wackjum

One day while I was waiting for my turbos to spool up, I thought "wouldn't it be cool to have the power RIGHT NOW?" Because who has time to wait.

Actually no, that conversation didn't happen. I still love my 911 Turbo.

But interest rates are low and I don't mind a car payment on cars that aren't going to lose a ton of value. So here is my experiment:









The car is almost completely stock except for some blingy HRE wheels that I will probably be removing soon.



So far it has been a mixed bag. The thing is fast and has the performance, but it is almost devoid of any kind of enthusiast feel. I'm probably about 30 years under the target market for this car...

I call it an experiment because I am well aware of their reliability issues. I'm going to see how far I can get doing a lot of my own repairs.


One of the few convertibles out there that I think look as good with the top up as down.




I hope this guy doesn't let me down.

neuronbob

That's worrying if you are already thinking there's no enthusiast feel in this car. I'm sure that can be fixed by your upcoming mod bug. Which will mean $$$$$.

Enjoy in good health!

carz0159

What year is it and how much did it run you? Nice pickup BTW.

wackjum

I don't think I am going to mod it aside from new wheels and better rubber.

It is a powerhouse, but it is 4,400 lbs. It also has the Active Body Control (ABC) hydraulic suspension which fights to keep the car as level as possible. It is a disconcerting feeling as you go into turns with no body roll and I keep wondering if I'm just going to suddenly flip over once the electronics are overwhelmed. Progressive it is not.

I've only had it since Thursday but I like driving it.

Because it is supercharged and two wheel drive, it is almost the complete opposite of driving the 911 which wants aggressive throttle to spool the turbos up as quickly as possible and has AWD to handle the power. The SL needs to ease into the power or you overwhelm the tires and traction control pulls power. But the car is undeniably quick and actually handles pretty decently. It is a good counter-balance to the 911 in terms of driving experiences.

wackjum

It is a 2004 SL 55 AMG. I bought it for a hair under $25,000 after tax and fees. I bought it from a friend of a friend who kept METICULOUS service records. This man went to Mercedes to change out license plate bulbs (to the tune of $57.00). It is in perfect condition.

My 911 is paid off, and I'm fine with keeping one payment around at these super low interest rates. I don't think the car is going to fall much further. I couldn't pass the opportunity up.

crazyasiantl

iTrader: (7)

KaMLuNg

iTrader: (5)

that's a steal...

SamDoe1

I'd be more concerned about the system blowing a seal and your wallet wondering WTF just happened.

jk man (kinda), congrats on the new toy it looks like a lot of fun. Great cruiser and I'm sure it makes for an epic road trip car.

1StGenCL

That is awesome, jealous. Now change out those wheels

wackjum

The ABC is *the* weak point of this car. Replacement shocks are about $2k per corner from Mercedes. The pump is another $1k. Aftermarket remans are $600ish but the install is pretty straight forward so that will be the way I will take if it becomes necessary.

However, the forums seem to have hit upon the issue. First of all, the hydraulic fluid is hygroscopic (like brake fluid). It needs to be changed as it becomes more corrosive. Secondly, metal shavings will come off of internal components as they wear.

But Mercedes does not specify any kind of service interval for this fluid. So eventually a combination of wear from metal shavings and corrosion destroys the internal seals of the pumps and shocks, resulting in failure.

The suspension was changed in 2011 by the previous owner who had an extended warranty and since then has only put 7k miles on it.

People on the forums, including a German repair shop that specializes in AMGs, report that regular fluid changes before metal shavings build up will greatly extend the life of the suspension. The repair shop claims they have a 300,000 km CL63 AMG running on the original ABC suspension.

I pulled the dipstick to the fluid as soon as I got the car and it still looked good. But I went ahead and put an order for 10 liters of Pentosin and I'll be doing a flush as soon as they arrive.

Also, the suspension fluid reservoir has a dipstick despite supposedly no service needed, but the engine block does not have a dipstick to check oil...

VR1

looks cool! I remember seeing your 911 around at the La Centerra meet, look forward to seeing what you do with this one.

CCColtsicehockey

Congrats on the pickup

I hope it runs for a long time for you. Always liked that body style of the SL.

Jakes_tl

25,000K sounds like a good price depending on the mileage.

No dipstick to check oil would drive me nuts.

SamDoe1

Not surprised at all to hear that MB decided that everything is lifetime fill. Guessing their definition of "lifetime" is the warranty period.

It's good that they at least made an easy to drain and refill system though, should help to prolong the life of it. I'd be interested to see what comes out though...

Hope you get many miles of fun out of it.

