer-controlled code reader which automatically reads, numerically displays, and erases all codes with one touch of a button. Cost to build: about $12. But you can simply use a 12-volt LED costing $1 or an automotive test light from Harbor Freight costing about $6. On no account should someone spend $47 plus shipping for a simple code reader, in my opinion.
11-26-2018, 04:10 PM
#9
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SL500
I use a computer-controlled code reader which automatically reads, numerically displays, and erases all codes with one touch of a button. Cost to build: about $12. But you can simply use a 12-volt LED costing $1 or an automotive test light from Harbor Freight costing about $6. On no account should someone spend $47 plus shipping for a simple code reader, in my opinion.
so to someone just starting off getting the reader and code info would be worth it .. it cost me $35+shipping for just a freaking 500SL dipstick !!!
on one of the links I sent you, has the codes in a pdf file within that particular MB site ..
its sort of cryptic to get around in but after a few tries I eventually found the pdf file with the codes, and interpretation of those codes ...
I built my own code reader years ago with an LED banana plugs and a plastic box radio shack,
but like I said finding the codes and interpretations of those codes proved very difficult to find for me ..
even with the code reader , it doesnt always give you exactly what problems to look for, I'm still dealing with heat related problems ... which I think is just trial and error trying to sort out, and not enough youtube videos to sort it all out either .. and lot of these forum replies also send you going down the wrong rabbit hole too..
Last edited by 92-500SL; 11-26-2018 at 04:14 PM. Reason: additional info
11-26-2018, 07:41 PM
#10
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280 SEL
Hi! Do you need the engine manual?
Mercedes Benz Service Manual V-8 Engine M119
Search the site Crazy About Mercedes
Mercedes Benz Service Manual V-8 Engine M119
Search the site Crazy About Mercedes
Last edited by petercho; 11-26-2018 at 07:53 PM.
02-16-2019, 08:25 PM
#11
MBWorld Fanatic!
You have probably figured it out by now;
Cam Shaft Sensor.
A common issue. Wears out over time.
A worn out sensor figures there is something wrong & will not allow the car to fire.
I had an experience of this type. Not an expensive fix.
Cam Shaft Sensor.
A common issue. Wears out over time.
A worn out sensor figures there is something wrong & will not allow the car to fire.
I had an experience of this type. Not an expensive fix.
02-17-2019, 08:45 AM
#12
Banned
Your engine has a very different injection and ignition system than a '92 500SL. On an early car the camshaft position sensor does nothing more than identify a knocking cylinder when the knock sensors detect such an event. A 1992 will start and drive perfectly fine with a faulty camshaft sensor.
JeffNY
04-18-2019, 08:31 AM
#14
Banned
04-19-2019, 03:10 PM
#16
Banned
An engine that starts cold but has problems when warmed-up is often due to faulty distributor caps. When the engine won't start at that moment I would check for spark at each plug.
04-20-2019, 09:20 AM
#19
Banned
Unless a rotor shows an obvious defect I would not be inclined to replace it.
For distributor caps it is recommended to go with Beru. I don't see how, but there are fewer problems with Beru than with Bosch.
For distributor caps it is recommended to go with Beru. I don't see how, but there are fewer problems with Beru than with Bosch.
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JeffNY (04-20-2019)
04-20-2019, 07:31 PM
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1987 560SL, 2007 SL550, 2012 E350, 2010 c300
1987 560SL starts instantly when cold. Stalls when reaching operating temp (80c) from idle or driving. Runs perfectly until the stall. Will not restart until completely cold. Replaced crank position sensor, distributor cap, rotor, ignition coil, fuel pump relay and fuel pumps.... no change. It appears to be losing spark after the stall.
Any ideas appreciated.
Any ideas appreciated.
04-20-2019, 11:29 PM
#21
Banned
I would perform the following measurement at a time when the engine will not start. I would remove one of the two wires to the ignition coil and connect a 1K-ohm resistor to the removed wire and the 2nd wire which you left connected to the coil. I would measure the DC voltage while you crank the engine. The voltage you measure will suggest the next troubleshooting step.
Since your car is an R107, I suggest posting your issue in the R107 forum as well.
Since your car is an R107, I suggest posting your issue in the R107 forum as well.
04-26-2019, 10:54 PM
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1992 Mercedes 500sl
Ok,installed distributor caps and yes rotors on the way ,looked rough. Caps were also in bad shape. Runs smooth at cold temps and clean as it warms up checking the voltage for the fuel system in plug 2&3 fluctuates between 6 and 7 volts after running for 10 to 15 mins just to 12 +- volts and starts to run rich and warms up and stalls,cools down and starts again.Someone has already tried to make adjustment to the fuel follow.. any clues. Thanks
04-27-2019, 09:22 AM
#23
Banned
I'll guess the chances of me being able to help you solve this problem are 50-50 at best.
04-27-2019, 11:52 AM
#25
Banned
It is important to know if the voltage is 90% or 100% of the voltage between sockets #6 and #2.
Last edited by bobterry99; 04-28-2019 at 10:56 AM.
