wackjum

There was a break in the rain so I quickly backed the car into the street and snapped some pics. You can see the ominous rain clouds in the distance.








And here are my fancy new pulleys and bearings:

SuperTrooper169

iTrader: (2)

The new wheels are a huge improvement. Nice!

dallison

Extremely sharp car.

AnthraciteTypeS

Awesome car, those wheels look great and really make it look more present-day

nokiaman

Congratulations wackjum! Nice pickup.
It is still a gorgeous looking car today, not sure you have settled on wheels for it yet but I always loved the darker gunmetal colored 65 wheels on it.

wackjum

So as a mini-diary on buying those "cheap" German cars... I continue with the latest in the SL55.

It has happened. The front passenger hydraulic strut is leaking slowly, but getting worse. The leak is internal so there is no fluid pooling anywhere. But if you park it, it will slowly sag down. When you turn the car on and pressurize the system, it seems to be normal though. At first, it would take parking overnight before there would be noticeable sag. But within a month, it only takes a an hour or less.

My theory is that the strut has been on its way out for a while now but the thick old fluid was actually serving as its own seal. Now that I put clean fresh fluid in there, it leaks a lot easier. I also notice that it leaks quicker if the fluid is hot, which makes sense because then the fluid would be even thinner. The car is still driveable, but yesterday after having done a number of errands in the hottest part of the day, the car was sagging pretty badly after a bank visit (10-15 minutes tops). It was so low that the car gave a warning and recommended it be "towed to workshop." But I persistently cycled the suspension ride height and after about 5 minutes it suddenly re-pressurized and everything was ok.

I'm already sourcing parts. The work itself is fairly straight-forward but the parts are proprietary and shared with no other car. Mercedes charges about $2k per strut but remans are around $600 and that is the way I am going to go. Unlike with a normal suspension, you do not have to change these struts in pairs.

A second issue has cropped up in the last few days. The remote key fob no longer does anything. I have tried both sets of keys and changed their batteries. The key fob is detected by the car if plugged into the ignition but not if it is sitting in your pocket (it actually says "key not recognized" on the display). I'm thinking the RF antenna for the car is damaged so it can't detect the remote's signal. This seems to be a documented problem for the CL and CLS but haven't seen anybody talk about it for the SL (but there's also not a lot of SLs around). This means I can't lock the car which is limiting where I can take this thing.

Aside from these issues, the car continues to be a hot rodder on the freeways. The new tires I put on when I got the new wheels (Hankook V12 Ventus) have made a dramatic improvement in hookup and overall driving performance.

SamDoe1

Is it the air strut that failed or the ABC system? Aren't they two different things?

oonowindoo

Are there coilovers available for this car? depends on what the problem is, it might be cheaper/better just replace them with a set of coilovers.

oonowindoo

i think this is is relevant to your issues.

Coil over conversion. Anyone making it? - MBWorld.org Forums

nist7

I've read briefly that some people retro/ghetto-fit standard coil-over/suspension components over the ABC system (which I assume this car has since it is AMG?)

The power and features and looks are badass...just the maintenance can be nightmare I would imagine. THe OEM price for that 1 strut is insane....!

wackjum

Airmatic is a suspension system found on E-Class and low trim S-Class of this generation. ABC is a hydraulic based system and was only found on the CL and SL initially. ABC is superior to Airmatic. It offers dynamic on the fly adjustment. Both systems are maintenance nightmares.

Airmatic based cars do have direct coilover replacements because Airmatic is usually an option. I did this for my dad's S430.

However all SL500 and SL 55 AMG came with ABC. There is the possibility of retrofitting the coilovers from an SL350, but this has been shown to be a poor idea because the suspension just isn't tuned for the extra weight of the M113k supercharged V8 engine. Also the SL350 was not sold in the US, so it would have to be sourced from an overseas supplier.

The ABC is really crucial to the sporting pretensions of this car. At first I wasn't too sold on this car but that was because the ABC was pushing around some really thick hydraulic fluid. After I flushed the fluid, the system came alive. It is not a svelte BRZ by any means, but it will surprise you with its capabilities. With the thick old fluid, I pushed the car around some bends and I thought I was going to die because the car was reacting so slowly and I felt numb and disconnected. With the fresh fluid, the car gives you some lean (especially if you put it in sport) so you get some feedback on what the car is doing, but you don't feel like you're driving a 4,000+ lb car. It feels more like a good 3,000~ lb sport sedan.

wackjum

I only responded to the Airmatic/ABC part of your question earlier.

But as for the ABC system, it is basically composed of sensors and computers, a fluid reservoir, a high PSI pump (the fluid is pressurized to 2900 PSI in operation), and then struts and valves at each corner. Only the front passenger side is sinking down, so the issue is not with the central pump. It has to be with either the valves or the strut. I'm reading more about the problem and it might be the valves at that corner and not the strut itself. A leaking strut would actually have fluid on the floor. The valves are another 2k part from Mercedes but apparently you can take them apart and rebuild them with o-rings from home depot. I think I am going this route first before I replace the strut.

oonowindoo

This is the fun part owning a high end German car. You either have to be super loaded to pay for the repairs, or you have to be resourceful and creative to come up with alternatives. Good thing this is not your DD, so you can afford to find alternatives.

00TL-P3.2

Love the R230, but as evidenced here, no way I could own one.
A Silver Arrow R129 is a nice option too, but still a $$ maintenance vehicle.

SamDoe1

Ah ok, sorry I thought they worked in conjunction with each other not that they were mutually exclusive to each other. Good to know! I really want to pick up an older Benz sometime soon...

Costco

I'm enjoying this thread, thanks for sharing your experiences. Good to know about ABC, always thought Airmatic was interchangeable.

1StGenCL

Love the wheels and sorry about the suspension but in a sick way, happy because while I know they are expensive to maintain, I now have "first hand" proof and will push out buying one

wackjum

That's why I titled this thread my experiment. We'll see how far I can keep this going. So far I'm not fed up with this car yet. Although the key thing bothers me more than the suspension.

wackjum

I needed some more torque to get the SL home, so I strapped it to a 6.7 liter Cummins turbodiesel. I did stay within the family though (Freightliner is owned by Diamler).





Notice the lean. That's from the failing suspension on the passenger side.

But that's not why the car needed a tow. Instead, the transmission is not engaging. I discovered this unpleasant feature this morning after I arrived at my office. The shifter would move, but the transmission seems to be stuck in park or neutral (the car does roll so probably neutral). There are no warning lights. The car just doesn't move and the engine revvs freely.

Actually, I think the transmission is perfectly fine but I suspect the shifter linkage is broken. This appears to be a problem that is common to the Mercedes 722.6 transmission. So if I take apart the shifter and change out these linkages, everything should hopefully be ok. Because a transmission failure would just suck.

00TL-P3.2

Best of luck. If you need a car-sitter once it's fixed, let me know

oonowindoo

i dont see anything wrong with the passenger side, it sits perfectly fine to me . People actually pay $$ to have it slammed

wackjum

The tires on both of these need to be moved every so often so that flat spots don't develop. I also need the engines run to clear out the carbon. I can't really pay you much (or anything), but you can have the drinks in the fridge. Thanks.



I guess instead of raising the low side to match, I'll just cut the hydraulic lines on the driver side to lower it to match. Would be the cheaper solution...

RDX10

This thread is why I don't buy German anymore and why I have sworn off of BMW for life. There is ALWAYS a list of 3-10 "common issues" that the manufacturer has ignored for so long that aftermarket companies have come up with solutions. For example the 2004-2010 touaregs all have failing driveshafts, they all have failing valve bodies, and not to mention the myriad of confusing af electrical gremlins. I kid you not, the repair for failing wipers on the touareg was to push the bottom right/left corners of the stereo in.

Anyone remotely considering German HAS TO join a forum for that vehicle.


Otherwise, congratulations OP. There is something regal about germans that the Japanese and americans have never ever been able to touch. It is not the way they drive, the way they feel, the way they look good without trying. But a combination of so many elements that no one else can get quite right:

wackjum

My 911 has been pretty decent. It had some early teething problems when I first got it, but has been solid since.

The SL has been problematic though.

RDX10

That is my biggest problem, I usually take care of the first few problems and then it gets to the point where I have already put in $4k and so I have an issue selling it, but the problems are not letting up. So I don't know when to draw the line.

1StGenCL

Love the slammed side

CCColtsicehockey

Slammed side does looking pretty darn good

That Porsche ass though just looks awesome.

oonowindoo

Thinking outside of the box... i like that.

