Recent content by sideshowbob

Hi All, Due to a change in circumstances i have to put the SL500 up for sale. I have had the car since April this year and was planning to keep her for life. She was by far the cleanest car i could find for sale at the time and this was after a fairly long search of the south of england. She has...

You are right Dec, it will be a massive relief to get back to normal again. Will have to wait a bit longer tho because Tony is on holiday until next week and i havent got the foggiest where anything goes.

So this was what was left in the car after i cut out the steering lock When i cut out the steering lock i tried to do it in such a way that i cut off the lugs that the screws fix into without damaging the part behind. You can see here how the lugs remain on the screws. With the steering lock...

I am now the proud owner of the part below, courtesy of Nick at Euromerc. He even answered the phone on the first attempt within 2 rings! and then met me on his way home to give me the part - thanks Nick!

Thanks Bernie, that looks perfect. I will program this nicks phone number into speed dial and start the bombardment tomorrow morning.

Yesterday i bought the steering lock/barrel/key from three pointed parts on ebay. This morning i got an email from Rob saying that there was a mistake in the listing and that the part wasnt available, along with a paypal refund. So this afternoon will be spent searching for mercedes breakers...

Sorry i didnt update the thread with a progress report yesterday. I came home from an awful day filled with frustration towards 3 cars. After reading the updated thread i decided to try and forget about it for the evening rather than getting all frustrated again. You are probably right Sp!ke...

Ive just turned the house upside down and have absolutely no idea where the v5 is. Im guessing my only choice is to order an "emergency" barrel from the dealer, or perhaps get hold of a used one from a breakers.

Some progress. This is what my car looks like now after 20 minutes with the owner of my local mercedes specialist. Tony showed up pretty much out of the blue on his moped. I had told his son earlier in the week about the problem but that i wouldnt be calling on them (after i found out how much...

Thanks all. The unhelpful dealer is the one in Epsom, Surrey. I have now had the car looked at by a Mercedes mechanic and it turns out the barrel has actually broken in half. This would explain why I cannot turn it, and why the nail varnish on the key will not work. The only key is now stuck in...

Ok, after a lot more reading of the links people have posted ive decided i will give the nail varnish trick a try before resulting to violence and carnage. Im going to get a spare key cut first so that i can unlock the car with this without disturbing the nail varnish. I will keep the thread...

Unfortunately i only have one key for the car. It doesnt look like it has been damaged and it opens all the other locks perfectly. Sp!kes offer is very generous and unfortunately for him i may well take him up on it. Well done REI, im hoping i will have a similar result before too long.

Thank you all so much for the response so far, it makes me feel very lucky to be part of such a wonderful forum. Before i started this thread i had done alot of research on how to change the barrel. I was all prepared with homemade tools all ready to go....and then the key would not turn to...

This is my car.......and i love her. Look at how happy she looks sat by the side of the road waiting to be driven. Look at how original she is, at the natural gloss of her beautiful paint work. And she's not just a pretty face. Despite her 18 years and 186k miles she is a hard worker. Who...

I believe they are Kumho's