New season is here. After many years of good performance and lots of maintenance is time to make a call. I serviced the ABC like no other system. Replaced all accumulators, several filters, fluid flush and other little things. Luckily I can do it all myself otherwise I would probably have invested the equivalent of a whole new ride in it.
Anyway, I’m considering the switch. Instead of investing in the full and proper service of ABC I may just go coilovers. Yes, I know is not the same. I myself, was advocating for ABC and sticking with it not to long ago. What makes me reconsider, you may ask? The age of the system. I’m just afraid of uncertainty. Yes, I can still fix it myself but if it happens away from home then the associated expenses go up exponentially. It’s not like there’s a limp mode, there’s only a busted mode, stop immediately!
For those who already installed coilovers, what brand did you go with? How is the ride hight and quality?
Thanks in advance

 

I went with the Silvers coilovers. I liked the adjustability that you got with them. They ride fantastic although I still have tuning to do on them though. And most importantly, it's nice not having to worry about the ABC just blowing out. I always had that thought in the back of my mind. As long as you avoid any ebay special coilovers, you'll be happy.

 

This is the best information I have found on the subject:

https://mercedessource.com/store/search?keys=SL500

 

New accumulators reduce pressure spikes causing trouble.
Then maybe new seals in the two valve bodies, fresh oil and good you are.
When we got our SL five years ago, i did all that.
no problems since.
Being able to adjust ride hight (perfect on bumpy/bad Italian mountain roads) together with its great comfortable drive, make i will NEVER think about getting rid of this system.

 

It’s not necessarily the fixing it that’s the issue, although finding a good pump is next to impossible, but the face that when it breaks most times it leaves the car inoperable. Accumulators and fluid flushes with seals certainly help, but don’t fix the inherent flaws with the rest of the system.

 

The biggest issue is that hoses are now up to 22 years old and burst hoses are what cause most of the walk home issues. Usually the front or rear pressure feeds are first to go and I recommend proactively replacing or rebuilding those two as well as the two pressure lines behind the left front wheel. Recently, I have noticed several original front strut whip hoses in very bad condition. While maybe half of the cars I see have had front struts replaced, I recommend at least replacing hoses on original ones. Usually, an original strut will need more, like ball joints, covers, and top cushions.

I have started going through mine and rebuilding those 6 lines, repairing struts, and checking and repairing any worn front suspension components. I have two SL500's and an SL55, so it will take some time to get through them all. I have a hydraulic crimper, so I can do my own lines, but most of the lines are fairly reasonable from the discount dealers.

I try to avoid the ABC/coilover fights, but I certainly believe ABC is worth keeping if you can do the work yourself.

 

@MikeJ65 …. You’ve earned my respect taking in the ABC on your own. I wanted to do that and life just got in the way. But I bought this car knowing that it was going to require some work from me.

I think ABC and coilovers are both great. The risk of ABC leaving me stranded is what ultimately changed my mind.

 

I had a pump failure a long while back. The car locked the struts up so they still had fluid in and I was able to drive the car back home although with an incredibly firm ride and sticking to low speed. Not every ABC failure will absolutely strand the car

 

Follow him- all he does is install neomax silvers. He has cars shipped to him from all over. He's a really good guy and will answer all your questions/concerns

https://www.youtube.com/@goldelementautoworks

 

Thanks, although I don’t really see the need to send the car anywhere. First, that would take all the joy out of the procedure. Second, while back before my major go around on ABC, I’ve asked this guy few sample questions with regard to the coilovers he sells. My question fell on deaf ears. I rather support business that support our car community by sharing their knowledge and experiences.

 

I have not yet come across a situation where pump failure would not equal catastrophic system failure unless the engine was stopped immediately. You must be the luckiest person on the planet.

 

No, but most will, and some are downright dangerous.

 

he is my guy and source as well, when my red ABC dash light comes on! I am kind of looking forward to it to be done with it for the rest of time.

