dllhg

I was looking at the sl600 too but the bonkers power of the Sl65 for not that much more money makes it a winner in my book. Was originally looking at getting a CTS-V later this year and modding it out. Crazy fast and four doors. After paying more attention to them on the roads lately I cant say I really like the looks of them very much. My E55 looks much nicer.

Now the Sl65/55 are flat out sexy in person. I just ran and beat a guy in a SL55 AMG and the first thing I thought when I saw that car was damn that thing is hot. Very exotic look. I used to want a Vette but now I am 100% set on a SL65 for my next car. Tune only and they can run 10s. Was reading a thread recently and a tune only was picking up over 35 MPH in the back half ! That is crazy fast top end. My E55 with all its mods only gains 25-27 on the back half. Twin turbo anything has so much potential let alone a TT V12 I must be getting old (wiser) as I have never owned anything but American cars until 2012 After seeing a guy run 10s@127 MPH in his full weight luxury E55 while I ran 10 MPH slower in my so called fast super charged GTO I was sold. I mirrored that guys mods the first week I owned the car. I had most the parts at my house before the car arrived from FL.

ABC issues have me a little concerned. Are they more costly than the E55s ? I think I paid about $500 for one strut and $200 for install. On those you can also simply replace them all and get rid of the air system all together for about $2K.

Oh and I'll be keeping my E55. Sell my 300c and GTO. The SL would be weekend cruiser

alx

the r230 does not have airmatic that your e55 has.

it has abc which is fluid driven on all four corners. parts are more expensive. it will break.

do some reading. in various threads pretty much everything is spelled out.

sound 8

Hi, I think you will find that the 65 has more than just power over the 600.
Suspension, brakes and toys are better, and that magic word AMG is
on the boot. Try to buy a late one I was put off driving an early one, several years later I drove a 2007 which I bought, I could tell from the fact it had
paddle change on the steering wheel, it felt altogether faster and nicer to drive. I now have a SL63 231 and sometimes I wish I still had my SL65

sgaar

The MY '07 was the first year of the mid-model facelift. Apart from the cosmetic changes, it also got an upgraded engine. The HP went from ~590 to 604.

BlownV8

Not true on the HP. The 2005 SL65 also had 604 hp.

V12TTenthusiast

There's more then enough threads at this point on people wanting to debate over a SL55/63/65 and they all end up the same in reach thread.

If you want an SL65 you be prepared to dump money into this car.

Ignition coils can go from 900-1200 each and you will need two.

24 spark plugs are needed for this car and depending on where you get them they go from 10-20 a pop

Brakes on this car are expensive dealer will ask for 900-1100 per rotor, if you shop online more like 700-800 per rotor, and if you can manage to find where to get the friction discs from Brembo even less and you still have pads to worry about and these things are no covered by warranty

ABC issues can range from 1000-8,000+ easily depending on the issue

Those are pretty much the common issues on this car, so warranty is advised.

I can't remember which thread I rad this from but an SL65 is like a high maintenance woman but you never get bored of her even as she ages and its worth the money to spend if you have it.

Also it will save you some money if you can do some of the labor yourself

Oh I forgot one other thing, the ECU tune for our cars are expensive seeing how much power we gain from a tune and can range from 1000-2500. I was lucky to get my ECU/TCU tunned when Eurocharged had an open house sale in DC and only paid $1000 which is a steal from boosting from 505 rwhp to 565 rwhp and much more responsive transmission

Dave in VA

Good choice, I really enjoy mine. I'vd had mine for a year and put on 6000 miles the only thing I have needed is an oil change, that I did myself. Total cost around $10 for a filter and 9 quarters of 0w40 Mobil 1 from Walmart.

I have heard at around 60,000 miles you may need to change coil packs, just due to the heat that the engine generates, but given it only had 5300 miles on it when I got it, I'll have a while before I'll need to worry about coil packs.

I plan on changing the brake fluid using Ate SL.6 brake fluid and next year flushing the ABC system. It appears preventive maintenance is the big key to keeping your cost of ownership down.

Good luck,

Dave

dllhg

Most the other issues listed seem like pretty standard AMG stuff except for maybe the ABC. I cant imagine the brake rotors have to be replaced very often. Hell my fuel pumps went out and would have been a $1500 repair if it wasnt for a friend who gave me new ones he had lying around. Still around $350. Strut failure would have been over $1k if I hadnt shopped around and had local guy do it. Ran me $700 total installed for just the one. The only thing on my E55 that scares me is the engine or trans.

1-8K for the ABC ? How does it get up to $8K ?All four struts ? Can you just swap out for different struts like the E55 can for $2K?

V12TTenthusiast

R230 ABC is very different then other AMGs, we use hydraulics rather than Airmatic, struts, ABC lines, valve blocks, ABC pump, flushes, rodeos, etc our struts from the dealership is an easy 2k a pop not including labor. You can't compare Airmatic ABC to Hydraulic ABC, two very different systems. All these parts for the R230 ABC is more more costly vs airmatic

dllhg

What do you like more or less about the SL63 ? I'd love to get one of those but that is out of my price range right now. Under 40K for the SL65 AMG with decent miles is about perfect for my third vehicle.

I really want to get the upgraded turbos I have seen. 1000 HP/1200 TQ I bet that is fun to drive. Probably start with just a good tune and settle for "only" 700 HP and 850 TQ

dllhg

Seems like it would have been more reliable than the Air, that is too bad. Are there aftermarket replacement struts for them? Just get rid of the Hydraulic all together likes lots do with the Airmatic ?

V12TTenthusiast

If you want to do upgraded turbos be prepared to drop alot of $$$ like 20-30k from what ive seen vendors charging, but I'm on the same route, I already did, the HE, IC Pump, ECU/TCU, full 3 Inch exhaust and lowering links. Getting ready for the LSD and paint for my brake calibers and got the carbon fiber interior, intakes, top mount intercoolers, trunk tank, black series body kit which should be done by march after that its just rebuilding the tranny and building the turbo kit

V12TTenthusiast

No I wish Hydraulic is way worse, most common complaint of all R230 is our ABC and its failures when it goes bust. Don't get me wrong it makes the ride really smooth, but its very complex system. Usually you want to get a warranty it will pay for it self 3x np. But people usually go Arrnott struts when they go bad, only cost 400-500 with a core exchange of the bad strutt you have

dllhg

I just looked and looks like Arnott has them for $590 shipped each. Not much more than my E55s. Does flushing the system, changing filter etc make a big difference in these issues people have ? What is the most common failure, struts ? If I ended up spending 3-4K on the suspension over a few years I wouldnt mind. Will only be putting maybe 5K miles a year on it

V12TTenthusiast

Oh one more thing I forgot to add, even though our engine mounts don't cost very much. it can take easy 25 hours to do the job since the engine needs to be dropped for the job so if you take it to a shop you can expect to pay 3k easy. I'm glad I had a warranty to cover that job cause I'm too paranoid to take a wrench to my 65 when it comes to the engine lol

V12TTenthusiast

From what I heard as long as you keep the system flushed and maintained it should be ok. Struts is a big problem, I would say the 2nd would be valve block and 3rd the ABC Pump

dllhg

Sounds like a nice build. 20-30K seems a bit steep. The turbos are 5K and shouldnt cost much to have swapped. Whats the tranny/converter upgrades cost? I thought those would be the two big expenses. Probably do a Killer Chiller like I did on my E for cooling. Seems like it would be more in the 10-15K range.

dllhg

I just read a thread stating they were quoted $700 parts and labor for all three mounts. I had all my mounts done with my header install on the E55. Only had to pay for the extra parts. So not too bad.

Is it hard/expensive to do the ABC flush and fluid ? Seems like a pretty easy thing to take car of unless you need to do it every oil change.

nothing scaring me away from this car yet. Unless I hear the trans or engines are weak I am in like Flynn
Really seems about the same price wise as my E55.

V12TTenthusiast

If you look on the book hours its def a 25 hr job, if it was a 600 maybe it was different but it you look up 65 engine mount job can find a few people talking about it, the last thread was from the S65 fourm i think guy did it him self took 2 days to do the whole job but he did something different with the mount then dropping the engine completely.

As for having the build cost 20-30k it can reach there np once you start adding up the parts and labor, I'll do a quick estimate of avg price for everything

ECU/TCU $2000
Heat Exchanger $500, Inter-cooler Pump $180 + Labor $300
Quaife LSD $1300 + Labor $700
Toe Links (Renntech or Evosport) $1200 + Labor $400
Trunk Tank $400 + Labor $200
Top Mount Intercooler (Speedriven) $3000 + Labor $100
Custom Dual Ram Cold Air Intake $1800
3 Inch Full Mandrel Bent Exhaust $3000
Transmission Rebuild $5000

Already that's $20,080 estimate

And you still didn't cover the turbos, the custom manifold, since the stock SL65 turbos built into the manifold.

So you would need the following

2 GT30 or 35 Turbos
2 Custom Headers
Forged pistons and ported heads if you wanted to go that way
And a lot of R&D time

I mean you could do without a lot of stuff but with all that power you prob want it to stick to the ground and don't blow the motor

and it even gets more expensive when you do stuff like a black series body kit, wheels, carbon fiber accessories, etc. Some stuff you can prob get on sale or find a cheaper vendor.

Main problem with the M275 engine is there's not many vendors that really work on them except Speedriven and right now my car is a guinea pig at the shop I go to

vtvette

Yes without question the single best thing you can do to any R230 to prolong the service life of ABC components and improve reliability is change the ABC fluid regularly. It's unbelievable that Mercedes has no recommended scheduled maintenance interval for the ABC fluid.

The best news is it's very, very easy to change out the fluid at home with no special tools other than a 1/2" clear hose, 1/2 male to male fitting and a 5 gallon bucket:

https://mbworld.org/forums/5815848-post2.html

I do mine every 20,000 miles (every other oil change in my Sl55).

Another thing to keep in mind is NEVER, EVER run the ABC system dry! As soon as the ABC pump ingests air it is finished! Many ABC issues are the results of people continuing to drive the car with ABC issues/warnings or, not stopping the car immediately when an ABC issue arises.

dllhg

All of that would of course be nice but as you said not needed.

ECU TCU $1K (pretty sure I have seen them in this ballpark)
Turbos $5K
Tranny $5K
Killer Chiller $900 installed

So I am at about $12-13K it seems. Well I am sure there are more cost involved when all is said and done.

I might go another route after looking at some more posts with one member getting 660 WHP with just tune, intake, intercoolers, trunk res and exhaust. He still had cats so I dont know if he even did headers. Speeddriven also posted that the 800 WHP car wouldnt go over high 600s with pump gas. I am sure you could get it to the 800 range with meth or maybe E85.

I think I will go this route most likely instead.

Tune 1-2K
Chiller $900
Headers 2K?
TB ?

Maybe 6-7K and 650 WHP range. Probably wouldnt need to upgrade tranny with that power but I dont really know.

Quadcammer

all I can say is good luck with an under $40k Sl65.

you seem to not want to heed people's advice, so go forth and good luck.

BlownV8

No headers on a SL65. I don't know of anyone who makes them. There is just no room. The turbos are integrated into the exhaust manifolds. It is very tight.

BlownV8

He is not really reading the posts. He will have a very tough go at it.

V12TTenthusiast

I mentioned that in the post but I think quad is right lol. If you do new turbos you need to build custom headers/manifold. No one sells M275 headers as the turbo is built into the manifold

The only turbos that don't require doing so are the rebuilt OEM turbo's will billet parts and larger wheel for spool up