Mercedes SLK 55 AMG
Discussion
This is our Mercedes SLK 55 AMG. I always wanted a convertible V8, but so many are really big and heavy cars, and I wanted something small and light. This fitted the bill perfectly and is one of the smallest and lightest cars with a large, (5.4ltr), V8 engine.
I really wanted a car with the black leather. Some of the Mercedes two tone interiors are hideous in my opinion. I also didn't want a silver car... I considered black, then this one came up. Low miles, one owner, used mainly on trips to their place in the south of France so the miles were not short trips... It was also 2005 which meant it was the low tax bracket
Soon after purchase I set about servicing the car, even though it had a full Mercedes Service history, as I have an inbuilt mistrust of garages having worked in quite a few in my early career. All the fluids on the car were changed, including the all-important automatic gearbox oil change.
I am fortunate that I have the luxury of a mid-height hoist in my garage which makes maintenance so much easier.
Changing the gearbox oil is relatively easy. First it needs to be drained and to do this you need to remove the drain plug. However, once this is out very little oil comes out; this is because it’s prevented in doing so by a plastic weir pipe which also defines the oil level in the gearbox. To drain the oil out you need to insert a screwdriver into the drain hole and move it to the side; this breaks off the weir pipe inside the gearbox. The oil is then free to drain out.
Once drained, the sump pan can be removed to replace the weir pipe and also the transmission filter. Care should be taken not to get any dust or debris into the gearbox at this point. It’s also best to replace the sump pan gasket and the retaining bolts as these are stretch bolts and should only be used once. You will need a low reading torque wrench to tighten them up after fitting the sump pan back into place.
To refill the gearbox I made an adaptor out of a piece of nylon bar, threaded to fit the drain hole. This was attached to a new and clean piece of pipe and onto a new pump spray bottle. With this I was able to pump the new fluid up into the gearbox. Keep removing the pipe to see if you have filled it above the weir pipe.
After the initial filling, the gearbox has to be got up to 40 – 45 degrees C before the final level check. I used an infrared thermometer to check this, pointed at the sump pan. At tick over it took about 10 mins to reach this temperature.
One of the common faults of the 5.4 AMG engine is leaking valve covers. This is an easy fault to fix and entails removing the covers and re sealing with a silicone sealant. Care should be taken not to use too much silicon as this can squash out inside the engine and give problems. Before applying the silicon, make sure that both surfaces are oil free as this then provides a clean surface for the silicon to bond to.
All back together :-)
The front fog lights corrode badly; these were bead blasted before being repainted in matt black to match the original finish. The lenses have also been coated with 3M protection film as this tends to stop them being cracked by stones.
As many will know the price of the front brake disks for the 55 AMG from model years 2005 to 2007 are horrendous! This is because they used Brembo fully floating discs and 6 pot callipers. They are around £1200 for the discs alone and are only available from Mercedes, there are no aftermarket parts for these! Its a bit unnecessary really and in 2008 Mercedes changed to a solid vented disk. Unfortunately these don’t fit the earlier cars as they are dimensionally incompatible.
I have managed to find some discs that are the right dimension, but missing a locating hole for the screw that just locates the disk on the hub. I have machined a countersunk hole in the disk to the originals size and they now fit perfectly! They have been on for a few thousand mile now and to be honest I cant tell the difference, but my wallet can!
Here are the original discs on the car
Here are the modified ones
Side by side for comparison
Machining the new locating hole
With the locating bolt in its new home!
I really wanted a car with the black leather. Some of the Mercedes two tone interiors are hideous in my opinion. I also didn't want a silver car... I considered black, then this one came up. Low miles, one owner, used mainly on trips to their place in the south of France so the miles were not short trips... It was also 2005 which meant it was the low tax bracket
Soon after purchase I set about servicing the car, even though it had a full Mercedes Service history, as I have an inbuilt mistrust of garages having worked in quite a few in my early career. All the fluids on the car were changed, including the all-important automatic gearbox oil change.
I am fortunate that I have the luxury of a mid-height hoist in my garage which makes maintenance so much easier.
Changing the gearbox oil is relatively easy. First it needs to be drained and to do this you need to remove the drain plug. However, once this is out very little oil comes out; this is because it’s prevented in doing so by a plastic weir pipe which also defines the oil level in the gearbox. To drain the oil out you need to insert a screwdriver into the drain hole and move it to the side; this breaks off the weir pipe inside the gearbox. The oil is then free to drain out.
Once drained, the sump pan can be removed to replace the weir pipe and also the transmission filter. Care should be taken not to get any dust or debris into the gearbox at this point. It’s also best to replace the sump pan gasket and the retaining bolts as these are stretch bolts and should only be used once. You will need a low reading torque wrench to tighten them up after fitting the sump pan back into place.
To refill the gearbox I made an adaptor out of a piece of nylon bar, threaded to fit the drain hole. This was attached to a new and clean piece of pipe and onto a new pump spray bottle. With this I was able to pump the new fluid up into the gearbox. Keep removing the pipe to see if you have filled it above the weir pipe.
After the initial filling, the gearbox has to be got up to 40 – 45 degrees C before the final level check. I used an infrared thermometer to check this, pointed at the sump pan. At tick over it took about 10 mins to reach this temperature.
