Mercedes r230 SL500 titivation
Discussion
My younger brother decided that the easiest way to be rid of his surplus-to-requirements Mercedes r230 SL500 was to give it to me. If I tell you that it's replacement is a McLaren 720S (below) you may appreciate why selling it is really too much of a chore, thus allowing fraternal goodwill to triumph. Thank you, PR.
The car has been standing a while, before which it had a good going over at MB at a cost well into four figures, almost half way to five. Nonetheless, more will be required: these cars do not like standing around. I picked it up on the snowiest day of the year but happily it is on Kumho winter tyres:
Less happily, neither the ABS nor the ESP were working. And yet it handled the conditions with aplomb. It is all about the tyres. I digress: the winter tyre thread is infinitely long and just as boring. It was also showing a parking brake warning and consumer and starter battery warnings. Subsequently I have noticed the nearside headlamp is intermittent. And my brother had warned me that the central locking does not work. And the rear wheel arches are rusty. It is such a handsome car, however:
It has a fairly bone dry spec. It is 359 Tanzanite Blue Metallic over Grey leather; the only options that I can see are Avior 18" wheels and parktronic. It is presently on the far nicer Homan 17" standard wheels but I have the 18 inchers and they are shod with pukka Pirelli P-Zero Rosso tyres with plenty of meat on them. The boys and I cleaned them up today. Having two little helpers makes this kind of job so much easier.
I have the consumer battery on charge. If this doesn't make it right, I suspect the battery control module is kaput (thanks to a forum member for pointing me in that direction). The batteries are under warranty so if they are bad (they were replaced six months ago, so it seems unlikely) I will have MB change them. Otherwise I will just put it in to Baister and have him fix it. The problem is, Baister is midway through the suspension rebuild on my r129 SL which he has interrupted to sort out the disasters on my w124.
The ABS/ESP problem may just be a side effect of the battery issue; if not it is probably a bad reluctor ring somewhere. A Baister job.
The headlamp is a bad burner: £200+.
The PSE pump is the culprit for the locks: boringly expensive. Rebuilt ones are hawked at £650 on eBay.
Then I will have the Man do the wheel arches. Then I will give it to my wife to use for summer specials for a while. If she gels with it, we'll keep it, but I suspect it will be up for sale in the late summer. I don't really have the necessaries to titivate it and keep it.
My brother brought over the documents from the r230 in his McLaren today. What a machine! It is from another dimension. He took me out for a ride in it, a mere 99miles on the clock, it is quite beyond description how it goes. He then took my boy out. Then he had to take everyone else in the universe out. I was a little nervous about all this but he seems a good deal more responsible and restrained than yours truly: I think he's a bit frightened of it, which is very sensible indeed.
Back to Mercedes. The documents are complete. It had one owner prior to my brother. It has a proper full service history with all of the invoices from the main dealer; all of the MOTs; all of the correspondence from the dealer; the first owner even kept articles from Autocar. There have been some eye-watering bills for electrical and suspension related things. I am not convinced these cars were fully resolved before they were let loose on the public. Had I been the first owner, I would have been mightily disappointed, especially having paid £69,780 for it in 2003; my brother bought it for £12k in 2013, buy which time it had only 65k miles on it (it now shows just over 101k miles).
I also did a bit of buying on eBay. I love brochures and stuff, especially from the American market:
My wife found out about it today...
The car has been standing a while, before which it had a good going over at MB at a cost well into four figures, almost half way to five. Nonetheless, more will be required: these cars do not like standing around. I picked it up on the snowiest day of the year but happily it is on Kumho winter tyres:
Less happily, neither the ABS nor the ESP were working. And yet it handled the conditions with aplomb. It is all about the tyres. I digress: the winter tyre thread is infinitely long and just as boring. It was also showing a parking brake warning and consumer and starter battery warnings. Subsequently I have noticed the nearside headlamp is intermittent. And my brother had warned me that the central locking does not work. And the rear wheel arches are rusty. It is such a handsome car, however:
It has a fairly bone dry spec. It is 359 Tanzanite Blue Metallic over Grey leather; the only options that I can see are Avior 18" wheels and parktronic. It is presently on the far nicer Homan 17" standard wheels but I have the 18 inchers and they are shod with pukka Pirelli P-Zero Rosso tyres with plenty of meat on them. The boys and I cleaned them up today. Having two little helpers makes this kind of job so much easier.
I have the consumer battery on charge. If this doesn't make it right, I suspect the battery control module is kaput (thanks to a forum member for pointing me in that direction). The batteries are under warranty so if they are bad (they were replaced six months ago, so it seems unlikely) I will have MB change them. Otherwise I will just put it in to Baister and have him fix it. The problem is, Baister is midway through the suspension rebuild on my r129 SL which he has interrupted to sort out the disasters on my w124.
