London Lad

Damp / wet boot?

Hi all,

I use my SL as a daily driver in the U.K. where recently it has been raining nearly all the time!

I am quite careful when I open the boot in the wet (I don’t go as far as drying the car with a towel) but water still runs off onto the boot floor and trim.

The boot carpet feels damp / wet all the time now and I find that I am avoiding using it by putting my briefcase on the passenger seat.

The weather has got colder recently and I am finding that the windows steam up from rest due to the moisture in the boot. The climate control clears this very quickly but in the long-term damp can’t do the car any good.

Any one else getting the same? Any fixes?

Graham.

FloridaSLGuy

I am in Florida and whenever I open trunk if it has rained out or if I have washed the car, the water drips directly into the trunk.

I ordered a trunk liner from MB. Designed for the SL & fits like a glove. The liner is black plastic and holds spills. In the case of rain water you just need to wipe it up with a cloth. The carpeting stays dry.

blueSL

I bought the same as Florida Guy - about £30 from your MB dealer. Don't know whether it will cover the area that's getting wet though.

London Lad

Thanks guys,

Is that made of rubber ? Does it stop thinks sliding about ?


Graham.

blueSL

Yes, it's made of a rubbery plastic. In theory, it stops things sliding around but of course, that depends on how you drive. It will reduce wear and tear on the boot liner but allow spills and dirt to be cleaned up more easily - I have one for the Subaru which gets really dirty and you just lift it out and hose it down.

You can also buy a set of three luggage nets to hold things in place; they come with screw in hooks which replace existing "blanks" inside the boot. It does look like they interfere with the tray though so it might be a case of either/or. I'm going to investigate this weekend.

London Lad

I’ve tried the nets. The one that goes across the right hand corner is very handy but the other two prevent you from lifting the boot floor to access the storage below.

I think Ill try the rubber liner, can you still access the storage below the floor?

Graham.

blueSL

Yes, but of course you need to lift out the tray first. With the nets, to the fixing hooks interfere, or is it only a problem when the net is installed. I had it in mind to install the hooks and only use the nets when I needed them.

London Lad

The rear net would be ok; it just gets in the way when its there but the fixings of the floor net are the problem.

The side net has 2 lower fixings that catch on the boot floor a little but not too much.
With all the fixings in place for the floor net getting the floor out is very difficult

Graham.

London Lad

Looking at your picture again I dont think you would be able to uese the tray once you had any net fixings in place as it covers the area where the lower fixings go.

Graham.

London Lad

I ment 'use' the tray!

blueSL

I've just fitted the three nets and agree that the boot floor mat is more difficult to remove because of the new fixings around the edge. That said, the whipped edge of it can be eased under them. I guess it depends on how often you want to get into the well underneath.

The boot tray will happily sit with the fixings, it's not that tight a fit, and on top of the floor net as well. The nets can be easily hooked or unhooked as required although the floor net on top of the tray would not work.

So I can now reconfigure the boot just by adding/removing the boot tray/any or all of the nets and I'm sure I'll settle into a "normal" configuration.

blueSL

Nets without the tray....

blueSL

Nets with the Tray....

London Lad

You just can't resist an accessory can you ;-)

blueSL

You should see my pair of fluffy dice and the green strip with "Wayne" and "Tracey" across the top of the windscreen...

Mustard

While you're in the boot you guys, please measure me the distance from the floor of the boot to the lowest point of the stowed roof....i.e. how high do my squashy bags have to be?

blueSL

Mustard

It's a bit complicated because the available height varies from 13 to 16 inches. The available depth also varies with width, so, here goes....

If you keep the width to less than 36 and the depth to less than 18, you can use a height of 16 inches.

You can increase the width to 44 inches OR the depth to 21 inches (but not both), the height must be less than 13 inches.

Whichever you choose, go for a squashy bag.

