Florida Gent

I have (had) an 07 SL550. Excellent maintenance history. No Mods of any kind. 43K miles. Spontaneously, in my garage, an electrical fire developed in the right front part of the trunk. It burned several harnesses and a control box of some kind and a large area around it. The trunk and the car filled with smoke, but the fire did not progress, probably because of lack of oxygen as the top was up and windows shut. Didn't discover it until the next day. Repair estimate was $21,400. Car was totaled and I await a check. No one will fix this car. Who knows what it did to the rest of the electrical system. Ironically, it started when I needed to move it into position for the tow truck. This is not an isolated problem. There are a couple of videos and several reports of EXACTLY the same thing. Mercedes must know about this. I loved the car and want another one, but am hesitant. Comments?

Utopia Texas

bob55

The exact same thing happened to me with my pristine 2003 SL500 with 50K miles. Worse yet, it happened inside my garage just as my wife and I were about to go to bed. Had I not gone out to the garage to put a can in the recycle bin and seen the smoke and flames before we turned in for the night, we may have lost our home and possibly even our lives. The trunk fire originated in the electronics module located between the right side of the trunk and the outside fuel filler cap. The right rear tire was on fire with flames 6 feet high. The aluminum body just beneath the fuel filler cap had just melted away and I could see the potential for a fuel tank explosion. Fortunately I was able to put the tire flames out with a garden hose but the trunk had locked itself and could not be opened normally. The car had filled with dense black smoke and would not start . Once the Fire department arrived I was able to get the trunk open by using the manual flat key and the fire department then discovered the source as being the previously mentioned electronic module which still smoldering and 'sparking' with electric current. Both batteries were then disconnected to stop it. The car was totaled by State Farm, but the check I received certainly does not reflect what the car was worth to me as it had been maintained in a pristine condition since new.

As much as I miss my beautiful Silver SL500 Sport Pkg, this was so scary, I am very wary of buying another SL. I have since learned that this has actually occurred many times to many SL's.and yet Mercedes has not issued a recall for this very significant fire hazard. I even found a VIDEO of how this occurs on YouTube. The video is of a new 2012 SL550 trunk fire occurrence in Hawaii and it is almost identical to what happened with mine. Luckily, in the video, they caught it before flames erupted and burned their home, but the car is ruined and their garage filled was filled with smoke!

Search YouTube for 'Mercedes Benz SL550 Electrical Fire in Turnk' to find the video! I encourage ALL SL owners to watch it. The last minute of the video shows the precise location of the electronic module that is the cause of these SL Class trunk fires.

All SL owners need to be aware of this on-going SL:trunk Fire Risk!

bob55

Bumping this so that everyone is aware of this very serious Fire Hazard threat that exists on 230 & 231 SL Class vehicles...

FxFormat

I was hoping it's from a dead cell of the AGM battery, i'll go home later and look at the module and see what's going on. How does it short anyways?

FxFormat

Wow talk about a close call, and thank god you and your family are okay. This is something that should definitely be recallled no? How many cases needs to be documented for MBUSA to recall it, potential lawsuit if a car were to short in the garage and catch on fire and cost lives.

bob55

Yeah, you would think there would be a Class Action Lawsuit by now, but I know of only one individual case lawsuit that was brought by State Farm. There are current Class Actions for Fires on other MB models due to other issues. Perhaps the only reason the SL has not been named because the SL fires are originating from the trunk rather than from the engine area.

BEWARE OF PARKING YOUR SL IN THE GARAGE! (MINE HADN'T EVEN BEEN DRIVEN FOR 3 DAYS WHEN IT HAPPENED!)

While all the cases I have seen so far are 230 SL's, the 231 Series has the very same electronics module located in the very same place! I see nothing to believe that Mine was a 2003, the YouTube video shows a 2012 with the exact same type of fire. I have seen other reports of 2003's, 2005's and 2007's with the same trunk fires caused by this electronic module shorting out while the vehicle was cold and parked. I spoke to my local MB Dealer about this. He could not identify any changes that have been made to this electronics module that might prevent these trunk fires from happening in the future!. Click below to see a video of one of these modules igniting. In the last minute of the video you can see the exact location of this electronics module because the trunk lining was burned away.

ItalianJoe1

The battery control module in the trunk overheats and catches fire. Happened here at the dealer to a car that a valet was driving up to a customer. The failures are rare but usually quite catastrophic. We repaired one, with a complete new body harness and many replacement parts. There is no clear cause of the failure that causes the overheating and failure of the battery control module, that I've ever seen.

bob55

Pretty much the same thing my Dealer told me...SO IT'S BUYER BEWARE!...What actually causes the electroics module to ignite is still not known, so THERE IS STILL NO MB FIX! Expect this to keep happening and it's not nearly as rare as you might think!