The ABS/ESP problem may just be a side effect of the battery issue; if not it is probably a bad reluctor ring somewhere. A Baister job.
The headlamp is a bad burner: £200+.
The PSE pump is the culprit for the locks: boringly expensive. Rebuilt ones are hawked at £650 on eBay.
Then I will have the Man do the wheel arches. Then I will give it to my wife to use for summer specials for a while. If she gels with it, we'll keep it, but I suspect it will be up for sale in the late summer. I don't really have the necessaries to titivate it and keep it.
My brother brought over the documents from the r230 in his McLaren today. What a machine! It is from another dimension. He took me out for a ride in it, a mere 99miles on the clock, it is quite beyond description how it goes. He then took my boy out. Then he had to take everyone else in the universe out. I was a little nervous about all this but he seems a good deal more responsible and restrained than yours truly: I think he's a bit frightened of it, which is very sensible indeed.
Back to Mercedes. The documents are complete. It had one owner prior to my brother. It has a proper full service history with all of the invoices from the main dealer; all of the MOTs; all of the correspondence from the dealer; the first owner even kept articles from Autocar. There have been some eye-watering bills for electrical and suspension related things. I am not convinced these cars were fully resolved before they were let loose on the public. Had I been the first owner, I would have been mightily disappointed, especially having paid £69,780 for it in 2003; my brother bought it for £12k in 2013, buy which time it had only 65k miles on it (it now shows just over 101k miles).
I also did a bit of buying on eBay. I love brochures and stuff, especially from the American market:
My wife found out about it today...
Having read your other threads, I'm sure you're up on the main issues with these but I'll mention them anyway - roof leaks, ABC & SBC.
I like the Blue, quite rare for this model SL.
I've sometimes thought about buying an old ropey R230 (not suggesting this is) and stripping it out - basically making it light as the name applies but think I'd lose the refinement
I like the Blue, quite rare for this model SL.
I've sometimes thought about buying an old ropey R230 (not suggesting this is) and stripping it out - basically making it light as the name applies but think I'd lose the refinement
Beautiful car. Seduced me into buying a 2003 SL500 model in 2007. Same colour as yours with the cream interior and 18 inch alloys. Drove superbly for a few months then most things starting playing up especially the electrics. Airbag warning lights that needed the seat to come out to get to wiring, bonnet open warning light that would randomly come on once a month that sort of thing. went to a MB dealer for service and they told me the suspension needed £3k worth of work ...... on a 4 year old car. Knew then all the stories were true of appalling drop in Mercedes quality but had always wanted an SL.
Sold it shortly afterwards thankfully.
Wanted to try again with Mercedes so I bought the correct model next time.
In 2015 bought a beautiful 2001 R129 SL320 Edition in Mystic blue with the Panoramic roof for the winter, partly after reading your posts.
Amazing car. Have done 18k miles in nearly three years including two trips to the South of France. Not one thing has gone wrong and neither of the 2 services cost more than £250.
Will never sell it.
Good luck with the R230. You're going to need it
.
Sold it shortly afterwards thankfully.
Wanted to try again with Mercedes so I bought the correct model next time.
In 2015 bought a beautiful 2001 R129 SL320 Edition in Mystic blue with the Panoramic roof for the winter, partly after reading your posts.
Amazing car. Have done 18k miles in nearly three years including two trips to the South of France. Not one thing has gone wrong and neither of the 2 services cost more than £250.
Will never sell it.
Good luck with the R230. You're going to need it
.
Bought mine new in 2003 and still have it. Never used much (there are other cars) and currently has about 28000 miles.
Bi xenons are very expensice to replace but overall not too much has gone wrong. Seals are drying out.
Car is like new apart from carpets which I will replace. Nice for an evening cruise
Bi xenons are very expensice to replace but overall not too much has gone wrong. Seals are drying out.
Car is like new apart from carpets which I will replace. Nice for an evening cruise
Lovely car OP, love the colour.
Just for a bit of balance, had my 350 for two and a bit years, it's needed one starter battery which was itself replaced under warranty, and two no advisory MOT's. Due it's A service now.
I keep mine on an intelligent charger, they are very battery sensitive and display all sorts of alarming warning messages if the auxilliary battery gets run down a little bit. They all disappear again when fully charged.
Just for a bit of balance, had my 350 for two and a bit years, it's needed one starter battery which was itself replaced under warranty, and two no advisory MOT's. Due it's A service now.
I keep mine on an intelligent charger, they are very battery sensitive and display all sorts of alarming warning messages if the auxilliary battery gets run down a little bit. They all disappear again when fully charged.
OK, I'm getting the message about reliability and quality and batteries in particular. The service history on mine suggests it has had all of these problems: there are bills for numerous ABC struts and valves, for taking the seats out to replace some module or other, for stripping the door trim for a different module, and then battery after battery. There was also a cat way back when. The present batteries are less than a year old and under warranty. Here is the consumer battery on my office floor at this very moment. It has been charging at least ten hours now...
