alk247

I just finished... Scratch that - I just stopped working on my 2003 SL 500 doing routine maintenance and repairing usual SL wear out parts. I will post in somewhat random order some useful (hopefully) tips and observations for different jobs performed. My SL is 2003 just short of 100K miles. I bought is in October 2016 and for various reasons couldn't do what had to be done just after I got it. But better late than never, so here it goes.

Transmission mount - pretty much per WIS, no gotchas, need fairly long extensions, but if you remove bracket that supports plastic bottom protection panels, you should be able to get away with a shirt one. Getting lower bolts in requires some persuasion to get holes aligned. but a simple screwdriver put in one of the holes in the mount through the hole in the bracket does the job.

Engine mounts - first of all I would like to say: "Spasibo tavarish" - I am sure a lot of you watched his videos on u-tube about his "world cheapest' SL 55. Here is the link to the video on replacing mounts - While there is very little details in the video on how to do the job, the fact that he was able to do it without following the WIS, gave me confidence that it is doable. WIS requires to detach and push away exhaust manifold, remove right and left side heat shields, remove steering coupling. None of this is actually needed. The reason WIS requires to detach and push away exhaust manifold is to remove the upper bolt, which is longer than a gap between exhaust pipe and engine support. And this is where tavarish comes in. He did not remove this bolt at all, but rather unscrewed the mount from the bolt by twisting the mount while holding the bolt in place with that famous offset wrench. By the way, there is no way around buying the wrench. Here is one of the options: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Mercedes-Be...kAAOSwax5YoxhQ . This is not the seller I used, by I can not find the link to my seller. I improved tavarish's method a bit. After initially breaking the upper bolt loose with that special wrench, I then put a stubby spanner ratchet 16 mm wrench on the upper bolt and stuffed a piece of stiff foam (similar to one used for copper water pipe insulation) between the top of the wrench and the exhaust pipe to keep it in place. Where did I get stubby spanner ratchet 16 mm wrench? I did not, I used 5/8 SAE wrench instead, which is a perfect fit for 16 mm bolt head. To put bolts in, I played with the engine position, lowering and raising it to get the optimum gap for the bolts to fit. It is very frustrating, but can be done. Right side mount comes out towards front without any problem. The left one also comes out towards front, but what I believe is a hydraulic line (it might be a coolant line as well) needs to me pushed out of the way. When I removed right mount, it look pretty decent, so I thought that I might not need to change mounts (I have no idea when and what was done to the car, aside from what was done by the dealer and made its way to the carfax report). However, I remembered write up by on of the members (I will later find the topic and provide proper credit) who also thought that his cmount is ok, but then compared new mount to the old one and found out that old one was significantly shorter. Same here. The left one was fully torn with oil leaking.

Front pads and rotors replacement. MB pads, Zimmerman rotors. Rotors are held in place by M6 strews with T30 head. You have to get a really good torx T30 socket in order to break these bolts loose. I ruined two cheap Chinese sockets, then went to O'Railys, bought impact T30 socket, and with electric impact driver got the bolts off. Rotors were dead set on sitting put. Finally get them off by hitting with the hammer from outside at about 9 o'clock location.
Zimmerman pads have special grey coating on them. Manual that came with rotors was unreadable, so I ended up removing coating form one rotor, then getting on the net and learning, that there is no need to remove it.
Our cars have only one front pad wear sensor on the right wheel outside pad. All four MB pads looked the same. I started installation from the left. When I got to the right wheel and tried to install a wear sensor - it did not fit. I tried the old one - it did not fit either. The holes in the pads were in the wrong place. I checked the pads that I just installed on the left, and one of the pads had hole in the right location. So check for hole position before installing pads, and better start from the right wheel.