The storage space in the car (rear bins, air-con'd centre locker, air-con'd glove box, door pockets, under seat storage boxes is pretty generous) plus you have the option to use the rear-shelf and a custom bag for it if you want.

Mustard

Thank you again, BlueSL. Very helpful. Do you know there's not a single SL in any showroom between here and Bristol. Can't get to do these things myself, you see.

Don't let the anally retentive put you off your helpful bent !

blueSL

No problem, Mustard.

If you look at my pictures, the boot tray is 36 * 18, allowing for the corner cut-outs, 36 * 21 overall. The height to the luggage cover is 16, reducing to 13 at the back, so the best choice would be 36 * 18 * 13, if you want to stretch beyond that, you're in the world of squeezing into narrowing spaces.

PJMusgrave

Hi Graham,

I also have and drive every day in the UK a new shape SL500 and I also suffer from a wet boot problem.

I first phoned Mercedes UK Customer Services to ask if the wet boot on the new SL had been reported as a problem. They told me that they had no knowledge or history of any wet boots on the new SL, as I was advised to take it to a MB Dealer.

My car is fiited with the Tire Fit kit rather than a spare wheel, so you get a boot liner giving you extra space in the lower section of the boot.

Water has leaked into the lower boot liner and when we have rain it starts to fill up. When I first discovered the leak the boot had filled with 2.5" of water. The boot caused all my UK maps to get soaked and they went mouldy and my tool kit bag went mouldy.

I booked the SL into my local dealer just before Christmas, they were very helpful and they had the car 3 days. The dealer told me it was the first SL they had to suffer this problem.

Over christmas I went on holiday for 2 weeks, on my return I opened up the boot and to my surprise the boot had only filled up 1/2" The car is now booked into the dealer on the 3rd Feb 2003 for them to try again to repair this problem. I will let you know the outcome.

I really feel that the Guru's at Mercedes Benz should know about these problems and work out a solution. Other than the leak the car is wonderful, no other problems except I am fed up with the fact the TV screen goes blank when you start moving.

All the best

Philip

London Lad

Hi,

My boot does not leak when closed. The only problem is water that runs off the boot lid into the boot as it is opened.

I did hear somewhere that some early cars had a rubber seal on the bottom of the rear screen missing?

Let us know the outcome with your car.

Good luck

Graham.

PJMusgrave

Hi Graham,

When it went in for the first time, there was a very small strip about 3" long missing. They fitted the missing strip although it still leaks.

I agree that when you open the boot when its wet water runs straight into the boot either side at the front.

I will let you know how the car is after the 3rd, they want it for 4 days.

regards,
Philip

blueSL

My experience of Mercedes Customer Service is that they are completely useless. They know nothing about the product range and even less about the cars. They prevent you from having access to anyone who knows anything in depth and when they do get an answer for you, all you get back is patronising official-ese.

It's not even clear to me these people are MB employees, they could just be an out-sourcing service with a script to read and a very limited database of answers to questions. It's a crap job of course, dealing with people like me all day - I wouldn't do it.

As for the TV, that's standard behaviour because it's not legal to have a TV screen visible to the driver on the move. It's just another of those safety things and I wonder how much slimmer the user manual would be if they omitted the huge number of safety warnings on every page, do this, don't do that, which presumably are only there to reduce the chance of them getting sued if someone does try to sit on the boot lid at 150mph... Common sense, it seems, is not assumed by the pedants who write this stuff and the lawyers who review it.

White Knight II

Common sense is also lacking in the juries (and judges) who hear these cases. One example here in the U.S.: an RV owner recently secured a judgment in excess of $1,000,000 when his RV was totally destroyed because he put it on cruise control while he went back to make some coffee. I understand that the owner's manual now has an "appropriate" caution.

blueSL

And it's not just cars. Here's a warning from my Nikon user manual:

"When using the viewfinder and operating the diopter adjustment control, take care not to put your finger in your eye accidentally."

Are they MAD?