Don't buy a Mercedes SL R230 until you watch this video! SL350, SL500, SL55 AMG, SL600, SL65 AMG
Вставка
- Опубліковано 21 сер 2024
- Just my 2 cents on owning a 2005 Mercedes R230 350SL. I've owned this car for about 9 months now and have pretty much fixed all the faults it had from leaking water in the trunk to diagnosing battery drain issues. I've taken an uploaded videos of all the repairs.
Please show support by liking this video and subscribing as I want to continue to help people keep these cars on the road.
Dave
~-~~-~~~-~~-~
Please watch: "2005-2014 S197 Ford Mustang rear sway bar bushes drop link replacement"
• 2005-2014 S197 Mustang...
~-~~-~~~-~~-~
These videos are so handy as I’m looking for a SL500. Super informative 👍🏻
Thanks Richard! Glad to here they are useful and people are enjoying them.
Love the video. I bought an sl55 on auction got it for 16k only 54k miles basically stole it imo. I can’t wait to drive it
Thanks! Good price you paid. Hope you enjoy
Sound advice… Love my 2003 SL500… as you say, buy the best you can as a cheap one will cost you more in the long term. Get one that has been cared for with a full MB or specialist service history and put aside a couple of grand as a ‘repair fund’ and, for far less money that your average hatchback, you’ll have a fantastic, head turning luxury performance car that makes you feel good every time you take it out 😊
Absolutely. Unfortunately I don’t tend to follow my own advice 😊 like a bit of work to do to keep me out of trouble.
2 years ago I bought the cheapest sl55 in the UK, because nobody on the FB forums would touch it. Got it for 12.5 and spent 3k on it in the first 6 months, that includes tuning and cooling mods, around 620bhp now. Still need to rebuild the valve blocks which I will do over the next few months, and it should be all good, till something else breaks......
Great car, fast and handles really well
Great videos by the way
@endaf prime example proving the point I made regarding them being so tuneable, if you are ever fed up with it I know someone who would take it off your hands 😅
@@autogaragelife haha sorry keeping it for a while yet, but I do have a CL55 for sale.....
Stop it! I have no restraint!!
Do love the M112/M113. Do have both SL55 and SL600… for me the SL600 is so smooth and the torque wow!!! Having said that there are both different animals.
Nice Review fella 👍🏼
Now thats just not fair, both big boys! Reckon you should drop either one off with me for a while😉
Listening to you talk about buying an SL in Winter, just bought an absolute bargain today, I've been searching for a couple of years!
Hope you enjoy it! I’ve always said winter is the best time for a vert😁
Nice watch, I have a SL600 and do the majority of work myself. ABC isn't as difficult to work on but it does have issues and most rubber components are all in need of replacement on these nearly 15-20 year old cars. The only extra worry on the v12 are the inaccessible motor mounts which will need to be done at a service shop as I do not have the time for an engine out effort.
Yeah the big v12’s come with their difficulties but I guess the effort is worth it!👍
I bought a 3.7 sl350 after watching your videos. Always loved the SLs so I found a nice one with a good history and not huge mileage. Thanks for all the videos I think they have been great to even look at preventative maintenance parts to do.
Brilliant glad to hear it thank you!
What was the mileage tho
Hi it has 107k KMS on it.
I've a 2006 350 which had a few undisclosed issues when I bought it. Intake manifold vacuum actuator had gone (thought it was the plastic lever, bought the part, only to find it had already been replaced! £50 repair kit and she's trouble free), the PSE pump is dead (wasn't when I bought it, although I don't think water ingress just "starts", got that repaired for less than grand-odd it costs to replace) and the TPS is screwed (ESP malfunction under full throttle, new pedal fixed it for a few hundred quid). All-in-all though, for the money I paid (including repairs), the spec of the car (low mileage, tanzanite blue, two-tone grey interior + all the extras), I'm a very happy man. With all that said, I've got a little fund saved up for the day the balance shaft decides to die, because it absolutely will and it absolutely will cost £3000 to fix.
Previous owner did put Bilstein suspension on which has absolutely zero compression, and then made the dumb decision to swap the cushy 17" alloys for the 19s of a 55, which makes it the bumpiest car I've ever owned. Once that's fixed either with a softer suspension kit or more likely, some nice 18" wheels, she'll be near perfect.
One thing I did want to mention was the transmission, under high throttle in Sport followed by no throttle (revs are high but no load) it waits a little bit and then kinda forces me into the next gear. I initially thought TCM but it looks like this and the valve body were replaced (at great expense) in 2021, so no idea what's caused that, will replace the transmission fluid and see if that fixes it. Bear in mind the 7G-Tronic isn't quite as strong as the 5 speed, especially in the earlier R230.2 models
I bought my SL500 R230 on a warm summer's day in 2003. Over the last couple of decades, it's been a love/hate relationship with that car. It's just shy of 200,000 miles and the engine is smooth and purrs like when I first bought it. Ive always kept up with maintenance. Over the years, aside from the scheduled maintenance, the "unscheduled" upkeep included two new catalytics to pass smog, the replacement of the ABC components incl. that pricey pump, minus the lines, two addl strut replacements about 7-10 years after that, with another within the last week, trunk vacuum lock twice, trunk flap repair, brake system upgrade under warranty way back when, radiator replaced once, water pump & thermostat twice, all the cooling system hoses once, valve cover gaskets will be twice (gotta do it again in the coming days incl. EGR hoses), brakes and rotors a number of times, and now that the roof stopped opening all the way, ive got all next summer to check/replace the 8? hydraulic valves and n number of switches. Always check/clear the drain holes around the car...and there are a number of them. Update: got a new BCM. Ill get around to gettin' that installed at some point in the near future.
