I have an SL350 which is a real lemon. I bought it new and I chucked back to MB because I was fed up with it. Firstly as I drove it from the garage on the day I bought it neither the radio nor phone worked!
Then it began to jam in first gear although ita an automatic. They said nothing was wrong with it on bringing it to dealer and then on my return from a 3 week vacation I discovered apool of transmission oil under the car. I was informed that only 1/3 of the oil leaked and that the new seal would correct the problem - needless to say it didnt and so the saga goes. I then chucked it back to dealer and have decided to sue . I requested a replacement and was prepared to add some money to purchase replacement but dealer was good enough to say to me that he would not be able to deal with me on that basis as they were all giving trouble. What a disgraceful state of affairs for such a noble brand of car, to be left to such an incompetent shower of hooligans to run it into the ground. Although I have been a loyal fan of MB I wouldnt touch one ever again with all the grief and stress I had from this car. I am now suing MB and its unbelievable their arrogance - they would almost make you feel that I was the problem and not the defective car!
Has anyone out there had similar transmission problems with any SL in the R230 range and would you share your experiences with me. My email address is pos-85@hotmail.com. If anyone out there is considering purchasing an MB think again because you will have difficulty with MB. Take my advice and buy a decent car from a company that will give you a decent customer service. Happy motoring!!

 

Since posting the above I have completed my case against MB and won my case where I proved that there was a problem with the transmission ( along with 3 other SL 350 owners) where the finding was that the vehicle lost power without I touching the transmission shift ( the argument put forward by MB was that I had touched the transmission, which was not held to be the case) anyone out there who may have been mislead by MB are welcome to contact me and I can give assistance to such victims. It is a problem MB is and was well aware of and they have known of this problem with the 722 transmission for years . My email address is: philip@philiposullivan.com. Don't be fooled by these people

 

Congrats from across the ocean... just curious what year was your SL and what came out of this for you? money back or new model?

 

]Thank youMITVIET I Am using different email address .i am Paddy as per above but due to difficulties in trying to get back online I had to use a different alias!

In answer to your queries what I succeeded in getting was compensation rather than a rescission of the Contract. I litigated on the matter for 8 years and you wouldn't believe the scullduggery that I experienced from MB Agents. ONe of my witnesses were 'tampered with'. But he still came. In and ave evidence on my behalf. Out of 60 cars approx imported to Ireland in 2004 I was able to identify 3 other cars with same problem. As the Arbitrator who presided at the hearing that this figure represented avery high percentage of cars w itch the same problem.

The case went on for 5 days and MB tried every trick in the book to defeat my claim.They didn't even offer one cent to sette but stated to my Counsel that they were out to teach me a lesson. A poor response, my counsel pointed out from a company that had received over e350,000 from me over a space of 4 years in cars purchased from them.

You wouldn't believe the amount of perjury they committed. They signed so many affidavits with so many inaccuracies in them and in fact I caught them concealing documents regarding my car , after they had sworn they had no further documents, and I applied to the High Court to have them committed to jail for contempt and they had to apologise to the court for what they said was an oversight!!!!!

I have so much information in how this so called reputable organisation conducts itself that you would have to ask yourself how can people deal with them. I have reliable information from an independent Mercedes specialist, which I have already exhibited to the Court whic confirmed that MB have been aware that they were having difficulties with these transmissions since as far back as 1996.(722.6 transmission) In fact this transmission with its faults was and perhaps still used on other MB Models (other than the SL350)

I am still in the process of finishing off this case and have to recover my costs off them but when this is over I plan to publish the Decision on this cae as well as copies of the High Court Orders as I feel it is incumbent on me to let other people out there what this organisation has been up to. By the way the excuse they had for my transmission problems was that I was inadvertently touching the automatic gear shif and thereby causing the problem whereby the car ended up without power or traction - what bull.!!!

As I said above I am available to help other people out there to deal with these people. As the Arbitratot commented during the hearing that with this number of problem cars in Ireland there must be many more throughout the World. So fr those of yu ut there who have been misled by this Compsny stand up and deal with these people for what they are. I am prepared to stand up and help. You ask me why I am prepared to stick my neck out like this,well the answer is that I received help from other car owners who helped me without condition and hence I feel it is incumbent on me to help others.

Again thank you for your good wishes and keep safe!!!!!

 

Forgot to mention that my car was an SL 350 year 2004 - which I bought new

 

Thanks for posting this for you very sorry tale. I have done less than 1000miles in my (UK model) recently purchased 2003 sl350 with 81000 miles recorded. It's in great running order currently. I've read much on the UK based forums about the variety of possible failings on this model eg SBC braking system and boot/roof/front air intake box water ingress issues leading to failure of the PSE pump/ SAM modules. Yours is the first report I've seen re transmission problems. SHould I come across the issues you experienced I would very much like to take you up on your offer of supporting evidence in rerspect of your court case. I look forward to you putting this information on thr forum for others to benefit. So great to seee the good guy winning in the end!!!

 

Thank you Martin and I' delighted to see that you have had a trouble free expereience with you SL. Long may that be. When they go t hey certainly are a delight to drive but unfotunately the opposite can be a nightmare scenario.
May I wish you very happy motoring and if you ever need my help I will be there to provide you with back up

Best wishes
Philip

 

Dear Philip,

I am just waiting to get my car back from the independent transmission specialist.

I have a 2005 sl500 with a 7G transmission. I believe that this is the 722.9 transmission.

This has failed and needed to be rebuilt. I choose to have an independent rebuild it.

MB totally deny any problem with this box, but I am convinced that 74000miles premature.