FxFormat

Wow i think i'm going to be crying when i get home and open up the trunk area, as of yesterday the car still drove and behave fine, just the red battery light come on. I just got this car a few months ago too, love driving it, even though it gave me so much headaches

Dr. Manhattan

I'm really sorry these melt-downs are occurring, and I'm glad everyone is OK (so far). In view of the catastrophic nature of these occurrences, it might behoove R230 owners to consider replacing their battery control modules as a preventive measure...unless there is actually some other failure occurring that results in that module melting down. It would be very interesting to open up a well-used module to see how it looks inside...

bob55

Soon after my incident, I spoke to my MB Service Adviser at the local MB Dealership where my SL had always been serviced. I strongly suggested that this fire-prone electronics module be checked each time a multi-point inspection is done on any SL Class vehicle. I know that my Adviser then spoke to the Service Manager at the Dealership and I supplied hard copy detail of my trunk fire incident along with other similar trunk fire incidents that I found on the internet. Even gave them the link to the YouTube Video seen in this thread. However, despite all these efforts to call attention to this matter, I do not believe anything has actually changed with regard to inspecting these SL electronic modules at my Dealership or any other Dealership. MB seems willing to simply turn a blind eye to this hazard,

I now believe it will take another Class Action Lawsuit to get the attention of Mercedes-Benz on this matter. Such Lawsuits already exist for other MB models which have their own fire hazard issues, (and associated recalls), which are not related to the electronics module problem found in the SL Class. I guess because the SL Class is a 'low volume model' in terms of MB's overall sales, MB is willing to simply ignore this fire hazard issue rather than suffer more bad fire hazard publicity. However I think SL Buyers deserve much better from Mercedes-Benz given the catastrophic nature of these fires which most often occur inside the SL owner's home garage.

bob55

FxFormat just confirmed in the 230 forum that the electronics/battery control module inside the trunk of his SL was indeed the source of the 'burning smell' he was detecting. Luckily he was able to identify the problem before something catastrophic occurred!

ItalianJoe1

Check it at every service visit for what exactly?

This happens very rarely. Not like there are hundreds of SL's catching fire. Class action suit for what? A few failures of old cars? Yes it's a ****ty thing to have happen, I would be very upset if my CL caught fire and burned up. But this just isn't a common issue, it's affected a few cars here and there out of tens of thousands. Nothing will ever come of it.

bob55

This problem is a whole lot more common than you think it is!

ItalianJoe1

You're right, we've had one through an extremely large dealer in 2.5 years. It's very common.

You have to realize, people make a HUGE case of things like this on the internet. I'm not saying this is not a big problem or there shouldn't be something done about it, but in general, if the car was having this problem all the time, it would come up as a recall. They change caps on fluid tanks for potential leak sources that could possibly lead to a fire, and make a recall out of it.

I'd like to know, on every car with this failure, did it have both batteries ORIGINAL MB? If not, there's a possible cause right there. It only seems to happen on cars that are now 12-15 years old. Plenty of opportunities for things to be messed with in that timeframe.

The potential fire issue on the new C300 with the starting current limiter was a recall, and that was only an issue if you hydrolocked or somehow blocked the engine from starting, and then continued to attempt to start the car, it could overheat the electronics and lead to a fire. Still a recall, it happened on a couple cars local to me with flooded engines.

FxFormat

Got a replacement BCM today and got right to work

Here's the damage to the old BCM. A couple of the capacitors burned and damaged the PCB board. Here's something interesting that happened after i put a new one in, my car used to get heat soaked like crazy, it's only stupid fast within the first 20 minutes of driving, after that, it's only fast. Now it's stupid fast all time, i'm not sure if this new BCM is turning on the intercooler pump or it's strictly placebo, but something definitely happened. Also, the car had some shaking, like mini misfires at idle, that's gone too.







Let this be a warning, if you've got a burning smell in your trunk, open up the lining and sniff the BCM, you don't want a fire, i think mine is on the verge of engulfing in flames. It's real easy to open the cover panel, just 4 T15 torx to see inside the board, and it's 4x 10mm to completely remove the BCM from the bracket.

Wolfman

While this is an informative thread, it is posted in the wrong forum and contributes to fear mongering for no reason whatsoever. Even if the controller module is the same (which I doubt, there are certainly revisions) it still has a different electrical/battery setup than the R230. The posts by ItalianJoe are spot on...

FxFormat

Yeah not sure why the original poster posted in the R231 forum when he drives an R230, I sure do hope they have fixed this problem, if you run a search on google quite a few people have this BCM problem. I just dont' want it to engulf in flames and burning down a house with people sleeping inside. Murphy's law

gregorynp

My 2011 SL550 has the problem. Bad oder tipped me off.

ChrisW4000

Same thing just happened on my 2005 SL 350. Car was parked on drive and had not been driven for a couple of weeks. Short video of the damage here Awful electrical burning smell and car interior was covered in soot and a real mess. Car was written off . Location UK

rmorin49

Any DOCUMENTED cases of this issue on a 2015 or later SL?

Wolfman

Mentioned the same thing a year or so ago. Very informative for R230 owners, but fear mongering if posted in other forums without any knowledge that this happen to other MB models. One of several post like this around from the OP

Keon

Stop bumping old threads on the wrong forum to promote your videos that aren't even about the R231. No one here cares.

Battle Kitten

So sorry to hear this. So heart breaking. I feel your pain. I have an 05. I busted the bumpers. They totalled but i bought it back. Anyhoo it has been sitting for a year waiting for me to get money to get parts. The truck battery went dead so i bought another one. When i hooked it up it sparked. I think i have a short. I maybe having same issue as you. I have undid battery so i wont have a fire but no one will track down the short.