Cheers!
Good going keeping up for 200k👍 thanks for watching.
wow tony thats a lott of heart ake il pray for u more than i have had in my entire life im 55
Brilliant little info video, mine is a 350 in silver and immaculate condition with all services and a very pampered car 😂
Thanks so much. Keep it that way 😁👍
I think the sl350 isn’t too far off the sl500 when it comes to performance. Also cheaper car tax. I read that the 3.7 is pretty robust too
So far so good for me with the 3.7. Pretty easy to work on.
Great video. Thank you for putting this together.
Glad you enjoyed it!
just come across your video thanks for your take on the 350, i am looking to but one this month its a 2008 low mileage low owner car. so hopefully if the price is not daft it will be in my drive before the months out. wont be able to get it in my garage but will defo buy a cover for it. cheers
Great thank you! Hope you get the car!👍
Idk if this helps, but I have a 2005 CLK 55 AMG with the M113 5.5L N/A engine(Same family as the M112 in the SL350, M113 5.0L N/A in the SL500, and is basically the N/A version of the 5.5L M113k that's in the SL55) and has 182k miles on her still running like new. Back left side breather gasket is starting to leak just a dribble(Guaranteed maintenance work if you choose to do it but isn't a huge deal) and that's the only issue whatsoever.
Great videos
Thank you and thanks for watching👍
any chance you could move to Lisbon, just bought a 350 from 2004 in great condition with 72000kl on the clock full-service history and always in a Merc dealership. Just yesterday my boot lid failed to lock home. It closes but does not make that final click and when I start driving the red light comes on, all I know about cars is how to open the petrol cap and pump in gas. I loved your video and it made me feel much better about my choice, I have the same colour as you and I can't wait for the end of march to put the roof down.
If the weather is better than in the UK I could be tempted. Sounds like your pse pump might not be working properly or your trunk latch has lost pressure. I’ve just serviced my car (new video coming) so getting roof down soon for some open top driving.👍
@@autogaragelife there are lots of blue skies and sunshine but a really cold east wind and temperatures are very low, especially as I'm in the mountains close to Spain. I have the car booked for Friday morning, I'll let you know what the problem is and how much it costs to fix. It will be very good to compare how much I spend, versus what your costs are as you do them yourself. Thank you so much for your reply.🙏
As promised reporting after my visit to the Mercedes dealer in Viseu Portugal. I have to start out by saying the service and attention I got were first-class. The problem was the pump MA230 800 06 48 was not functioning properly, due to a faulty repair job which was performed before I bought the car. Also, the lock had been very badly damaged. After spending many hours (6) trying to fix the parts they managed to arrange the boot would remain closed and the warning light would not come on. So the bad news is a new lock and a new pump fitted will cost me 1993.83 euros. Luckily you can do it yourself. Parts not in stock had to be ordered.😕
Yup thats the pse pump. Common fault I’m afraid and the labour will be expensive at Mercedes.
Great video and information.
Glad it was helpful!
Great video. I have a 2006 SL350 - with broken flaps so that was reassuring and interesting to watch.
I also have a dead fly in my headlamp so any tips as to how to access the inners of the headlamps with taking the front bumper off would very very useful. There must be an easy way ?
Thanks
Thanks. Glad you like it. With the headlight bulbs out a bit of compressed air might blow the little blighter out or move it to a bit you could pick it out
Will give that a go. It had crossed my mind but discounted it as not likely but you think that too - good.
You like your SL350 ? I have owned over the years Audi Quattro's, Maserati's and Mercs - most fun I have ever had !!
@@autogaragelife
Hi mate you had rear speaker issues? Mine have all of sudden stopped working. You got any ideas? Hope you're good and the cars are going well.
Cant say that I did tbh. There were, from memory, a few fuses for the audio system so might be worth checking those first? Diagrams are available online. Thanks for the comment 👍
@@autogaragelife cheers buddy
Have you tried Carly on one, that's what I'm looking at getting, and then I can do the rest of the cars in the rest of my line up
I haven’t yet. I have a veepeak adapter I use with an app but might look into Carly as it will code my bmw as well. Is it still a monthly subscription?
@AutoGarageLife no monthly subscription for a fully loaded one it £115, with out smart mechanics (explains the fault code and how to fix it) £79.90. But that's why I'm looking at it as then I should be able to do my SL350 and my BMW F10.
I'm just reading up further potentially you might need a subscription.
Yeah annual subscription
Thought so. Remember looking at it before and think that’s what put me off initially. However might be worth it in the long run? I’ve got an F34 bmw and heard they were pretty good for them.
I've got a 2009 SL550 w/AMG package with less than 18k miles. Tuxedo black exterior with sand color interior.
No issues or problems. I'm gonna switch the brake pads to akebono brake pads front and rear due to the dust the OEM brake pads emit.
I'm going to get an HHT Renntech upgrade. Car should be good for 400hp and 410ft lbs. after the upgrade.
Nice one. Renntech upgrades are good. I could make a 2 hour video on all the stuff you can do to these cars!👍
Don't even bother to upgrade, are you nuts? it's already too fast? you have the paddle shifters/manual mode?
@@joesmith9216 - I'm still going to do it anyway.
Plus, the upgrade also eliminates the speed governor. Car is currently governed at 155mph.
@@jgonzalesm6 Hey, it's cool, let me know, we are brothers btw, got my 2011 sl550 last year! do you have the paddles?
@@joesmith9216 - yes, my car has the paddle shifts on the steering wheel.
It didn't come with the distronic feature BUT I can add it.
Boot
👢