1986 R107 SL - Smelly or is it just me?

[petjam]

Morning all,

I have recently made my first foray into classic car ownership with a 1986 300SL. It’s in great condition, no rust and has just been issued with a clean bill of health down at Colin Ferns.

One lingering potential issue is the smell of fumes / petrol from behind. In my son’s words “This car would be great in a race as it would gas everyone behind”. Is this an issue? Or it is just what old cars smell like? I have never owned an older car so have no frame of reference.

It was down at Colin Ferns with an effective blank cheque for repairs so if it needed anything done I am sure he would have mentioned it.

Is it just me?

[petjam]

Cheers! Don't blame me it was the wife who wanted it!

I read other threads on here about old cars having a certain "smell", I am wondering if that is what I am smelling and I am not used to it.

[petjam]

Thanks all. I had him put a new MOT on it and it passed the emissions no problems.

Unfortunately it doesn't have the deflector. I think I will send it back, only problem is that it is not local and it will cost £300 return on a trailer!

Edited by petjam on Tuesday 11th July 12:36

[petjam]

It has been driven quite a bit but the smell persists.

There is no real smell in the car when sitting in it apart from maybe a slight smell if the wind blows back into the cabin. The main smell is from behind. By that I mean when I was following my wife (in the SL) and I was in another car the smell was quite strong.

I think I am going to book it into this place: -

http://www.schmittmercedes.co.uk/

They were recommended by the SL shop who themselves have a 3 month waiting list to just have a look at anything!

[petjam]

It gets trailered to the above on Monday. 3rd time lucky, let’s see what they think.

[petjam]

Thanks for the advice all. There are a couple of others in my area which I have driven behind in the past, I can’t ever remember smelling anything from them.

It goes in Monday so I will report back then!

At the end of the day it’s my wife’s car and it does not bother her, I have my Mercedes thug wagon to keep me happy. What annoys me is that the SL is a beautiful car and the smell is taking something away from it.

Fingers crossed it is simple.