tee.dawg

Good morning.
I live in Central Florida. Merritt Island, Brevard county.
I own a pristine 2004 SL500 w/ 22,000 miles.
Been to the nearest MB dealership and got. Big bill and no fix!
I’m in need of a seasoned MB Technician to fix a rear battery no charge issue.
Please 🙏 let me know of where I can go in my area.
Thank you.
T

streborx

Try benzshops.com for local indy MB mechanics.

chassis

Welcome! Please post a photo of the SL. Try posting in the SL section for your model year and you will receive suggestions.

MJ50

moved to R230 forum...

MikeJ65

Very few dealer techs have the knowledge or desire to work on an '04. You need to find that place owned by a 50+ mechanic that has about 20 old Mercedes from the 70's on up in the parking lot and where the only sign is in 3" letters on the door. Don't ask him to do it cheaper or faster, don't call him 3 times a day to check on it. When he notifies you that it is ready, hand him cash and pick it up. He is a car guy, not a people person.

Ok, a few stereotypes there, but you will probably laugh when you find the right shop and it is pretty much as I described. Are you sure that you have a charging issue or is it just that your battery runs down when parked (very common issue)? Battery drain is also the type of job that dealer techs hate. They will replace batteries, alternators, BCM modules, everything except actually diagnosing the source of the drain and fixing it. Do you have a list of what the dealer did?

If you can't find anyone locally, you can bring it down to Fort Myers and I will take care of it.

tonylinc

Sorry to hear they took a pile of your cash and did no repair. A good indy shop is a must!! When you find one that is capable, and honest, that is a treasure. It may just be that your trunk battery is getting old and wearing out, or if you park the car for periods longer than a few days the rear battery will typically get run down by itself because of the way the R230 has so many electronics in them. A CTEK battery tender, model MX-S 5.0which has an AGM setting, can be put on the battery for parking 3-4 days unattended, or longer. AGM is the only battery type to be used in the trunk, and those will wear out kinda quickly if allowed to get really run down several times. Batter to keep topped off in terms of charge. The CTEK tender also has a "recondition" setting, which really works, I had a battery in another car that got run down a few times and using the recondition setting the battery is like new again. Stay away from Benz dealerships service departments as much as you can; they are happy to give you a huge bill and take your money without fixing anything. They'll usually tell you the car needs repairs that it DOES NOT NEED. The ones near me, have charged tons of money for repairs they claimed they performed, when investigation by knowledgeable people showed they did no such repair. I'd trust my mother in law before I'd trust a Benz dealership. I'm certain that if you took the car to MikeJ65 you would be well taken care of.

FL SL500

Morning Tee. I'm also the new owner of an old 2004 SL500 (72,000 miles) and I live near UCF. You might try the place mentioned in this thread. The seem to fit the description of an independent shop owned by a 50 year M-B mechanic and not a blood sucking M-B dealership. I've talked to them a few times but never used them, however I'm going try and get my car into them next week.

It sounds like your car hasn't been used much. You need to follow Tony's advice and put a battery maintainer on the system battery. You should also drive the car every week or two and put the top up and down and cycle the suspension and use the AC. Those systems all have seals in them and if you don't use them frequently, the seals will dry up and leak. The same can happen with engine and transmission seals if the car isn't driven. The systems need to be use in order to circulate the freon, oil and/or hydraulic fluid.

"You need to find that place owned by a 50+ mechanic that has about 20 old Mercedes from the 70's on up in the parking lot and where the only sign is in 3" letters on the door."

Yeap, that sounds just like Jerry's MB Service!

tonylinc

Indeed Mercedes, and all cars want to be driven rather than parked for long periods. Since I have six cars, I have a small desk calendar and each night if I remember to, I write down what car(s) I drove that day. Then I can look and see it's been 7 days since I drove this one... Having some classic cars, I realized the car is much more benefit by driving 15 miles once or twice a week rather than 100 miles once a month. The seals inside the engine that keep all the oil in, stay wet and lubed that way. Even the power windows, if unused for long periods, will suddenly stick and refuse to open. I once had a 1991 R129 500SL and the top didn't work because the passenger window was stuck and would not open. Thought I'd need to take the door apart and get a window motor; the 100th time I tried the switch, the window went down! Perfect after that, and the top was only refusing to work because it depends on windows operating. Another time I bought a BMW 7-Series, amazing car, one of the rear doors was stuck and appeared it was never going to open. The guy said, "I've just not opened that door in twelve years". LoL The 77th time I tried to get that door open, suddenly it popped open. I was amazed! So YES, take the car out, open and close all the windows, use the A/C at least once a month, use everything, it's good for the car. Best way to prevent oil leaks is drive the car a few times a week! R230's rear battery depends on being driven at least once a week, twice a week is even better. Even if just for 15 miles. I get in the cars sometimes just for the purpose of going out to buy Powerball tickets. The lady who won in February ($754 million) bought her ticket at the grocery store six miles from my house! LoL
I can just imagine the garage my cars would enjoy being parked in, if I were to win that. Haha
I have the CTEK but only use it once or twice a year because I'm so religious about driving the cars often enough.