It will help if you can keep the consumer battery on a trickle charge once back in the car
Check the boot seals as well, they leak water into the boot which in turn can cause problems with the PSE pump and the roof operation.
There are a couple of drain holes which get blocked where the roof line meets the back boot scuttle each side of the car hidden under the seals.
Check the boot seals as well, they leak water into the boot which in turn can cause problems with the PSE pump and the roof operation.
There are a couple of drain holes which get blocked where the roof line meets the back boot scuttle each side of the car hidden under the seals.
The Mclaren is quite something - a real Supercar and looks it.
These Mercedes convertibles are to my eyes one of the last pretty cars Mercedes made - maybe even the last?
Hopefully the warning lights/associated shutdowns are because of the low battery voltage. When its running right with the top down in the summer I suspect it will be a rather marvelous old thing to pootle around in.
These Mercedes convertibles are to my eyes one of the last pretty cars Mercedes made - maybe even the last?
Hopefully the warning lights/associated shutdowns are because of the low battery voltage. When its running right with the top down in the summer I suspect it will be a rather marvelous old thing to pootle around in.
I have a love hate relationship with the R230 SL. My other half had a 2006 SL350 which was her daily car for about 18 months.
In one respect I loved the car, it was absolutely brilliant looking, was very nicely spec'd, comfortable and just felt like something special.
By contrast, the car was fragile and there was always a worry that something might just stop working. Had a normal service and required two new tyres which is normal. Also required some control unit to be replaced which failed and prevented the roof/boot opening, that cost £600. We ended up part exchanging it for quite an amount less than we bought it for but suspect it may have had other issues and needed four doors.
If money was no object and I had a spare garage, I'd have an SL55 in a hearbeat. That looks like a cracking example OP and I hope it serves you well, they're definitely heart over head cars.
In one respect I loved the car, it was absolutely brilliant looking, was very nicely spec'd, comfortable and just felt like something special.
By contrast, the car was fragile and there was always a worry that something might just stop working. Had a normal service and required two new tyres which is normal. Also required some control unit to be replaced which failed and prevented the roof/boot opening, that cost £600. We ended up part exchanging it for quite an amount less than we bought it for but suspect it may have had other issues and needed four doors.
If money was no object and I had a spare garage, I'd have an SL55 in a hearbeat. That looks like a cracking example OP and I hope it serves you well, they're definitely heart over head cars.
My Dad collected a (new to him) 2008 350 a month or so ago. Feels incredibly solid but has had a couple of niggling issues, albeit covered under warranty - boot lock replaced, new batteries and new bluetooth module. The recent snow also seems to have somehow resulted in a cracked windscreen - being replaced tomorrow. Will keep an eye on this thread for good measure!
Good luck... from what i've read it really is just that.
Good luck... from what i've read it really is just that.
Fastdruid said:
Monkeylegend said:
Lovely car OP, love the colour.
Just for a bit of balance, had my 350 for two and a bit years, it's needed one starter battery which was itself replaced under warranty, and two no advisory MOT's.
The 350 isn't meant to be a patch on the 500 for costs/unreliability.Just for a bit of balance, had my 350 for two and a bit years, it's needed one starter battery which was itself replaced under warranty, and two no advisory MOT's.
Performance wise there is not much difference in the real world, and although you can't beat the V8 the V6 is still a very nice engine and sounds good above 3000rpm.
Monkeylegend said:
Fastdruid said:
Monkeylegend said:
Lovely car OP, love the colour.
Just for a bit of balance, had my 350 for two and a bit years, it's needed one starter battery which was itself replaced under warranty, and two no advisory MOT's.
The 350 isn't meant to be a patch on the 500 for costs/unreliability.Just for a bit of balance, had my 350 for two and a bit years, it's needed one starter battery which was itself replaced under warranty, and two no advisory MOT's.
Performance wise there is not much difference in the real world, and although you can't beat the V8 the V6 is still a very nice engine and sounds good above 3000rpm.
The best - or more trouble free - R230 is a late 3.7 350 (2004/2005) with the updated dash/radio nav etc. And don't make the howling error of buying a 350 to avoid ABC and find it was specified as an option!
The real issue with the R230 is that it was packed full of electronics right at the time Mercedes was scrimping on quality. It's a shame as I really like them..
I've just stuck the consumer battery back in there after 16hours on charge and it is still showing the errors. There was no sparking at all when I connected the battery up. I suspect it is finished. Off to the Merc dealer when I get a chance.
P R N D said:
The real issue with the R230 is that it was packed full of electronics right at the time Mercedes was scrimping on quality.
Precisely this: coupled with a massive expansion in the range and sophistication of electronic systems.Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff