r170 SLK 320 - rust, ABS limp home mode, general advice!
Discussion
The old man just purchased an r170 clk 320 - against my advice as I know these are not the most durable of mercs. Fortunately I managed to get him to scrap the 4 pot idea to get the 320.
Anyway, his example was very cheap which on the upside gives fixing money, but it has a rusty boot and a rubbish paintjob (he knew this when he bought it and it was priced accordingly - and it's otherwise straight and structurally sound) - it has 80k on the clocks and a good history.
Most worrying is that it occasionally goes into limp home mode with an ABS error, which he has been told is any one of a long, expensive list of things (individual wheel sensors, one of two black boxes?) by a "merc specialist", apparently doing any one of these is expensive.
Any ideas how this car can best be fixed, and made reliable. I did dissuade him from the whole merc of this era thing, but he seems insistent that they will be built like my w124
Where near Leicester/Loughborough/Nottingham should he take the thing for a proper expert?
Not the car I would chose, but I bet there's a good community out there Pistonheads can help me find to fix it up to what he wants: a silver merc roadster for a 65 year old!
Anyway, his example was very cheap which on the upside gives fixing money, but it has a rusty boot and a rubbish paintjob (he knew this when he bought it and it was priced accordingly - and it's otherwise straight and structurally sound) - it has 80k on the clocks and a good history.
Most worrying is that it occasionally goes into limp home mode with an ABS error, which he has been told is any one of a long, expensive list of things (individual wheel sensors, one of two black boxes?) by a "merc specialist", apparently doing any one of these is expensive.
Any ideas how this car can best be fixed, and made reliable. I did dissuade him from the whole merc of this era thing, but he seems insistent that they will be built like my w124
Where near Leicester/Loughborough/Nottingham should he take the thing for a proper expert?
Not the car I would chose, but I bet there's a good community out there Pistonheads can help me find to fix it up to what he wants: a silver merc roadster for a 65 year old!
In order properly to diagnose the limp home error, it will need to be connected to a diagnostic computer. The obvious possibilities are these, in order of likelihood, (1) bad ABS ring on one or both of the rear driveshafts, (2) bad ABS sensor(s), (3) bad gearbox output shaft speed sensor, (4) gearbox ECU contaminated by oil. None of these is particularly difficult or expensive to fix, with the exception of (4) which is merely expensive. You'd know it was (4) because you'd find transmission oil on the ground after it has been parked a while. Basically, the transmission diagnostic plug connector seal fails and, if left long enough, transmission oil creeps up the wiring loom to the ECU. Used ECUs are pretty readily available. Anyway, that's a worst case.
The r170 is actually a pretty good car, the only real weak point being the body's tendency to rust. The m112 V6 is a cracking engine, very smooth and I should imagine very fast in that chassis. You may want to check the crankshaft balancer for cracking. The car is built using mainly w202 C-Class running gear, and that car adopts all of the principles (and many of the parts) of the 124 chassis.
The r170 is actually a pretty good car, the only real weak point being the body's tendency to rust. The m112 V6 is a cracking engine, very smooth and I should imagine very fast in that chassis. You may want to check the crankshaft balancer for cracking. The car is built using mainly w202 C-Class running gear, and that car adopts all of the principles (and many of the parts) of the 124 chassis.
He's sorted the above issues (apologies I'm not sure exactly how) but I just got the following rather worrying message:
"I took the SLK into Kwikfit today for a free brake check. When the fitters had finished I had a look at the underside of the car while it was still up in the air. I was very alarmed to see that (what looked like) the hefty front subframe cross member (towards the back of the engine compartment) was severely corroded, i.e. parts of it had dropped off; this is clearly a key load-bearing structure. I'll go have a chat with a car welding repair place during the coming week, but I fear that this could prove terminal. "
I wish he would have put in a little extra money and purchased a r129 (the car not the PH user above!) - at least then you are not fighting a losing battle...
Any ideas very much welcome.
"I took the SLK into Kwikfit today for a free brake check. When the fitters had finished I had a look at the underside of the car while it was still up in the air. I was very alarmed to see that (what looked like) the hefty front subframe cross member (towards the back of the engine compartment) was severely corroded, i.e. parts of it had dropped off; this is clearly a key load-bearing structure. I'll go have a chat with a car welding repair place during the coming week, but I fear that this could prove terminal. "
I wish he would have put in a little extra money and purchased a r129 (the car not the PH user above!) - at least then you are not fighting a losing battle...
Any ideas very much welcome.
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