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I may not have done it correctly, but I did it. I saw a 2003 SL500 on the side of the road and bought it. Yes I drove it first, but that’s it. I fell in love.
Next week I have an appt to get it looked at and estimates for whatever it needs. I don’t think it needs much but I’m prepared to put about $8k if it needs it. The ABS hydraulic pump for sure, (warranty) but outside of that. I guess I’ll find out soon.
There are only 69k miles on it and it’s beautiful. I’m hoping it was well cared for mechanically as it clearly was cosmetically.
I want to drive this for 3+ years 5/10k a year - and I’m ok with putting a few bucks into it. Glad to see so many others here, would love to hear the good stories about your cars!
I think this is the best deal and most underrated luxury vehicle on the used market. Congratulations. I had a '98, but the transmission blew up so I dumped it for $4K. Now I want one of these. Expensive to maintain but totally worth it.
Well, I don’t have a boat, so I need someplace to throw some money. 😂
I can’t wait to get it rolling. I’m prepared to maintain it because I agree with you. It’s a fun, luxury convertible that still looks great! I’m just hoping its issues are spread out over a few months and don’t show up all at once.
The issues with these cars are quick and drastic in most cases. Working then failing without warning. The crank position sensor and shifter pawl gave me 2 warnings. Nothing else from the top cylinder to the suspension does that .
If you are not going to wrench on it yourself, you need to find a shop that knows the car inside and out and is happy to work on them. The good news is that the engine and transmission are pretty reliable. Bad new is that it is a very complex car with high maintenance roof, suspension, locks, and even interior.
I would do some preemptive maintenance on the ABC suspension and also have the conventional parts of the suspension inspected (ball joints and bushings). These cars like to eat lower ball joints and most bushings will be cracked if they are original.
If you are not going to wrench on it yourself, you need to find a shop that knows the car inside and out and is happy to work on them. The good news is that the engine and transmission are pretty reliable. Bad new is that it is a very complex car with high maintenance roof, suspension, locks, and even interior.
I would do some preemptive maintenance on the ABC suspension and also have the conventional parts of the suspension inspected (ball joints and bushings). These cars like to eat lower ball joints and most bushings will be cracked if they are original.
Thank you. It’s going to MB weds, and there is an indy mechanic who I think will be excellent longer term.
You might have the very rare exception, but normally the only time I recommend taking it to a MB dealer is warranty on the SBC pump. They do not know the older cars as well as a good indy and most dealer techs would rather do a Service B on a 2021 than anything on an '03 R230. Depending on the dealer, you will either get a list of $20k in necessary repairs, or they will spoon feed it to you $5k at a time over your next 4 visits. Do you have any SBC warnings? SBC is not a recall, there must be a specific DTC for it to be replaced under warranty.
I do not have a scanner so I don’t know. A local indy shop did have a repair scheduled for the SBC pump before the previous owner sold it. So I believe the codes will be present. Since it’s warranteed I figured the dealer was the best bet, and I’ll take their list of repairs back to the indy dealer.
the only issue I get is the “sbc drive safely” warning periodically flashing up on the dash and going away
This is was the previous owner declined, but some of this may have been done. I truly don’t know. Everything on the car works great - just that “drive safely” warning that pops up and goes away.