A search has provided lots of results of 722.9 failure and the associated valve body.

At the end of the day I've paid to have the box rebuilt and the valve body replaced. But it is reassuring to know that someone has taken these people to task and won.

My overall impression of the R230 is that is an ill conceived, poorly designed and unfinished product that owners or 2nd-3rd owners are suffering.

Since I have had this car (3 years) multiple expensive bits have failed.

Shame on MB.

I whole heartedly agree with your first comments.
Don't patronise MB they are really poor in all aspects.

Tito

 

Hi Tito

Sorry to hear of your problems

Are you sure your transmission is a 722.9?

Perhaps the transmission fault is a common one to SLs. I know that the same transmission that I had oproblems with was common to many other models ( 722.6). I wouldn't accept their refusal to accept liability. I agree that is not good enough that you should have this kind of problem with such an expensive car. Get a good auto assessor to advise you and see what he says.

I will do some research on this matter and if I discover anything of help I will revert to you

Best wishes

Philip

 

Where do I find the transmission model number on my car?

Thanks

 

Hi Tito

Yes yours is a 722.9 transmission. I have checked it out.

Have you been told what is wrong with yours? Perhaps it has the same I nherent design flaw/problem. Mine reacted by loosing traction and the same problem was experienced by my 3 other witnesses. Maybe the same difficulty applies across the board.
I know for a fact that other models with different transmissions number had exactly the same problem as mine.

Best of luck

Regards

Philip

 

I have a sl350 (r230) ,, recently have had transmission problems ,, when the car gets hot it goes out of gear , I have to turn it off let it cool for 5min then will start taking gears again ! Sometimes it let drive it on manual up to the 3rd gear ! Iv had clutch replaced and the flywheel but the problem still there ,, at the moment it's at mercedes garage and it has been there for four days and they haven't got a clue either ,, can someone help please

 

Hi Erind 5

Sorry to hear of your problems with the automatic transmission.Your transmission is 722.6 and MB have known since 1996 that they ave been having problems with this transmission. They are being disingenuous with you when garage state they don't know what the problem is.What country do you live in - I don't wish to pry into your personal life but depending in which country you reside in could prove to be interesting from the point of view of prior knowledge of this problem. Between you and me I can assure you that MB know very well of this serious flaw and in my case they were saying that the problem with my transmission was caused by my touching the gear shift and hence putting it in to neutral - the court dd not accept this excuse and it held in my favour . Your problem is well known by MB. If you want to give me your personal details ie your email address and I will copy some very interesting documents to you which will show you what dishonest people you are dealing with. In my case they even attempted to get at one of my witnesses but it backfired on them. My email address is philip@philiposullivan.com. I will do what I can to help you because I know what you are up against. Who could believe that reputable marque as mercedes would behave as they are now doing with loyal customers. Take care

 

I'm dealing w/ the 722.9 value body problem too. MB knows there is a defect yet doesn't issue a recall for this serious issue. Just wondering why there isn't a class action lawsuit with them. There are just too many cases for them to brush this under the rug.

 

Hi amgme,I agree that there should be class action but it is question of getting people motivated to do something. The current regime in Stuttgart are no longer interested in the good reputation generated over the years by MB but are simply greedy for money at all costs and are prepared to go to any lengths to achieve their greed - such as even trying to interfere with witnesses as they tried and failed in my case.
I am going further with my case and am not prepared to leave the matter lie. MB have to explain why, while they have known tat one in every three of their MB with a722.6 transmission has been giving problems since 1996 and they have not recalled these cars, rather they have done everything in their power to conceal the problem. In my case alone I was able to bring into evidence at the hearing of the case 3 other car owners of the SL350 with 722.6 transmissionie that is 4 cars (5th car owner did not turn up) but also had loss of power problems.it is staggering considering only 50 of these cars were imported into Irealnd that year and 5 had the same kind of problem and yet they continue to ignore the issue and are still prepared to refuse to deal with the problem. I'm prepared to carry the matter forward but we need to get numbers behind us. What we need therefore is to get people to stand up and tell us their problems , in particular the transmission problems/loss of power and let's put the heat under their asses. These people have no regard for the law so why not get the law to apply the full rigours to be brought on them.i have 3 people that I can count on so if we can get more people to come on board we can have a full investigation into their conduct

 

I'm setting up a group of MB owners who would like to challenge the conduct of their strategy of not disclosing to MB car owners why they are not disclosing that they have been having serious problems with their automatic transmissions. They have known of the problem since 1996. The problem a infests itself as follows:
1 oil leaks in the transmission - they then replace the bushing where the leak stems from - they then colour code these bushings so that the garage know whether it was previously replaces
2. Serious problems with loss of power - can happen without warning and when least expected - caused when oil leaks through the bushing referred to and then leaks into the ECU which is the main brain of the car and floods it with transmission oil and the problem is that the transmission doesn't know how to cope with the resultant intermittent loss of power. I
3 if I'm wrong in what I say then why we're they so afraid with the evidence I produced in my case by trying to influence one of my witnesses not to turn up and give evidence in my case

My point is they know they have serious potentially fatal flaws in their transmission which they are not dealing with. I have proved in my case where the court stated that there was adequate evidence before it to prove that my car did suffer loss of power. My 3 witnesses also had the same problem and between us that meant we had 4 of the same model out of approx 56 cars imported into our country for that year - a high percentage in the context of the number of that model for that year

What I'm trying to do now is to get a group of MB owners together and to raise the profile with this problem and get MB to face up to issue and possibly save people's lives

Lets stand up and be counted