hydropneumatic

Took my ride for service A and MB dealer says the front right strut and both ABC lines are leaking and need to be replaced, never seen any leak or drop in suspension but any way the damage will be $2423 for parts and $1560 for labor. What do you guys think about these numbers, seem inflated to me. Should I even bother looking around for an indy to do this intricate ABC work or just stick with the dealer
Thanks

djamer

Sounds about right. Very common issue w/ ABC.

blazeone

What year is your car and how many miles?

hydropneumatic

Its an '04 with 31k miles

djamer

There loads of information on this forum on the ABC issue. A quick search will do the trick. Good luck w/ the repairs.

daltex

Get a second opinion from an indy.
Buy the strut from fleabay - somebody here has paid about $400.
Both ABC lines leaking??? I don't think so.
Indy with StarDiag should be able to do this repair.

badmoonrising

I had a nail in the rear drivers side tire, took it to a tire shop, they jacked up the car on that one tire and fixed it, shortly after started getting ABC messeges, first messeges were ABC take to workshop, then the dreaded Red lettering ABC drive carefully, called Mercedes dealership, which is and hour and a half away from Red Deer, was told may take a few days to track down problem, so I took it to a locale Garage that does repairs on European cars, looked at the ABC oil and said that I had air, took it in, he flushed it and bled it (Rodeod it before) works like a charm cost: $290.00 including tax, Canadian, so get the obvious checked first, the jacking up of the rear tire caused air in the system.

hydropneumatic

I never had abc warning ever, just a fleeting thought occurs to me if the MB service intentionally caused the leak.....I brought the car home from service and there was oil on the ground next morning on the front passenger side????? never happened before

kokanee

Is your car dropping down on one side or one corner? Oil from the reservoir flows into the strut to raise the car and back to the reservoir to lower it. If the strut is bypassing it is not uncommon for the reservoir to overflow. The car will go back to its normal height when you start it and there will probably be no more leaks after the first time it bottoms out. You can run the car like this for a long time. If the leaks are continuos you better solve it. I believe it is the same pump for the brakes.

hydropneumatic

Now when I asked my delaer to go ahead and change the strut and both ABC lines he says that he had his service foreman look at the car and it will be $5300 and not $3980 for the job.....what the f**k, these MB service are just other sale Wh***s. $5300 to change one strut and two ABC lines in an SL 600 is a clean rip off, what do you guys think?

pvlexxus

That's alot cheaper than my bill when I had to replace my ABC

bobterry99

I haven't looked at the procedure, but I doubt there is anything complicated about it. Look for an independent that is equiped with Star Diagnosis.

djamer

Agreed, there are plenty of indy dealers in all major cities who do competent work and very reasonable prices. Especially for someone without a warranty, doing to the dealer for major repairs is committing financial suicide.

daltex

Do it yourself. Nothing complicated.
PM for procedure from the DVD.
If you lived Missouri/Kansas I could have loaned you my STAR Diag setup.
Saved me dollar$ already on an SRS problem on my W203.(Water through rear seat cushion from a leaking icebox).

bobterry99

I think that's an excellent suggestion, and use some of the money saved to buy your own SDS -- that is, if they are still available from China inexpensively.

You know it's simple to lower you car with SDS, right? And if you run 93-octane fuel you can change a setting in the ME 2.8 adaptations to take advante of this and get more power and better fuel econony?

Rick SL55

where did you buy the STAR Diag?

hydropneumatic

Is it safe to DIY ABC system on an SL 600?