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Last Saturday I felt a little racey and flipped off the ASR on my 98 SL500 for a stop light race, no problem with that however I forgot to turn it back on. So a little later I took a fast right corner with a lot of room, but not enough. Spun out and folded left side against curb, lucky no body damage but broke sub frame, both wheels front and rear knuckles, links, tie rods and other sundry items. Drove it about 2 miles home on three wheels as the left front $B6 mount broke off so wheel was dangling in the wind. Now large parts order on the way
Last Saturday I felt a little racey and flipped off the ASR on my 98 SL500 for a stop light race, no problem with that however I forgot to turn it back on. So a little later I took a fast right corner with a lot of room, but not enough. Spun out and folded left side against curb, lucky no body damage but broke sub frame, both wheels front and rear knuckles, links, tie rods and other sundry items. Drove it about 2 miles home on three wheels as the left front $B6 mount broke off so wheel was dangling in the wind. Now large parts order on the way
Jeeze Louise. Hope you're alright. Post some before and after pics if you're up to it.
Well as I see it, all the racing I've done with my 3 R129's and the worst cost I've had to suck up is about 4 trips to Disneyland and my "E" tickets are still good 24/7. Now a mishap like this at 160+ ????
Last edited by FATHERTIME; Feb 20, 2021 at 05:04 PM.
Roll bar popped up but no air bags, good thing cause I had to get out of there quick, it's a major street and I'm sure the wrong folks would be coming soon
Yeah alignment will be telling so I'm holding off buying a set of wheels till I know it's straight I have a pair of spares to make it roll. Sub frame arrives Tues from Florida
So teardown after that and a hell of a lot of close inspection. We replaced every bushing on rear suspension including subframe 2 years ago so this wont be first rodeo.
I have a good Mercedes independent shop that lets me bring parts and help. I'm older than dirt so a rack is golden for me. I also own a machine shop so any special
stuff I can usually handle. So now for a while my 99 SL600 is the daily driver and ESP is always on
Not so much any more ... but in my 1999 SL500 I used to purposefully take ramps and corners “too fast” just to feel the brakes being applied to prevent spin out.
I have done some pretty crazy street driving.
There was a forested urban park near our condo back in 2005 - where there were very few intersections & no cross streets for a circuit around the entire park. I would go to have fun.
One long straight was a standing start (when coordinated with traffic & lights), arranged so no one was ahead of me. 0 to 135 mph then some braking and a 45 degree right to merge with a street .. then a 90 degree corner ... all taken very fast if there was no traffic.
Then putt around the other (2) sides of the park to repeat.
Have you ever smelled the rotten egg smell of your catatonic converters being over worked?
Back in the day - Some member hosted the video & helped me post the video from my steering column - of the instrument gauge I took one time .. top down - it was awesome. Pulling 6,000 rpm at every shift to 135 mph & the sound in the forest was great.
Someone should do that & post in away that it will be stickied
One time I did some suspension work and it somehow tripped the ABS via the wheel speed sensors. I took the car to the dealership to have the sensors checked and the code cleared. The trip to the dealership was a little erratic with the wonky wheel speed sensors feeding bad intel to the ABS causing the brakes to engage randomly.
This was about 15 years ago when there were a few people left at the dealership who could troubleshoot the car and actually fix it. Not so today.
Anyway, after baselining the wheel sensors and clearing the trouble codes, the tech took the car for a drive. He wanted to make sure the ABS/ADS II/ESP was working properly so he had to push the car to 105 in a turn to get the systems to react. 105 is nothing for the car and the stability systems did their job keeping everything under control.
I've only had the ESP kick in once when a box flew out of a truck on the interstate and I had to swerve at high speed to miss it. I momentarily thought I did a great job driving, but I remembered it's the car not me.
The R129 cars are very heavy and don't react well to sudden high speed deviations (they aren't sports cars). Best to keep the safety controls engaged, you never know when they will save you or the car.