00TL-P3.2

I'll take the drives as payment

wackjum

Great. Please take out my boat too and also please the wife whenever she asks.

I'll be at work if you need to reach me.

wackjum

As I suspected, the shift linkage broke.

There is a shaft that descends down from the cabin. This hooks to an arm coming out of the transmission and is how you select the different modes. At the connection, there is a rubber bushing and a metal clip. After some time, the bushing can deteriorate and the whole linkage falls apart and your car becomes undrivable.

The bushing and clip was $4.50 and $1.50 respectively. So counting my $200 tow, it cost $206 to get the SL back on the road.

Here is a picture of the disconnected shaft.



Here is what it should look like.



And in case you're wondering why a rubber bushing would fail, maybe it is the proximity to the cats.



And here's $6.00 in parts that can disable a $130,000 car.

CLtotheTL32

iTrader: (3)

I'm glad it was a simple and somewhat inexpensive fix!

00TL-P3.2

Guessing you're in one of the trucks with all this Noah's Ark weather we've been getting.

wackjum

This fix itself wasn't too bad, but as usual, Mercedes makes the simplest things difficult.

First of all, there doesn't appear to be any central jacking point for the front or rear. Instead you get 4 "pucks" located near each wheel. This is a something the 911 has too, but at least it has central jacking points as well. So what I had to do was jack it up with two floor jacks at a time. I had to go out and buy a second 2.5 ton floor jack because my little jack couldn't extend high enough to lift in parallel with my big jack.

After I got the car up, I had to remove a number of under panels and cross braces. These weren't too bad at all.

The real interesting part was the heat shields. Unless you remove the exhaust system, you can't remove the heat shields. They're also huge one piece heat shields so I had to unbolt the exhaust at a few places and slide the heat shields away inch my inch.

And then you have to work around the cats. Squeezing the rubber bushing into the eyehole was a lot harder than it should have been.

If I had a lift, the whole thing would have taken less than an hour. Without a lift, it took me about 3 days of working gradually. I have mild claustrophobia so I couldn't stay under the car for more than 20-30 minutes at a time.

wackjum

I pulled an AT&T truck out of a ditch yesterday. He was really close to solid ground but he just couldn't get grip in the grass/mud. Took less than 10 minutes.

00TL-P3.2

Crazy that it's been consistent at noon (at least in N Houston) that we're getting a heavy storm.
Luckily, nothing like back in May.

SamDoe1

There's seriously no center jack point? That sucks! Usually German cars will always have them because obvious reasons. Typically they are a hockey puck mounted on the center of the front subframe.

wackjum

No center front jacking point. Confirmed with the manual and on-line forums. And the differential can't be used either because there is a bunch of cooling fins sticking out from it.

rockstar143

iTrader: (6)

Wow, I am sorry I missed this thread, but then I was kinda happy because it gave me something to read as I ate my breakfast this morning.
Awesome thread, I'll be sub'd from now on.


Also, thank goodness this thing is not your daily...you seem pretty upbeat with all the problems you've had to deal with on a car that was maintained "meticulously"...imagine if the damn thing had been neglected. That's kinda been my experience too...even if someone cares for a car, nobody can beat wear and tear and time.

wackjum

It is all about managing expectations I think. I had pretty low expectations getting into it, knowing it would be a maintenance hog. So far it has been ok. Certainly much more maintenance heavy than a Honda Accord. But nothing beyond my ability to repair so far. I have about $5,000 worth of tools so I can do quite a bit.

I am convinced these cars have the perception of being expensive because if you had to rely on dealer and indie shops, it would bankrupt you. On the forums, the shifter linkage repair runs about $1,000 at Mercedes. Stranding me was annoying. But hopefully now that it has been replaced, it will last at least ten years like the original one did.

The engines and transmissions themselves seem to be pretty strong. It is just every other little thing on the car that is over-engineered and breaks. Contrast it to a V10 BMW M5 or any turbocharged BMW where you have oil issues, wastegate issues, connecting rods, etc that can grenade an engine. That would be a hard financial blow even if you're doing the work yourself.

The SL rewards you for keeping it running though. It is so much fun to drive. You have a CTS-V so you know the rush of power from a big displacement supercharged engine just isn't comparable to anything else.