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How to Bring a 09 SL550 out of a 4 year hibernation
i have a 2009 SL550 that hs been in a good friends garage for 4-5 years and we are finally bringing it out of its slumber. So far we have done the following:
-Drained all the fuel
-About to chane the fuel filter
-changes the oil
-checked the coolant and it looked clean. We will run it and check it again to see if needs drained
-replaced plugs and fogged the cylinders
-replaced BOTH batteries
What am i missing?
Is there ANYTHING else that you guys think i need to perform to the car befoee we start it and get it on the road?
i have a 2009 SL550 that hs been in a good friends garage for 4-5 years and we are finally bringing it out of its slumber. So far we have done the following:
-Drained all the fuel
-About to chane the fuel filter
-changes the oil
-checked the coolant and it looked clean. We will run it and check it again to see if needs drained
-replaced plugs and fogged the cylinders
-replaced BOTH batteries
What am i missing?
Is there ANYTHING else that you guys think i need to perform to the car befoee we start it and get it on the road?
Thanks foryour help. First time post here.
Appreciate it everyone.
Regards,
John
Check air in the tires. Hopefully you wont have flat spotting.
Check abc oil level change the abc filter.
once started run the abc buttons up and down a few times. inspect abc hoses and check for any leaks
check the brake rotors for any surface rust and clean if needed
1) Tires. Check the date code on the tire and if they are more than 5 years don’t drive it too hard until you get new ones. You are likely to have flat spots too.
2) Trunk weatherstrips. They need to be cleaned / remove debris to prevent the luggage from getting water in the first rain ruining the electronics in the luggage. Lubricate all seals and weather stripping with silicone grease.
3) A good hand wash and wax. Use a foam cannon and a clay bar to float the dirt. Have it detailed if you like a shiny car.
4) Inspect for rodent damage / urine. The little buggers can ruin a wiring harness. Look for Insect infestation too.
5) Other fluids:
- Change / Flush Brake Fluid -it’s
hygroscopic.
- Automatic Transmission Fluid and filter
Flush / change depending on the mileage
- ABC fluid rodeo, flush, and filter.
6) Brakes and emergency brakes. The rotors are likely corroded and the emergency brake may be frozen.
Go through the maintenance records. If it was stored outside, the list may be longer!
Thanks John for the ask on my behalf. This is my buggy, 2009 SL550
I bought it at auction as salvage and it was running in 2011 but does have some oddities that needs to be fixed. All I know is it was in an alleged minor wreck through a fence. Little idea why it was salvaged with it being 2-years old in a supposed minor wreck.
I can tell the radiator was replaced, and the there is a hole in the grill about the size of my thumb. Got some warnings on the dash about external temp sensor, srs requires attention and will have to check to see what else. No obvious signs airbags deployed yet have the SRS warning. Also steering wheel is probably 90 degrees off center to the right.
It has been parked for 4-5 years with very little fuel in it. I went to siphon out any gas and coming up empty. John has mentioned the things I've already done. I was looking to probably replace the fuel pump before putting fuel back in it. I am a bit concerned about it being varnished up. I've found mixed results about if the fuel filter is external on drivers rear or in the fuel tank. Guess I just need to look under drivers rear and see if I find it.
I know the tires are original, it has been parked in a garage since 2011. Ultimately replacing them will be one of the later things I do before finish getting it completely street worthy. I had someone else tell me it's missing it's tranny cooler. I can see what looks like tranny lines spliced together. I can find the part number for the cooler, I don't see where physically to mount it.
I have no problems trying to do my homework and research but do truly appreciate any/all suggestions and guidance that you're willing to share.
Well the intent is to minimize the chance of making things worse when firing it up after it's long slumber. Maybe I'm just overly cautious. I have am overall fairly handy, mostly with domestics though, so just a bit gun shy on the Benz. Simply don't know what all I don't know.
I have a regular OBD II, is a Benz/Star Diagnostics specific one worthwhile. I suspect yes.