 

I bought my 2004 three weeks ago and I've been following this discussion but I've stayed out of it up until this point. However one of my struts died this morning and I can't even find a new replacement for it. The local MB dealer only lists "rebuilt" struts at $1800+ and those aren't even available. And the "rebuilt" struts on the internet are priced at from $1100+ to nearly $2000 and most of them are coming from China so I have zero confidence in them.

The ABC system is one of the reasons that I choose to buy a SL 500 and the ABC system in this car was repaired and serviced a two years ago which is one reason that I bought this particular car. I knew that is was going to be expensive to maintain and repair but I thought that it would be repairable. But now new replacement parts for both the ABC and the BCM are "not available" and both are show stoppers for these cars so I'm strongly debating what I want to do with this car. And and BTW the convertible top worked when I bought the car but stopped working literally the next day! A number of the cylinders in that system were replaced by a local MB dealer less than five years ago and there are no signs of any leaks and the fluid in the pump is clean and full. I should add that this car has never been left outside and (appears to be) in perfect condition with no signs of an rust, corrosion, water leaks, oil leaks or leaks from any of the other fluid systems but in less than three weeks I have three major problems with this car and I still have several small electrical problems that no one has been able to resolve.

I owned three M-Bs back in the day and they were complex by the standards of the day but they were reliable. However I am extremely disappointed in the over-complexity and the (lack of) reliability of the SL 500s and with M-B's failure to find out and correct the serious issues with this model or to even make the necessary parts available.

FYI I have a cheap low end model 2014 Mazda 2 that I barely change the oil in but I've never had any problem with it (I did replace the battery once.) You have wonder why Mercedes can't built a ~$100,000 car that will hold up at least as well as a $14,000 Mazda!

 

Is your strut leaking or some other issue? Rebuilt struts are readily available from the discount dealers, Arnott through Rock Auto, or RMT right there in FL. The discount dealers and Rock Auto sell them for around $700 after exchange and RMT has a $400 R&R option if your sensors are good.

Do you have any messages regarding the roof, trunk, or consumers? The roof is complex, but if you understand how it is supposed to work, it is usually not that hard to troubleshoot.

 

Nope, no leaking struts and no leaks anywhere else. Also no error messages prior to the big red ABC warning. The system only showed 0 Malfunctions. I haven't had time to look into the top failure. I only know that it's not a fuse issue and that the pump motor doesn't start. But I don't THINK that it's pump fault.

I don't know how recently you've looked at the prices for struts but when I looked yesterday I didn't find anything under the high $800 price range. And $330 or more for a core charge. And I found horrible reviews of the Arnot (sp?) rebuilds. Amazon does carry brand-x rebuild struts but they're $990 and are only warrantied for 1 year or 30 days, depending on which part of their ad that you read. They actually say that they are in stock but most places that I looked at said out of stock.

Partsgeek wants $737 for Arnott rebuilds and Autozone wants $905 for the same. Amazon sells the Arnotts for $979. It looks like there are no new struts left and that many of the strut rebuilders had very poor products and many of them have also dropped out of the market.

I did see RMT and I wondered about their quality. Oh wait, their price is $395. I could have sworn it was in the $800+ range. Has anyone had any experience with their rebuilds???

Or I could buy a pair of rebuilt structs from China. Alipress sells them for only $1,686.00!

Wow I just found this review of RMT You've been warned!

I'm getting any warm feelings about any of the rebuilt struts that I've looked at and new ones are unobtainium.

 

Which one do you need? You can't trust any of the online Mercedes 'inventory'. Some sites will mark a backordered part as discontinued or not update a backordered part once it is again available. I think that the Miami area dealers will do a decent discount and allow you to pick it up. SW FL dealers are thieves and want a premium over list prices. If you can't get it locally, there are several discount dealers that offer 30-35% off list. You need to pay shipping two ways if you return the core, but it might still be the best deal. I have installed Arnotts and have Arnott rebuilds on a couple of the R230s that I own. I have never had an issue with one.