Booya4139

I had a 94 SL500 and it was awesome until it became a nightmare

KaMLuNg

iTrader: (5)

good thing you did your research...

my buddies mom has the SL500 with AMG package and she has a leaking corner... when the fluid gets low, you can see the front of the car sag down... but they put so much money into that car, they haven't found a cheaper repair than to check & fill the fluid every few months...

SamDoe1

Do the non-real AMG cars have the ABC suspension? Might just be normal air suspension, those leak all the time. So much so that it's almost a feature of the system.

wackjum

If they have the ABC option, then it is a real hydraulic system that is almost identical to the AMG's except for ride height.

The system itself is impressive. Once thing I noticed right off when I was inspecting the underbody was that it has no sway bars. The ABC is the only thing controlling the body movement of a 4,500 lb car in the dynamic driving you would expect of a car with this kind of power. The pump operates at 200 PSI to do this. But this puts enormous stress on the seals and valves.

It is almost like a building a race car with an emphasis on performance and no thought towards longevity.

As I said, it'll be an experiment. If it becomes too problematic, I don't think l will get hurt too badly getting out from under it. If I can keep the repairs in check, I'll have a fun stylish car for cheap.

juniorbean

iTrader: (5)

That's awesome. I've always loved those cars and came close to picking one up a few times, but wasn't comfortable b/c of the suspension issues.

Sounds like you got a good one with documented history, so curious how your ownership experience is. Other than the suspension I've heard nothing but good things about them... so be sure to keep us up to date!!

wackjum

It had 62,100 miles at the time of purchase. It has 62,500 now.

It has a plug that I swore was a dipstick. I pulled it and it was just a little cap. At first I thought maybe the dipstick had broken off into the engine.

That red plug is this.

That red plug is this.

You have to buy a dipstick tool.

nist7

Wat. $47 for a dip stick that you have to buy...lol dang.

Grats on the car and definitely a performance bargain IF one knows what they are getting into.

I've been internet shopping E-class AMG sedans (55, 63) and I've heard about the ABC nightmares. Same to assume that all/most AMGs have these ABCs? (specifically the E55/E63 AMG sedans?)

That would be one thing that is scary on these cars. The fluid replacement seems like a good idea. I've also read about people retro-fitting regular suspension components (strut and spring setups) from other Benz models to replace the ABC system though that itself can cost quite a bit to do the whole conversion.

Flipster23

iTrader: (15)

Congrats!

CLtotheTL32

iTrader: (3)

I've always liked the looks of these...and the exhaust note is even better! Congrats

TacoBello

There's an older dude that lives a few doors down from my parents. He's got a bright red SL like this. So sick. I used to think I was cool rolling up in my miata with the roof down... Until he drove past me going the other way. I just ducked down an hoped no one ever saw me driving a Mazda

wackjum

The ABC only came on the high-tier models like the SL-AMG, S-AMG, and CL-AMG.

The E-AMG and C-AMG had airmatic suspensions which only change damping and ride height.

Airmatic is pretty crappy. There are coil-over kits that exist for airmatic suspensions and I would go that route if I had one.

foxriderar77

cool car, what are you changing the wheels for? Those HREs would be nice if they weren't polished

dallison

Those are great looking cars and you are brave for getting into a used one.

oonowindoo

by the way you named the title, i thought you got a N/A (like R8) rocket.

Totally forgot about the Supercharger...

Yah the instant power delivery is nice... i miss it very much!

It is a scary feeling when you change lane and a fast car approaching from behind and nothing happens when you floor it.

wackjum

The polish is really what I don't like. They are also 18s and I think 19s would fill this car better.


I will document my ownership and see how it turns out.


This car kind of suffers from this because the transmission is so incredibly slow. Downshifts aren't terrible with the paddles, but upshifts are brutal. It requires planning out your move somewhat.

oonowindoo

well i would expect it to be brutal with that much hp/torque at your finger tips.

wackjum

Brutally slow.

The car's red line is 6,400 although this is somewhat conservative and it can actually go into 6,800 (according to people on the boards). In the lower gears, you are going to be coming up on 6,400 pretty fast and the "manual paddles" are useless. It is best to leave it in auto from a stop or anywhere near a stop.

But even in the higher gears, red line comes up pretty quickly. If you trigger an upshift at 5,000 RPM the transmission won't shift until the car hits almost 7,000 and bounces off the cutoff a few times. I think there is at least a 1 second lag from paddle actuation to shift.

The slow transmission is a documented issue with the car. Looking through the service records, it was flushed in 2011. So I'm not going to bother with that for now. I think the transmission is functioning 100%.

oonowindoo

Oh i thought you meant brutally sharp that it hurts your neck

but damn a 2k rpm delay is slow... What happens if you shift near redline?

Is there some kind of aftermarket ECU that can fix some of the delays?

wackjum

I'm not really planning to mod this car. It just seems expensive maintaining it as is. An exhaust, which is the one thing aside from wheels I do want to do, looks to cost at least $4k.

If you forget to shift, which is very easy because redline is almost invisible on the tach, you'll just bounce off the rev limiter for a good second or two until the trans shifts.

I've learned to just ignore manual mode. The paddle is only useful if you want to get into the right gear just before making a lane change or pass, or you want to go down a gear in anticipation of a turn. Upshifts are useless and impossible to time. Leaving the car in automatic is probably going to get you overall better results, especially from a stop.

I just pull the downshift paddle, make my maneuver, and immediately hold the upshift paddle to get it back into auto.

BEAR-AvHistory

Nice looking car best of luck with it. Color suits it 100%. The dipstick disappearing thing is expanding like a virus nobody wants except the dealer service departments.

BMW also lost theirs at least a generation ago.

wackjum

My daily driver (CL 6MT) has been parked for a few days now until I get some time to look at it. It has a knocking noise and a strong smell of exhaust/gasoline.

Anyway, I've been driving the SL more. I've come to really appreciate it. It is a very comfortable cruiser. You can do miles and miles in it effortlessly. If you're really feeling patrician, you can turn on the massage seats. I'm actually backing off the idea of putting an exhaust on it because that would interfere with its comfort, even though it is currently way too quiet for a supercharged 500 hp V8.

I have put some preventive maintenance on it. I can see how if you're using the dealership, you're going to go broke keeping it running.

The supercharger tensioner and idler pulleys are all plastic (!). Sometimes the pulleys will fracture. If you're lucky, the belt just slips off. If you're unlucky, the belt is cut and starts whipping around the engine bay, taking out important things. The conventional wisdom is to change them out at 50k miles, and I am at 65k. A full set of idler and tensioner pulleys is $500 from the dealer and are just more plastic ones.

Luckily, the aftermarket has sets of metal pulleys for about $350. I bought a full set and changed it out. It was very easy and took less than an hour.

Secondly, I started getting a rattling box of rocks sound coming from under the hood. It turned out to be the supercharger pulley bearing itself. This thing generally wears at 65,000 miles, and pretty much on the dot I had that (German precision engineering?)

Mercedes does not sell the bearing alone. Instead, they'll happily sell you a brand new supercharger for $4,500. Luckily again, the community saved me. The bearing can be knocked out and replaced by the same bearing from the supplier (Nachi). The bearing costs about $40. The labor was not very intensive. I pulled the supercharger pulley off and knocked the bearing out with a hammer and a giant impact socket that fit over the bearing.

Then I put the new bearing in the freezer and the pulley in the oven at 200°F. After the bearing had been in the freezer for about 30 minutes, and the pulley had been cooking for about 10 minutes, I put the pulley on the stove and dropped the frozen bearing in. It slid right now. Yay for thermodynamics.



I remounted everything and it took about 2.5 hours from start to finish. I fired up the car and took it for a quick test drive. The car sounds smooth again, and I think it spools up quicker with the new lightweight pulleys and free spinning bearing.

Unfortunately, today we're experiencing near flood conditions again so I am in the truck. Also I can't take any pictures to show you the new wheels. I upgraded it to 19" factory AMG wheels from a CLS63. It is such a dramatic improvement in appearance and performance with the wider tires in the rear.

Booya4139

That wasn't thermodynamics, Tom Brady did it.

wackjum

He did. He came and fixed it all up while Gisele and I hung out.

CLtotheTL32

iTrader: (3)

Damn, awesome work! That's fantastic!

I'm looking forward to seeing pictures of the new wheels

SamDoe1

Awesome. I love this car. I really want an older Benz to play with. I really want a SL55 or S55 from the early/mid 00's to mess around with and use as a daily cruiser...especially with the relatively big aftermarket support for them.

wackjum

I don't know about the SL55 AMG as a daily cruiser.

Part of why I got new wheels is because it shredded the rear tires, which had about 45% life left when I got the car. Within 2k miles, inner cords were showing.

I took it to get an alignment, and they threw it on the rack and showed it to be in spec, but barely. It has high camber from the factory and there is zero adjustment. There are two aftermarket "solutions" for camber adjustment but they're both very expensive (a least $1,000) and questionable in terms of performance. Both are reported to slip under load.

The solution from the forums was to dismount and remount tires on the opposite side to spread the wear across the tire. Yep. That is the universal consensus to be the best solution. You're still going to be lucky to get 8k-10k out of a set of tires.

I also keep the suspension height at the highest because the camber angle is slightly better there. I lower it when I plan to drive a little more aggressively.

I wouldn't drive this thing as a daily. The S55 might be doable though. I have no experience with them.