I have one concern about the part number on the subframe I bought, 129 350 8600 The seller stated that its1999 SL500 only however as far as I know all the R129 subframes are the same. I called the dealer and he said that number does not come up on the system. The seller had two of these and I just can't figure what could possibly be different between 98 and 99 SL500 subframe. The seller did state the VIN of both cars these came from and they are 99 SL500 US build, Does anyone know this part number.
Well the frame is still in the car but the sticker I think is on the top as is the frame I bought. We may get it down tomorrow> All I can think is 99 is the first year on the SL500 with ESP maybe it has some bracket for a sensor?
My car has ESP and I don't think there are any extra brackets for the rear subframe.
There's the 3 body sensors; 2 on the strut towers and one near the battery. And the yaw sensor under the console. Other that that, ESP uses info from the wheel sensors via ABS and chassis info from ADS. Your car probably didn't have ADS, so that system didn't provide input to your setup. Besides, ADS get's its body info from the ride height sensors which are linked to the sway bars and the sensors are mounted on brackets that are attached to the body.
You should be good to go with your unbent subframe.
Sub frame will come down on Monday so I hope I all the parts I need. Funny no rear subframe bushings listed for R129 I put new ones about two years ago and used C43 bushings as recommended by mahunt they fit perfect. I know rear suspension will be rite but gotta see what front looks like when on the floor I hope I don't need a frame guy As one of the pictures show that left control arm is really bent but the new one did slip in the way it should I see no visible damage to the front frame but something may be hiding.
Last edited by FATHERTIME; Feb 26, 2021 at 10:54 PM.
Sub frame will come down on Monday so I hope I all the parts I need. Funny no rear subframe bushings listed for R129 I put new ones about two years ago and used C43 bushings as recommended by mahunt they fit perfect. I know rear suspension will be rite but gotta see what front looks like when on the floor I hope I don't need a frame guy, As one of the pictures show that left control arm is really bent but the new one did slip in the way it should I see no visible damage to the front frame but something may be hiding. What the hell does that spoiler mean on my last post
Ok so I'm on the road again front left frame not damaged so alignment went smooth car is tight as new. Waiting for a couple wheels from back east so used spare wheels from 500 and 600 for alignment .We put it together last night and today. I aint good at pictures but here's what I have may be a few duplicates of what I already posted. You can see that a rack is golden for this job. If I'm not mistaken I think mahunt posted pics doing thison his 600 on the floor My hats off to him,
FWIW, I had my trusted independent do an alignment of my '00 SL600 on a computerized rack like the one you have pictured. I got the impression from his comments to me that it was a giant PITA to do - something about how the R129 is setup makes it fairly unique and time consuming to dial in on the alignment rack. Did you have a similar experience?
The V12 car alignment requires someone knowledgeable about ADS as the height varies. There is a procedure.
Fathertime,
It didn't look like you used new subframe or differential bushings.
I did use all 4 new subframe bushings and new differential bushings just may have missed that picture, Funny thing is I bought the bushings from same seller and he sent ma a note asking if all 4 subframe were for my SL500 cause 2 rears I ordered were for a C43. I told him not a mistake they do fit R129. I don't understand why no rears a listed for R129 even AZ Autohaus. My alignment guy knows engine needs to be running to make adjustments cause camber will change if car settles with engine off,
FWIW, I had my trusted independent do an alignment of my '00 SL600 on a computerized rack like the one you have pictured. I got the impression from his comments to me that it was a giant PITA to do - something about how the R129 is setup makes it fairly unique and time consuming to dial in on the alignment rack. Did you have a similar experience?
Problem is if car settles with engine off you can wind up with positive camber on one wheel.
So now car is back on the road and is straight, quiet and drives great. However coming back from 600 mile trip yesterday I had to swerve away from a car coming into my lane at about 65mph I almost lost it I don't believe the ASR is working
I have no dash lights on nor did the warning light come on in the speedo. Is there a way to check if it's correct?
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Virtues Of ASR!!