I don't have any personal experience with RMT, but I would not overreact to one negative review. The $395 is to rebuild and return your strut without repairing plunger sensors. The $800+ price is an off the shelf part and they will take a strut with bad plunger sensors as the core.

 

I'm not sure I follow. For as long as the belt is on, pump turns. Can you please explain “ pump motor doesn’t start?

 

The pump motor under the floor of the trunk that is part of the vario roof system. When I put the roof up or down I used to hear it run as soon as I pressed or lifted the switch but now nothing. The roll bar switch is also doing nothing. Both worked when I bought the car a few weeks ago.

The roof quit working and I was also already trying to figure out why I can't access the Convenience Features in the instrument panel's setup menu. But then a few days ago I also had the left front fender drop down onto the tire and the red ABC light popped on with a warning not to drive the car. So things are falling apart faster than I can figure out what's wrong with them.

to clarify, yes the ABC pump is running fine, the belts are good and there are no leaks anywhere that I can find. The car just suddenly dropped the left front fender onto the tire with no warning. I have been driving the car and playing with the ABC switch and the car always leveled fine and would go up and down when I pressed the ABC switch but all of it suddenly stopped working.

 

This cars tend to be hard on the auxiliary battery (one in the trunk). I got myself a battery maintainer and when I know that I’ll not be using the car for more than 2 days I plug it in.
Not having the convenience functions available at startup suggests low aux battery in most cases. (Vario roof is considered to be one of the convenience functions). Low battery may trigger as high as 11.5v. Grab your volt meter and confirm. Keep your trunk open, and leave your key in the house, so not to wake up the system. Otherwise you may get inaccurate reading.

 

Oh Really! I did not know that but it may explain why my roof just suddenly quit working. I checked my system battery over and over and it's always been above 12 volts and my battery maintainer and my battery tester also both said that it was good. But out of desperation I replaced the system battery last week but I still have all of the same problems. I hope there's not something going bad in the system power supply (part of the BCM). But what I can't figure out is why the instrument panel displays keep telling that there are 0 Malfunctions and at the same time tell me that the Convenience features are off and also won't let me access the Convenience settings in the Setting Menu.

 

As for the car sagging in one corner, if there is no external leaks than there is an internal one. Maybe just minor caused by wear and tear of the system seals and microscopic debris it produces. Inexpensive yet quick effective solution to this is the filter change, provided your system was really maintained the way you were told and the fluid is still looking like new to the naked eye.
I use the new syringe with some silicone tubing to suck the reservoir empty. Only then I remove the filter. After replacing the filter only fresh fluid from the new bottle can be used to restore the proper level.
I consider removed oil to be contaminated. Raising and lowering the car few times will circulate the fluid well and exercise the valves as well. I avoid the temptation of the spectacular “rodeo” show taking in to consideration the age of all the system components.

 

Start the car using the key. All should go back to normal if there is no current fault in the system.

 

I've tried that many times and nothing is changing. I've been fiddling with the Convenience Features Not Available messages and the inaccessible Menu settings for well over a week now. That was what lead me to take a close look at the system battery and to eventually to replace it and to look at the current flow through it. But that all seems to be fine so now I'm wondering if the BCM is flagging the battery as low even when it's not. (I'm assuming that the BCM is what monitors the battery and alerts the other systems but I'm not sure.) Also it's worth pointing out that I haven't had any kind of battery warnings or alerts.

Bobterry said: "The factory specification is for the current to be less <= 50 mA after 20 minutes, and for no reason apparent to me a measurement should be taken with the vehicle locked."

I know and the current in mine didn't go that low but at that point of was just looking any excessive current draw that might be affecting the battery and I thought that 79Ma was low enough. When I get some of the other problems out of the way I will go back and look at that and see if it does eventually drop to less than 50ma and if not, why. I may just need to wait longer for the current to drop. I did have the key in my pocket so possibly it was waking the system up. Do these cars really detect the presence of the keys even when no button was pushed?

 

The ABC system is the lifeblood of the car. It loses all identity without it.