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Secondly, this is my story of precisely why I purchased an extended warranty when my SLS factory warranty was up.
I head out for my normal Sunday drive down the coast to grab a coffee. Couple hours later I head back home with the top down, on one of the nicest SoCal days you can get!
It is such a nice day that afternoon I decide to head back out and pick up something for dinner. AND there IT was …..
As soon I pulled out of the garage.. I saw IT on the ground. The puddle ..oh the Puddle.
I got out, took a couple pictures and wiped it up.. Sigh ..Put the SLS back in the garage and waited for Mercedes to open on Monday.
I knew what the Puddle meant.. Time.. lots of time.. and Money.. lots of money.
All I can recall from driving that day was there was a shift from second to third that felt like it hung up for a second or two. I didn’t think anything of it at the time.
That was May 7th, on May 9th the car was at Fletcher Jones Mercedes in Newport Beach.
First call back from FJ.. “Mercedes-Benz won’t “goodwill” the repair as car is too old. We will try to run it through your extended warranty”.
When I went to purchase an SLS, I knew no one with an SLS at all (Yes, before Bring a Trailer was a thing). I read the SLS articles and posts about some 7DCL750 dual clutch Getrag transmissions failures and some “just” with leaks. I read all the Ferrari 458 posts, as they had issues with the same box. There wasn’t really that much information about other types of repairs, as I doubt most of the original owners drove them enough to have lots of repairs.
However, my goal with the SLS was to drive it a bunch and hope to get a few dollars back out of it, if my son doesn’t want an old gas Mercedes around the year 2052 or so…
The purchase of an extended warranty was a must. (THANKS forum member Ed!) I will spare you the purchase details but, it is Platinum policy backed by Assurant.
I bought it with ONE thing only in mind.. what “if” the tranny goes bad.
Fast forward back to May 7th, the car was absolutely bullet proof through mile 29,417! Then the next mile ..it wasn’t. UPSET wasn’t the word for it as I started to blow up my SLS friends phones. I always knew this gearbox was the one thing that could sink my pleasurable SLS experience and it did.
The next call back from FJ two weeks later was the insurance company investigated and will pay the claim! (Minus the $500 deductible) WHEW! Now it’s just Time and not Big money. My extended warranty paid off Big! Even better news was there was A box in the USA (there are no new SLS boxes sitting on any shelves, only remanufactured), which meant no long delays from Germany.
I was still bummed out about the box letting go (more on that in a moment), how can I watch News with street takeovers every night in LA/OC with the kids doing smoky burnouts and they never break a tranny! Man I have bad luck. Another call comes in from the GM of service and he makes it so $0.00 comes out of my packet! My luck improves. FJ has been great in participating in my Supercars by the Sea event with the Special Olympics.
The “leak” wasn’t a simple leak from the case as I had thought, until June 8th when the car came back (31 days at FJ). Unfortunately, it had puked out the weep hole. A part had let go inside the box causing the stream of fluid. I (We, if you are still reading this) will unfortunately never know what exactly happened, as the box manufacturer won’t let Mercedes open them up. This is why I use failure in the thread title, because it was. Pictures are posted below and some reference articles along with an Indy shop that can help if, you don’t have a warranty.
Lastly,
It has been and still is great fun talking & posting all things SLS through the years some good, some bad. I have met a bunch of great people though ownership of this car and, it certainly was the impetus in starting Supercars by the Sea (Google) now that I had a true… SuperCar.
My 2012 SLS had an transmission failure in late 2015, about 4 months before the factory warranty ended and the extended kicked in. I'd put 30k miles on it in close to 4 years. It wasn't abused, most of the miles were interstate cruising, drove it across country once, etc. Back then they couldn't refurb the transmissions, they were closed units that just got replaced if anything went wrong and were made to order from Getrag. Mine was a clutch pack failure, so (to it's credit not a complete failure) I only had access to 2nd, 4th, 6th, and reverse, and I was 300 miles from home. They apparently saw this as a possibility because the software adapted to only having one clutch pack instead of just completely stranding me. They air shipped a transmission from Getrag within a week in Dec 2015, dealer had the transmission swapped within a week of getting it. The dealer invoice would have been a little over $30k out of pocket if it wasn't under warranty. More heavily abused SLS's (Classic Club Manhattan's was supposedly on it's 5th or 6th a couple years back) get replaced more often. I was told by the regional service rep that they expected SLS transmissions to basically be wear and tear items, hopefully that's improved or that they've figured out the weak link in refurbs, but they are probably just replacing whatever's broken and sealing the transmission back up, additional R&D on the SLS transmission didn't seem like a priority. I ended up selling mine because I was going to keep driving it and didn't feel like driving a time bomb that would blow my wallet up for $30k. I still miss it and part of me wanted to chance it. God I miss that car. Anyway, glad you got it fixed. I ended up in a current E63 Wagon so no gullwing doors, but it hauls *** and 4 friends with luggage, heh. Service manager says the transmissions are harder to come by now and prices on made to order units from Getrag have gone up. It's a shame because otherwise I didn't have a single issue in 4 years of ownership.
Glad to hear your transmission issue has been resolved. Now that you have a new transmission installed should last a little longer if you avoid letting it get misused/abused by novice Tesla drivers
Took the SLS out for a fun Cruise from my car show ( Supercars by the Sea ) down to Dana Point and back home around 50 miles today. No runs, no drips, no errors! Whew. Nice and shiny under there..
Great info, Thanks. I currently own two SLS's one with 10,000 ml the other with 14,000 ml - In your opinion, given that we are sensible drivers could this occur even at a low mileage, or would it be more prone to the mileage your issue occurred ?
What was the cost of warranty ?
BTW - Enjoyed the humor.
Great info, Thanks. I currently own two SLS's one with 10,000 ml the other with 14,000 ml - In your opinion, given that we are sensible drivers could this occur even at a low mileage, or would it be more prone to the mileage your issue occurred ?
What was the cost of warranty ?
BTW - Enjoyed the humor.
you got to keep it light when your fun car takes a crap.. I drove the car but never once used launch control, tracked it or did a burnout.
A SLS just auctioned off on cars and bids with a replacement at 6700 miles. It didn’t hurt the value at all. Maybe even helped! So it’s a crap shoot on miles. Remember I was one of you but, now that mine was fixed, you all have the leaky boxes 😉
you got to keep it light when your fun car takes a crap.. I drove the car but never once used launch control, tracked it or did a burnout.
A SLS just auctioned off on cars and bids with a replacement at 6700 miles. It didn’t hurt the value at all. Maybe even helped! So it’s a crap shoot on miles. Remember I was one of you but, now that mine was fixed, you all have the leaky boxes 😉
Happy to hear it worked out for you & they paid for a new transmission!!! I have been getting a random overheating message on my transmission which seems to be a faulty sensor switch which is located inside the trans. My car runs at at around 183-185 in heavy hot traffic rises to 195/200 tops message pops up then quickly goes away and temp all of a sudden drops back down to 185. Very strange otherwise drives perfectly. Any recommendations?
Last edited by renntechSLS; Mar 31, 2023 at 04:02 PM.
Happy to hear it worked out for you & they paid for a new transmission!!! I have been getting a random overheating message on my transmission which seems to be a faulty sensor switch which is located in side the trans. My car tuns at at around 183-185 in heavy hot traffic rises to 195/200 tops message pops up then quickly goes away and temp all of a sudden drops back down to 185. Very strange otherwise drives perfectly. Any recommendations?
It sounds like you might have a sticking engine thermostat. I would strongly suggest that you get that checked sooner rather than later. You don't want to put your engine at risk for serious damage if that thermostat gets stuck.
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SLS AMG Transmission Failure - 7DCL750 Getrag Gearbox
. My car runs at at around 183-185 in heavy hot traffic rises to 195/200 tops message pops up then quickly goes away and temp all of a sudden drops back down to 185. Very strange otherwise drives perfectly. Any recommendations?