Put gas in it and start it up. It more than likely will run fine. If you would like to pull the fuel pump fuse and crank the car for a while before firing, it may be helpful. A small dose of redline injection cleaner or Techron in the tank would be helpful. After that it’s an oil change, coolant change and at 13 years of age, all other fluids like brake and transmission and rear diff. Assuming the car is running well at that point.
Sometimes it takes quite a while to get oil to the lifters in these cars when they sit, so don’t be surprised if it taps quite loudly for 20 minutes or so after firing. It’s a disturbing sound, and I have seen many tap for 20 minutes or more before dissipating.
If it’s missing the trans cooler, make sure it has fluid in it before starting it. Chances are if the cooler is gone, so is some of the fluid
I got the car jacked up and crawled underneath the front. Definitely looks like I have a tranny cooler. However, I think I may have been told that because I see a couple sets of hoses that look like they have been patched back together. I have 3 coolers total. I assume the 2nd large one is an oil cooler?The first pic you can see hoses on the left/passenger side. 2nd pic these hoses are in front driver side. This is what somebody else saw and told me I was missing the tranny cooler. I lightly started undoing one of the clamps on that one looks/smells like tranny fluid to me. Third pic is a single hose coming around the passenger side front fender to the front of the car. But I haven't fully traced any/all of them to sort out where they are going.
I've also found wiring mangled for at least the side marker and fog lights. The ends/clips/plugs need to be redone to actually plug into any lights. So need to look into what that takes.
I think I may need to get involved in my local MB club and see someone has this gen they would let me play find the differences between them to help reverse engineer/fix all that is a miss with mine.
coolers driver side spliced hoses, tranny possible passenger side cut hose - air blow test suggest it goes to the washer fluid tank. Maybe it would go the headlight washers based on that location?
Passenger side looks to be broken not cut and other side looks to be power steering/ abc cooler ? Those all need attention before driving the car, maybe not starting it up, but definitely check all the fluids and possibly change them out. I would suspect by the bypassing repairs that were done possibly any type of fluid was put back in there to get the car operational. Not a great idea with the ABC system and not good for the transmission.
A coolant flush probably is in order as well, the different coolants aren’t fond of mixing over time, and can cause lots of silicate clogging. not immediately but by the looks of the repairs I’m relatively certain the person who did them wasn’t concerned about correct fluids for these systems, and I would guess you may be slightly more concerned, I would be.
What is the story with this vehicle? Why was it in hibernation? How many owners? How long as the current owner been in possession? What type of facility was it hibernating in (garage, warehouse, cornfield)?
Is there an ABC cooler? Hmm, I'll have to investigate. ABC fluid looks good. I did just a get a filter for it. I figure I can easily swap that, and then do again later if flushing all the fluid. That's assuming the ABC works as I've never used/attempted it.
So story is, I bought in at auction in 2011 and it runs/drives. When I tried researching the car when I bought I found it was in an accident going through a fence. No idea why it would've been salvaged. Looks like hood has been replaced as the VIN on it does not match the car. Maybe the nose, unsure. I thought the radiator looked new when I bought it. I can see all the under cover panels are gone. I see some oddities here and there with wires mangled/cut etc. It's been parked in a garage ever since I bought in 2011. Probably has spent less than 2 weeks outside since bought in 10/2011.
I initially would fire it up from time to time and just drive up and down my neighborhood street but haven't done so, probably 5 years now. So the idea was always to fix the rest and get it road worthy and registered, so July 4th I finally decided its time to do so. So I need to scan, trace, document what I can see/find and get a list going to tackle. So far it's all been little bits of low hanging fruit, like fluids, filters and plugs.
This is really a rebuild or restoration project, not a "bring a formerly perfectly working car out of sleeping" project. Start from ground zero and go from there. What are your car restoration skills?
I think that the drivers side lines are power steering hoses connected to bypass the rack. Probably either a major leak in the rack or one of the lines leading to it. The passenger side hose looks like the SBC hose that connects to the line from the master cylinder. It looks like the tube is broken off in the hose. The small cooler in your picture is the ABC cooler, behind it is the A/C condenser with a strip on top for the P/S, and then the main radiator with transmission cooler internal on the passenger side. At least that is the pre-facelift configuration.