One of the common faults of the 5.4 AMG engine is leaking valve covers. This is an easy fault to fix and entails removing the covers and re sealing with a silicone sealant. Care should be taken not to use too much silicon as this can squash out inside the engine and give problems. Before applying the silicon, make sure that both surfaces are oil free as this then provides a clean surface for the silicon to bond to.
All back together :-)
The front fog lights corrode badly; these were bead blasted before being repainted in matt black to match the original finish. The lenses have also been coated with 3M protection film as this tends to stop them being cracked by stones.
As many will know the price of the front brake disks for the 55 AMG from model years 2005 to 2007 are horrendous! This is because they used Brembo fully floating discs and 6 pot callipers. They are around £1200 for the discs alone and are only available from Mercedes, there are no aftermarket parts for these! Its a bit unnecessary really and in 2008 Mercedes changed to a solid vented disk. Unfortunately these don’t fit the earlier cars as they are dimensionally incompatible.
I have managed to find some discs that are the right dimension, but missing a locating hole for the screw that just locates the disk on the hub. I have machined a countersunk hole in the disk to the originals size and they now fit perfectly! They have been on for a few thousand mile now and to be honest I cant tell the difference, but my wallet can!
Here are the original discs on the car
Here are the modified ones
Side by side for comparison
Machining the new locating hole
With the locating bolt in its new home!
Great post and car. I had a 2006 CLK55 and can relate to some of the items you mentioned. My CLK also had the 6pot/4pot brake system; It does seem a shame to loose those lovely two-piece discs, but I know replacements are pricey.
Yours is the first 55 I've seen in the maroon - it's beautiful.
Do you have the 7G in yours?
Yours is the first 55 I've seen in the maroon - it's beautiful.
Do you have the 7G in yours?
Love car, great skills, excellent garage Enjoyed reading that!
SLK55 AMG one of the cars I was looking at, even test drove a 12 plate. However bottled it as not sure convertible would be a keeper for me. How's the auto box on this model? One I test drove had auto/paddle shifters and it's a laugh having such a big engine in such a small package.
SLK55 AMG one of the cars I was looking at, even test drove a 12 plate. However bottled it as not sure convertible would be a keeper for me. How's the auto box on this model? One I test drove had auto/paddle shifters and it's a laugh having such a big engine in such a small package.
My brother has one and really likes it as well. I drove it last week and the feeling of big engine small car was great. He had the centre section of exhaust removed / modified and it sounds bonkers now.
He replaced his front disks and pads last week with some ebay-sourced pagid items, they were not 2 piece like the originals but fitted straight on and were £130 all in from memory.
He replaced his front disks and pads last week with some ebay-sourced pagid items, they were not 2 piece like the originals but fitted straight on and were £130 all in from memory.
Lovely - currently in the market for an SLK55 myself - hard to find one that's been "properly" looked after though, and has the right options. Looking at the classifieds you'd be hard pressed to know they did anything other than Black or Silver
jke11y said:
He replaced his front disks and pads last week with some ebay-sourced pagid items, they were not 2 piece like the originals but fitted straight on and were £130 all in from memory.
Sounds like he's got the later, 4-pot disks? AFAIK there are no options, short of what has been done above.MattyB_ said:
Sounds like he's got the later, 4-pot disks? AFAIK there are no options, short of what has been done above.
His are the 6 pots but maybe he did something to them and didn't mention it. I'll point him to the thread in case there is an alternative, as when talking about the cars people always mention cost of brakes, so more options the better. 0a said:
I love these. I'd be very tempted to debadge it to maximise the Q car ness though!
Yeah....the 4 massive pipes out the back aren't very "Q" though jke11y said:
MattyB_ said:
Sounds like he's got the later, 4-pot disks? AFAIK there are no options, short of what has been done above.
His are the 6 pots but maybe he did something to them and didn't mention it. I'll point him to the thread in case there is an alternative, as when talking about the cars people always mention cost of brakes, so more options the better. Great car, I'm another one that has never seen one in that colour before, it looks great (I have an Audi in the similar shade).
I have browsed the web a few times for the AMG 55, they look great cars but I didn't realise the brakes were so expensive. Good job you found and alternative.
Enjoy, that was a good find.
Great post Buzz
I also have a AMG SLK 55 and like you changed the transmission fluid ( as I have a mistrust of garages ) but did you find out how to drain the torque converter ?
I would be interested to know what discs you bought and modified ie car they fit etc
Changing the spark plugs on these is fun as there is 16 of them
C
I also have a AMG SLK 55 and like you changed the transmission fluid ( as I have a mistrust of garages ) but did you find out how to drain the torque converter ?
I would be interested to know what discs you bought and modified ie car they fit etc
Changing the spark plugs on these is fun as there is 16 of them
C
Chris Bowes said:
Great post Buzz
I also have a AMG SLK 55 and like you changed the transmission fluid ( as I have a mistrust of garages ) but did you find out how to drain the torque converter ?
I would be interested to know what discs you bought and modified ie car they fit etc
Changing the spark plugs on these is fun as there is 16 of them
C
On these you can’t drain the torque converter, there is no plug. The fluid that came out was very clean, but I am planning to change it again in say 10k miles time.I also have a AMG SLK 55 and like you changed the transmission fluid ( as I have a mistrust of garages ) but did you find out how to drain the torque converter ?
I would be interested to know what discs you bought and modified ie car they fit etc
Changing the spark plugs on these is fun as there is 16 of them
C
I also plan to do the plugs sometime soon…
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