Shed Of The Week: Mercedes-Benz SLK

Here's why you really could be tempted by a ShedLK

Another first-time arrival on our Shedly shores, and just in time for spring, summer or indeed the nuclear winter that we may be facing, is this Mercedes SLK.

It's a late-ish example of the first R170 SLK, which was in production from 1996 to 2004. It came from the highly-respected drawing board of Bruno Sacco, now 83 years old but back in the day acknowledged as Mr (or Herr) Mercedes-Benz. Bruno was also responsible for the 1982 W201 190, M-B's first compact exec.

A fairly late one, and only 63,000 miles too

Work on the SLK, its first compact roadster, began in the early part of the 1990s when someone noticed that Mazda was selling a lot of MX-5s. Mercedes didn't really do small and delicate, so there was a lot of interest ahead of the launch.

The 230SLK spec seemed good: nearly 200hp from a supercharged 2.3-litre four and the interesting feature of a folding steel Vario-Roof which gave you the benefits of open-air motoring without the usual accompanying fear of some Herbert taking a Stanley knife to it.

Unfortunately, but perhaps not unsurprisingly, it turned out to be a bit too clumsy and mechanically uninspiring to generate much more than low mutterings from the contemporary press. The steering was dumb and the autobox dumber. The shortened C-Class platform on which it was based subsequently gave rise (sic) to the quite nasty Chrysler Crossfire.

Still, just to show how much attention folk pay to the contemporary press, Mercedes managed to ship 300,000 of them, attesting to its popularity with 'the ladies'. And now that it's under a grand the SLK has definite appeal as a cheap runabout that you'd buy for the warmer months and maybe end up keeping for as long as the roof keeps working.

As noted, it's not the most thrilling two-seat sportster you can buy, and not everyone gets on with the offset driving position, but it's quite solid in good ways as well as bad ones and the supercharger kick at around 2,300rpm provides decent thrunge.

Looks like a chocolate bar in here

The present owner has put together an honest-sounding ad with plenty of transparency about his SLK's shortcomings. The ad says it's a manual, but that's a typo as 230s only came with autos, which blunted the driving experience. Revisions to post-2000 models like ours improved matters a bit.

The underside is a murky unknown (insert Mrs Shed joke here) but the classic Mercedes rust spots on the wings and bootlid are in plain view, which is reassuring in a funny sort of way. At least you can see what you're up against. In the real world outside of a concours event or operating-theatre-clean detailing shop these blebs shouldn't be enough to put you off.

So, what would put you off? If you're allergic to failing sensors and warning lights crying wolf you might want to look elsewhere. The vendor freely admits to this annoying trait, which was not rare in cars from this era and remains depressingly common even now. Shed himself owns a German hatch whose ABS light has been shining brightly for several years. If only the same degree of engineering that went into the bulb had been put into the actual sensors, the world would be a lot happier place.

Mind you, the SLK's ABS pump is known to give trouble, as are the MAF sensor and the pedal box. Oil can leak into the wiring harness.

In best M-B fashion the roof lifts on hydraulic rams and folds neatly into the top half of the boot, reducing your cargo space to under 150 litres. For comparison, your average Golf-type hatch has around 380. Sometimes the roof ram pistons leak.

Decent performance from here, if not a great noise

The PSE pump that drives the central locking sits in the boot where it is regularly attacked by water, with predictable results. For many other head-scratching problems you might want to take a close look at the K40 relay unit. This provides power (or not) to ECUs and other useful components like the fuel pump. It's notorious for causing all sorts of bother, including but not limited to engine starting, idling and stumbling. Hardly surprising when you consider the tight space it was allocated under the bonnet. It does have a heat shield, and it's supposed to be cooled by a fan but - well, you can guess the rest. The K40 relays are actually repairable if it's the common problem of a bit of burnt solder on the board. Otherwise you're in for £100-plus for a new unit at dealer prices.

It's a good policy to periodically change the trans fluid and an especially good one to renew the coolant every three years or so. The engine mounts are oil filled and the handling will eventually benefit from these items being replaced, but our low-mile Shed has a fair way to go yet before you need to think about that sort of thing. Belt changing is pretty easy on these. Floppy tensioner bearings will give themselves away by creating a noise on start up.

The only advisory on the last MOT was that old favourite 'deterioration of the registration plate', something that's been annoying the MOT testers of this car for the last three years, along with a wobbly front wheel bearing. The bearing issue has definitely been fixed and by the looks of it so has the plate. In certain situations of course a touch of plate illegibility can be a good thing. Perhaps the creeping bootlid rot might come to your rescue there.

Here's the ad.

2002 230SLK auto, black, with black/tan contrast interior. Only 63k miles
Facelift model with electric seats, cruise control, electric hardtop roof that works perfectly.
Mot until end Sept 2017 and serviced by me less than 200 miles ago.
Registered March 2002. Some paper work including receipts for work done prior to my ownership and bill of sale back in 2003. Two keys.
Now that's the nessesary bits sorted out let's cut to the chase!
Bottom line, I bought this SLK back at the end of the summer as a run around to replace a Discovery that I had been using previously. Never got round to selling the Discovery and it was to useful to get rid of so ended up with two "station cars". The SLK had its problems but I was happy to tinker and sort them out over time but now I just can't be bothered and I have other car priorities.
Body wise it is just like every other cheap SLK with rust around the arches, the boot lid and one wet headlight. A number of bumps and scratches but looks great from 20yards as they all do! Interior is good other than the usual flaking of the paint on the centre console. The electric leather seat are in great condition. Engine wise the car runs well and the supercharger blows well. Drivetrain is good with no clunks or bangs and gearbox changes smoothly. wheels are scruffy but tyres are good.
Frustrating problems are the warning lights on the dash. Rather than cover them over with black tape and ignore them I have persevered to try and get the engine light to stay out to no avail.
Error code is P0101 Air mass flow issue that I have looked to sort by a number of methods (new maf, flushing through the intake and intercooler, cleaning the wiring from cam solenoid to the ecu, etc.) but still it will come on within 20 miles. Now one of the speed sensors has given up the ghost and the ABS and BAS ESP light is on (P0500)
Sure you could get things sorted if you have the time and inclination or just run it as it is as the engine light makes no difference to the way the car drives.
If you fancy a cheap mot'd SLK that you can make good for the summer then this could be for you. It would be a shame to see it go to the scrappy!
Cheers, Richard