White Spyder

I'll be watching this thread.

alk247

Next - breaks bleed. Used SDS. Per WIS I had to put a charger on the battery. I had a trickle charger on consumer battery and decided that it would do. Was unable to complete the bleed with SDS reporting low battery. Put full blown charger on the consumer battery - same thing. Put two chargers on both batteries - now it worked. After some thought I realized, that SBS pump must be fed from the main battery/alternator. Duh! Completed the bleed and performed Air in the System test. Ran it four times - failed all four. Will repeat the bleed and report any interesting findings.Used Motive Powerbleeder.

Oil change - nothing special, besides being a bit concerned about extra o-rings in the box with oil filter element. With the help from forum figured that is was for a different MB model. I wish I did flush the engine, but plan t do it during next oil change.

Transmission flush. Drain plug hex was stripped. Drained by slowly releasing bolts holding transmission pan. At that time radiator was out of the car, so bleeding from the radiator with car running was not an option. Pan will not drop without removing some big a$$ part in the back of the pan. Guess it protects some vital organs on the bottom. With pan dropped, verified that dipstick does go all the way to the correct position in the transmission with quite a bit still outside of the top of the dipstick tube. Again, this dipstick is used on multiple models. Ran out of time and put pan back on a couple of bolts. Came back next evening and found about half a liter to a liter of fluid in the pan, although it was draining for a while the day before. Replacing connector is mostly straight forward, but took a bit of time. Required really strong push, which I was hesitant to do initially. To flush the transmission WIS instructs disconnect fluid line from the transmission on the right side, then connect special adapter with hose to the banjo joint. Not having the adapter, a figured that I would use connection to the radiator instead, but need to put a hose to the line from the left side of the transmission. Which, as I know now, is connected at the top the radiator. I mis -traced the line and used connection on the bottom. I realized my error after seeing about a liter of the fluid on the garage floor. Wiped it dry and used electrical part CRC cleaner (just because it was handy). Clean like a whistle. Proper flush requires 14 liters of fluid, kit that I bought included only 12, so I only drained 3 liters twice. Fist 3 liters were completely brown, by the end of the second 3 liters fluid was reddish. Was unable to read fluid level yet - waiting for stuff to flow down from the tube.

mikefamig

Thanks or sharing!

Mattleycrue76

Good job preserving another one of these beauties!

Just one thing - I literally replaced my engine mounts yesterday (same car) and I got away without buying the tool. I just took a cutoff wheel to a 16mm wrench (that's why I don't throw away old crappy tools) and made myself a "stubby in the right length.

The biggest hurdle for me was to get the top bolt to bite on the replaced engine mounts. I managed by having my wife hold the bolt from the top (smaller arms and hands) while I twisted the engine mount on from under the car.

I didn't see you mention it, but the most important maintenance item I'd address is an ABC fluid/filter flush.

alk247

I thought about doing the same with my 5/8 spanner wrench, but could not come up with reliable way to hook up torque wrench to it. Special tool fits standard 3/8 drive, plus it is slightly angled out.

I lowered the engine to reduce the gap between top of the mount and the bolt and supported mount with one hand while twisting the bolt with the other hand. But it wasn't easy. After about 20 minutes of trying with the first one I got so frustrated, that I took a break for half an hour, came back and it worked right away. I work with a mid rise lift. The bottom of the car about is 4 feet from the floor, so I am crouching all the time. Superb work out, do not recall my lags being so strong.

ABC is throwing red warning from time to time on the bumps, so I am going to diagnose and fix the problem first, before doing ABC flush/filter change.

alk247

Radiator replacement. Not exactly a maintenance item, but very common in older cars. I went with a "middle of the road" option - Nissens form RMEuropean. I figured this guys know their stuff, so they do not carry total crap.