Very likely those repairs were never needed!!! Dealerships! LoL. Imperative to find a good independent shop that knows these cars and IS HONEST and you can trust. Dealerships will give you a long laundry list of things the car needs and 1% of those things will be something the car really needs. If they know that you know nothing about the car, they may even claim to do repairs, and charge you for them, when actually having done nothing at all. They did this to me, and even worse to my rich lawyer, at more than one dealership. They totally faked an inspection on a car of mine and charged $475 for this, the report I got indicated thousands of dollars in parts and work the car "needed", and it needed NONE of this. They stole the floor mats, complete set of four, my car had beautiful clean floor mats that looked like they were brand new, and replaced them with the ugliest, dirtiest, most well-worn floor mat set I had ever seen in my life. They called me a liar when I demanded my floor mats back, I had to force them to order me a brand new set from Germany. The car I brought in, had no working lights at the rear of the car and I assumed that since they know the cars so well it would be almost a "free diagnosis" to pay for this fraud inspection thinking they'd say, Here's what's needed to make those lights work. NO! They checked off all the lights as working fine. I doubt they did anything with the car other than look into it to see what they could steal. It seemed as though they had mixed up the cars and given me someone else's inspection report? No, it was just all lies and BS. They then offered to do the inspection all over again "for free" since they obviously hadn't even done one. I declined, no longer wanting them to be alone with my car for another minute! Should have demanded my money back. THEN they said, "For your tail lights, we recommend a trunk wiring harness, followed by further troubleshooting". Meaning: They knew that would not fix the tail lights but wanted $873 for this harness plus twice that amount to install it. I took the car home and learned on the forum to get a rear SAM, cost over $800 from the dealer. Bought one off Fleabay for $139, installed it myself, and all the lights worked again. On my SL55 AMG, I replaced all 16 spark plugs and their wires, parts cost me $400 shopping online and getting the exact right good quality parts. Took me about eight hours to do the job... I work slow and make sure it's done right, otherwise don't do anything. Then I called two MBZ dealerships asking with the VIN, how much would they charge for this job: 16 new spark plugs and wires. First one said $3,950.00 and the second one was about $500 less. MBZ dealerships are the VERY LAST place to take any Mercedes for service or repair work!!! Just knowing this will save you thousands of dollars. If you have no other place to take the car for work, ask around. Ask people in parking lots who have a nice Benz, where they take their car. Look at Google reviews. Somewhere near you there's a good shop run by capable guys and honest people. It's also important to get to know the car so well that if someone tells you it "needs this or that repair", you will be the customer who knows whether they are telling the truth or not. Trust no one until they show you they can be trusted! You can ask on the forums if anyone can recommend a good shop in your town.
Man that sucks, sorry that happened to you. Thanks for sharing.
I’m already learning there are very few people out there to trust. I will start looking for a good local mechanic. I thought I had one, but need to keep digging.
I really want to drive this car for a couple summers and I don’t mind paying to do that, but I hate getting ripped off by people who are just out to take the money. I’ll pay for someone who’s fair, honest and competent.
im sure I’ll post some repair bill estimates here shortly 😂
There is a wheel and tire shop in my town that's nice and big, clean and new looking, a big parking lot and even the local police take their cars there. Seems like they would be a good shop and they do all kinds of repairs. Having been a car nut for many years, I knew a guy in a town a few miles away who had been in business for decades and he did front end work, suspension, brakes, all that. Being the "car guy" where I worked, a lady in accounting came to me saying she'd bought a car for her son, it was shaky and she had taken it to this big shop and they quoted her $2000 to fix the front end. I drove the car and it was absolutely dangerous and horrible. She should have brought a man with her when she bought that car, I would have advised against the purchase. The car was so bad it should have been towed. Took it to the old man, he fixed the front end for $300 and said he made money doing that. A month later another girl in accounting with a nice little silver BMW Z3 or Z4, 2-seater, said she had brought her car to this big shop and they told her she needed two grand in repairs to her front end. I drove her car, it seemed perfect. Took it to old Vic, he said "It needs nothing." It was perfect! Another month went by, one of the engineers at our firm came to me with his Subaru 4WD saying it needed driveline work and he was quoted $1400 by this big shop. I guaranteed him old Vic would save him a ton of dough. He took it there and spent $475 and it was done perfectly. Every time I drive past this big shop, I just shake my head., they also mail ads about once a month to every address in town here, with coupons to save you money! LoL
2009 SL550 Roadster Diamond White, 2008 CLK550 Coupe Obsidian Black
The ABS pump (SBC on these vehicles) has an extended factory warranty so if the computer throws out the proper codes for a replacement that should all be covered under warranty as far as the brakes are concerned. Both SAMs being bad at the same time is quite a coincidence. I would definitely go with what Tom said regarding any SAM issues if there is any.
03-28-2024, 10:58 PM
