didn't know this! MOT merc SL content
Discussion
My r129 SL500 is in for its first MOT since I have owned it
Its s beautiful car to own and compliments my e39 M5 nicely
Anyway I let the battery go low which has thrown codes on the ecu and these can only be cleared by mercedes star reader.
Took it down to the stealer and as it was there asked them to MOT it
Has failed due to the electric seat drivers side MOT working. I knew about this and have never bothered to fix it due ti costs of merc parts. Anyway I've now discovered this is am MOT fail!! I've had to pay 400 quid for a new seat module and another 125 quid for sometbing else located in the boot!
Gutted!
BUT am looking forward to getting the top down this weekend!!!
Its s beautiful car to own and compliments my e39 M5 nicely
Anyway I let the battery go low which has thrown codes on the ecu and these can only be cleared by mercedes star reader.
Took it down to the stealer and as it was there asked them to MOT it
Has failed due to the electric seat drivers side MOT working. I knew about this and have never bothered to fix it due ti costs of merc parts. Anyway I've now discovered this is am MOT fail!! I've had to pay 400 quid for a new seat module and another 125 quid for sometbing else located in the boot!
Gutted!
BUT am looking forward to getting the top down this weekend!!!
so you took it to the dealer. and he made you spend dealer prices on fixing it. at the end of the day id have kicked of and said the car is just out of warrenty and i wont it doing on the cheap. say its been like that for ages and no one mentioned it when servicing it, cos they knew it would be warrenty work. sometime bulls
t works wonders.
t works wonders. 
sshenton1975 said:
Sorry I should have been more clear - its a 1996 modern "classic". I've had it for around a year and this is the first time i've mot'd it
Amazd that electric.seat is MOT fail!!!
It's cos you have to be able to move the seat, because if someone else sits in it it has to be safe driving position. You could always have gone to the brakers yard and get the part. or even better getter some normal rolers if you arnt precious about having buttons you never touch. Amazd that electric.seat is MOT fail!!!
I'd still have stood clear of the dealership.
OP : There are some incredibly knowledgeable people over in the Merc forum. If you have any more problems, I suggest posting in there, as you will get some good advice.
Its too late now, but I wonder if there are separate seat modules for driver and passenger seats, and whether it would have been possible to swap them over to get the drivers one working.
Its too late now, but I wonder if there are separate seat modules for driver and passenger seats, and whether it would have been possible to swap them over to get the drivers one working.
sshenton1975 said:
Tried the swap idea - unfortunately not!
Anyway, should have looked on eBay etc but had.my.first child this week so wifey has banned all car related activity!!!
ah well it was worth a shot! Congratulations on the new arrival. If you have the back seats int he SL, you will find they just about fit in until they are about 11! Anyway, should have looked on eBay etc but had.my.first child this week so wifey has banned all car related activity!!!
Someone should set up a business hiring out electronic modules to get cars through MOTs....
toosexyformycar said:
so you took it to the dealer. and he made you spend dealer prices on fixing it. at the end of the day id have kicked of and said the car is just out of warrenty and i wont it doing on the cheap. say its been like that for ages and no one mentioned it when servicing it, cos they knew it would be warrenty work. sometime bullst works wonders.
Oh dear.......t works wonders. Oooh, unlucky!
I found out with my R129, that unless I got the spanners out at weekends, and became good friends with Ebay and breakers, that it would bankrupt me quite quickly!
You can't own a '90's 129 without doing jobs on it yourself and learning the car (unless you're a millyonaire!). If you take a car as old and as complex as these to a Merc main stealer for fixes, you will end up thousands of pounds out of pocket.
I grant you, they are complex cars with a lot of different systems, some of which will test you a bit (vacuum controlled locks for one) but if you get a manual, and spend some time on the net on sites like www.benzworld.org then you can learn how it all works.
Using the car, a manual and internet help, I put together my own hand-drawn schematics of various systems - and once you know how they function, they're pretty easy to work with.
Once you've got your head around each electronic system, what it does, and where each module lives, then actually it's all fairly obvious if you approach it in a systematic way. Due to the way they're built (i.e very well) they're not too bad to work on - it takes longer to dismantle trim and parts etc. compared to a lot of volume cars, but that's because of the solid construction - so despite the time difference in labour, it also means that you can dismantle / re-assemble bits of the car without loads of bits of trim snapping, lugs breaking off, or plastic clips disintegrating.
They break apart / go back together like something designed from the start to be broken apart / re-assembled.
I think I must have been a bit unlucky with mine - it was actually a bit of an impulse purchase via my Girlfriend of the time, and only later did it become obvious that mine hadn't been particularly well looked after or cherished by it's previous owners. Hence, I had just about every thing that could go wrong, went wrong.
I reckon if I'd taken it to a main dealer to sort all the faults I did have, it would have cost me at least £10k, maybe £15k at their labour and parts prices. But by doing everything myself and being lucky enough to find replacement parts on Ebay, overall the cost wasn't too much to bear.
For example - the central locking vacuum motor unit that lives behind the carpet on the off-side inside the boot...new Bosch unit from Mercedes - £1500! New old stock unit from someone on Ebay - £150.
HTH - get the spanners out!
I found out with my R129, that unless I got the spanners out at weekends, and became good friends with Ebay and breakers, that it would bankrupt me quite quickly!
You can't own a '90's 129 without doing jobs on it yourself and learning the car (unless you're a millyonaire!). If you take a car as old and as complex as these to a Merc main stealer for fixes, you will end up thousands of pounds out of pocket.
I grant you, they are complex cars with a lot of different systems, some of which will test you a bit (vacuum controlled locks for one) but if you get a manual, and spend some time on the net on sites like www.benzworld.org then you can learn how it all works.
Using the car, a manual and internet help, I put together my own hand-drawn schematics of various systems - and once you know how they function, they're pretty easy to work with.
Once you've got your head around each electronic system, what it does, and where each module lives, then actually it's all fairly obvious if you approach it in a systematic way. Due to the way they're built (i.e very well) they're not too bad to work on - it takes longer to dismantle trim and parts etc. compared to a lot of volume cars, but that's because of the solid construction - so despite the time difference in labour, it also means that you can dismantle / re-assemble bits of the car without loads of bits of trim snapping, lugs breaking off, or plastic clips disintegrating.
They break apart / go back together like something designed from the start to be broken apart / re-assembled.
I think I must have been a bit unlucky with mine - it was actually a bit of an impulse purchase via my Girlfriend of the time, and only later did it become obvious that mine hadn't been particularly well looked after or cherished by it's previous owners. Hence, I had just about every thing that could go wrong, went wrong.
I reckon if I'd taken it to a main dealer to sort all the faults I did have, it would have cost me at least £10k, maybe £15k at their labour and parts prices. But by doing everything myself and being lucky enough to find replacement parts on Ebay, overall the cost wasn't too much to bear.
For example - the central locking vacuum motor unit that lives behind the carpet on the off-side inside the boot...new Bosch unit from Mercedes - £1500! New old stock unit from someone on Ebay - £150.
HTH - get the spanners out!
matc said:
toosexyformycar said:
so you took it to the dealer. and he made you spend dealer prices on fixing it. at the end of the day id have kicked of and said the car is just out of warrenty and i wont it doing on the cheap. say its been like that for ages and no one mentioned it when servicing it, cos they knew it would be warrenty work. sometime bullst works wonders.
Oh dear.......t works wonders. Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff