WIldcat465

that a brake job on an SLR is $30,000?

and that if you wreck your SLR that it has to be shipped to England to be repaired?

That's the information that the dealer shared with me yesterday.

TECHNICIAN

Pretty much right on

MarkusD

Carbon Brake Disks last for 100,000 Miles. There is also a SLR service center here in Germany. And I think there is one in America. So you do not need to ship car back to England.

MVillareal

Now, what is the price of the brake job at Midas....cuz that's all I would prob be able to afford after taking out a 30 yr mortgage to finance the SLR to begin with......LOL. That would give new meaning to living in your car.....

ClayJ

Techs/mechanics fly out to US to do repairs in US (and I assume elsewhere as well).

Scoop55

I think this is true with some of the other exotics as well.

NOTKTS

I thought servicing an SLR was almost like anyother 55 with a few exceptions like the special lift and such

spenceraaron03

just the parts for a 4wheel brake job, on the SLR, at my dealership is aprox $54,000

ano0oj

the coolest thing about the brakes is that they catch fire if you do like a crazy decrease in speed!

TECHNICIAN

Rotors-$15,000 each
Radio-$6000 same as an early(01-04) W203 radio, with silver trim though
Hood-$40,000
Doors-$60,000 each
Front Caliper-$3800 each
Airbrake spoiler-$9000
Headlight-$8000 each
Front Bumper-$6500

At 4 years old the car requires the spark plugs be changed. The Motor has to be removed to perform this procedure. Approx. 1 WEEK of labor is involved.

Yellow R1

How do you figure. Its simply a blown 5.5L powerplant with a top mount supercharger? Its pretty easy to change the plugs on my blown Kleemann SLK55.

-Matt

TECHNICIAN

Have you seen one in person, or are you just stating an opinion? Good luck changing the plugs in the car. And nice try with the $60k to $465k car comparison, they are not even close to the same motor

MarkusD

I cannot even see the sparking plugs.







Compare to the SL55 engine area. Theres more room to get to the banks of the "V". I believe that the SLR has its mufflers in the same area. Which causes the main problem.

TECHNICIAN

Exactly my point. If you have never seen one in person or have first hand knowledge, then you don't know. I have both

Yellow R1

Tech, I was asking a question, not making an accusation.

In any case, I'll respond.

1) Yes, I've seem multiple SLRs. In fact, I almost bought one.

2) The MSRP of the car has absolutely nothing to do to ingress & egress of
a plug change (and it IS indeed the same 5.5L block, just a different
H/C & blower arrangement - thus the plugs are in the SAME location).
Getting access to the SAME location may be the limiting factor as to
"why" one would need to unhook the headers from the manifold & lift
engine for a plug change. If this is the case, its a rather poor design
& would certainly kill my remaining rational for buying one (major hassle
for simple/routine maintenance).

3) I've been wrenching on sports & muscle cars for decades so please, lose
the attitude. Its a front mount blown V8/RWD layout, not the Space Shuttle.

-Matt

Nighttrain

I hear your wallet/bank account catch fire right after the brakes catch fire

TECHNICIAN

No attitude here. But you are 100% wrong.

The M155 block in the SLR is a totally different design then the M113 block in your car. It is a multi-piece casting where the crank is dropped in, the bottom half of the block is then bolted to the top half, then the oil pan(dry sump in this case) is bolted to that. Yours is 1 piece, with a upper and lower oil pan.

Heads are supposedly the same with exception of valvetrain and cams.

The headers/exhaust is the main factor in the problem with changing the plugs. They are shoved as close to the block as possible, with a **** load of heat shielding on EVERYTHING, even plug wires if you look, and to add fuel to the fire the engine is located so far back there is NO room to remove any of this in the car. The engine must me dropped from the bottom of the car to gain access.

Sorry if you think this is rediculous, but people spending this type of money on a vehicle aren't usually that concerned with it. Its no different than a belt service on a Ferrari that requires engine out.

So yes your car and the SLR have the same plug location, but are in no way the same when it comes down to doing the actual work. I'm not basing this on **** I have heard or seen on the internet, I do this **** for a living...check my profile. And I agree its not the space shuttle, I'd spend my $475k on a Carrera GT.

BTW: I have a black/black R1 also

TECHNICIAN

WIldcat465

I don't get it. It's as if they made the car as expensive to maintain as possible. Who in their right mind would buy one particularly since there are better, more interesting car with lower maintenance costs. I probably think this way becuase I'm too poor to have one. I think I'll stick with my SL.

NOTKTS

No worse than the 5-Figure Valve adjustment on the CGT when it hits 20K...

DMin

When I get to 20K I'll let you know how expensive the valve adjustment was. But, that's 3 years down the road, at the rate that I'm driving the car.

Overall, it's a small price to pay for a street legal LM prototype

As for the SLR brake job, I don't doubt the cost, but it's not something that'll be done very often in the life of the car. Probably at most once, unless you're tracking your car quite a bit. Those carbon ceramic brakes are pretty durable. Still, if you have the money for the car to begin with, another $30K doesn't add that much, and I suspect that the routine maintenance costs will far exceeed the costs to replace the brakes.

TECHNICIAN

Exactly. The rotors should theoretically last the life of the car.

As for the engineering behind the motor layout, It wasn't designed to keep maintenance costs down, it was made to be Mercedes contribution to the world of supercars. They did a pretty decent job if you ask me.

I'd still take one of what DMin drives over it though

NOTKTS

Yeah, But if you ask me I wouldn't even put the SLR in the same category as the CGT. The SLR is The Ultimate GT, No questions asked. The CGT is more of a track car if you ask me compared to a touring car.

Each to their own

benzmodz

What about a group buy ?

benzmodz

I suppose that retiming the engine and checking everything would be included in that. Seems quite reasonable.

People who can afford these cars and dont drive them much must think that they will live long enough to drive something better.