Draining was really easy, put hose with the camp on the nipple on the bottom right of the radiator (I will refer to the left/right as seen from looking at the car from the front). I did not have to keep transmission fluid from leaking from disconnected lines, since I was doing transmission flush and drained transmission before taking radiator off. New radiator came with couple of thin o-rings and rubber end cap with the the clamp. None of these were evident on the old radiator, so I just ignored them. And it was a mistake. New radiator fits multiple MB models, so it turned out (when I was trying to figure out why system does not hold any pressure), that it has one extra connection that must be capped with the rubber end cap and clamp.
I had to transfer five threaded inserts from the old radiator to the new one (two on top forward for attaching condenser, two on top in the back for attaching fan shroud, and on on the right side close to the bottom for attaching bracket holding AC lines). I did not notice that there were no inserts in the new radiator, so I was discovering new inserts one by one after trying to put a screw in an empty hole.
A few tips - attach transmission cooling lines before attaching fan shroud - otherwise crow foot is your only option if you want to use torque wrench. When installing clamp on the rubber cap, make sure that clamp's screw is on the outside, otherwise it interferes with the fan shroud. Attaching radiator hoses requires really strong push to get then sit right. Had to resort to using child labor.
For pressure testing I used a tool rented form the AutoZone. They have amazing tool rental program. You pay some ridiculous price for the tool ($250 in this case), but when you return it they give you your money back. And allow you to keep it for up to 90 days.

P.S. - Time to celebrate, it is my 200th post!

MarkCan

Have you tried to push the fresh fluid through? I haven’t done it on the SL but it was very simple on other cars. No chargers, computers or extra tools. I may give it a shoot just to see. Since the SL is the hobby of mine I find doing things around it very therapeutic.

alk247

Sorry, I misspoke, I did use a pressure device Motive Powerbleeder. SL is "break by wire", so you do need the computer to open and close appropriate valves to get fluid in correct line. There is a procedure without SDS, but I suspect that charger may still be required.

alk247

Forgot to mention, that I got a small bonus while replacing right engine mount. When I bought this car it was missing oil "dipstick" (actually, just a cap), so I bought one. Removing right engine mount I found the original cap, that fell there at some point in my SL's life. Now I have two caps - one red (new) and one black (old), so I can where whatever color fits my mood.

alk247

Next step - replacing valve cover gaskets and spark plugs. Only one useful tip - if you are doing both, remove covers first, before pulling wires off the plugs and removing plugs - way more space to operate. Put a rag on top of the exhaust manifold to catch oil dripping from the valves. To remove driver side valve cover it is necessary to disconnect the fuel line. I put a rag under the line and it was enough to catch the fuel, not too much coming out. And remember, our cars have 16 plugs, not eight. Had to buy another eight in a hurry.

oakcreekeric

Thank you for this information - I've been looking for a thread that would put my mind at ease - I watched the video and wasn't sure how my 03 SL500 would stack up - I wasn't sure if it was similar, or exact - and your extra detail was very helpful - I just got my car back from a "B" service and I only had two bad reports - engine mounts shot and a leaking ABC line (I had no drops under the car after being in storage for the past four months, but he showed me pic's - didn't seem terrible, but the reservoir was 1L low) I just bought the car last July, and really didn't drive it much, maybe 1000 miles - I want to replace the engine mounts, but was given a $1400 estimate - they quoted out using factory sourced mounts that would cost about $500 - I'm seeing that aftermarket ones can/will do the trick too - I haven't landed on the brand, still researching - but I'm finding them for less than $200 and that includes the transmission mount they included in the estimate.

I'm curious, in the video, it appears he actually bent the lines out of the way, did you bend yours, how worried where you about breaking/snapping ?

seven_out

Without bothering to check the WIS, I think the motor mount replacement for a 500 is a bit different and easier than for a 55.

Years ago I changed the mounts on a 500. The WIS calls for the exhaust down pipes to be disconnected, but I found this wasn't necessary at all. The large bolt in each mount is 16mm. The driver-side one is a little tough to reach, and I found it beneficial to have a flexable ratcheting wrench to remove it. Also, I recall having to separate the steering's flexible coupling to create enough space to withdraw the driver-side mount from the car.

Frederick NL

I seem to remember from WIS that the caps are color coded for engine and tranny.