Well it's both, with the primary initial goal of just getting it fired up so I can move it around to work on it more as it was running/drivable when it was parked. But needs to be fixed to get legal again.
I'm auto and mod work friendly, fairly handy, but a full blown mechanic and body/paint guy I'm not. I was in a domestic, pontiac grand prix, car club for about 15 years and did mainly bolt on and replacement mods. Most I learned by attending events and volunteering hands at events to either come back and do on my own at home and/or have mine be the work car at another event.
This was my car below. But don't know much on foreign or this exact one either.
Well I put 5 gallons of super and a couple ounces of gumout cleaner in the tank yesterday. Tried to fire it up today, it turns over fine but not starting. I suspect it's a fuel/fuel delivery problem as I wonder if the fuel in the lines are varnished up. Should have almost a 1/4 tank in it but fuel guage really isn't showing it either.. .
The fuel gauge is read by the rear SAM which also powers the fuel pump. You might not be getting power to the rear SAM, do you have any taillights or rear turn signals?
You smell fuel on the plugs, so fuel came in contact with the plugs. The fuel came from the injectors, so the fuel is reaching the injectors. I would make the assumption the fuel delivery system is not the problem.
You likely have no spark. Why no spark?
You have two sensor codes that appear to me unrelated to each other. Why those two codes?
Are you sure the battery is good? You said you replaced it. What date was it replaced, and from where was it purchased?
You said you replaced the plugs. Retrace you work and check for missing or loose parts and connectors.
Yes, very sure the 2 codes are unrelated as I know the ambient temp code has been there since day 1.
Both batteries were new July 4th weekend, and even popped on charger this past Friday night to top off. They are O'Reilly's Super Start Extreme ans Super Start Platinum.
The plugs are new NGK IX Iridium Spark Plug 93911 put in on 7/23. (I do still have the original plugs and even numbered which cylinder they came out of)
I did put a dab of dielectric grease on the end of each one. I also sprayed a couple seconds of Stabil fogging oil in each cylinder while I had the plug(s) out.
All the plug/coil wires seems very snug/secure.
I generally only have time work on it on the weekends. During the week I try to research and plan of what to execute next weekend.
I would not have fogged the cylinders, but that is water under the bridge.
Are you certain you smell fuel on the plugs, not fogging spray?
Can you clear codes and try the cold start again?
If this was my car I would spend lots of time (hours) carefully inspecting every electrical device, its connectors, and wiring harness. Also check for loose or corroded ground points. They are usually fairly chunky cables on either side of the engine, somewhat low, fastened to the body structure.
Check:
- coils
- injectors
- sensors: intake air temp, water temp, throttle position, manifold pressure
- connectors on the above
- wiring routes on the above
- fuses
- etc
Not much to update yet. I did get a new belt put on. The tip I found online about putting an allen wrench in the hole of the tensioner was such a big help. All the idler pulleys and tensioner pulley move fine, no noises or unusual friction. Seem to spin fine.
I finally got the car up high enough to crawl underneath the rear and find the fuel filter. So I'm going to work on replacing that soon after I figure the trick out to host clamps as they dont look like normal spring compression clamps.
But something else that got my attention is I saw something on the boot cover of the pass rear diff. But nothing has dripped on the ground. Looks like this in the pic. I suspect that goes to the actual fuel tank and like so many things, not good.
I did replace the fuel filter a couple weeks back. Today I replaced the fuel sending unit. Definitely addressed the fuel gauge not registering and the p0463 code is gone. However based on the condition of the one that came out of it concerns me about what is in the tank/lines/etc. It still cranks but doesn't start. So I may need to pull that unit back out and see if I can get small camera/bore scope or something in there to get a good look around. Have about 4ish gallons in it but maybe it needs to comeback out. Concerned what that mess is in the previous pick as I suspect that is from the fuel tank. Fuel was coming out when I replaced the filter, but dunno if pump/lines/injectors are gunked up or what exactly. Probably need to pull plugs an really see/smell if fuel is getting to them.
Pics from the old fuel sending unit taken out today. Old fuel sending unit. It's pretty corroded and float end is seized up.
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