i am seeking advice on buying a used 350sl

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Chippergee

New Member
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Mar 21, 2015
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mb 320 sl
Dear members,
I am replacing a 320 I've had for 13 years with a 350sl around 4-5 yrs old. I would really appreciate any advice members could give me, ie I have heard its a good idea to avoid ABC suspension as it costs around 2k a corner to replace, also I have seen that there might be a problem with water leaking into the boot. I would be hugely grateful for any pointers and advice given on what to look out for. I will be purchasing from a Mercedes garage. Thanks in advance.
 
Welcome to the forum. The problem I had with my SL was a roof seal that leaked (fortunately for me onto the passenger seat). Took MB garage three attempts to fix it.
 
At the age you are buying, not much to worry about I would say. Likely it will be one owner and low miles with full history. In deciding to buy an SL (a 2011), we took the decision to avoid cars with ABC because of the potential problems…….many have gone fault free for years but we didn't want that risk. The 350 can have ABC as an option (it is standard on the 500, 63 etc) so that is the first thing to check and be prepared for the salesman to have no clue what ABC is, never mind its potential problems.

Other than that, as the above post, clean and treat all roof seals and you shouldn't have any problems. We are new to the SL as well so still finding out what to look for but buying this age of car should lessen risks greatly. The water in the boot can be from blocked drain holes, I believe. I have yet to check ours (only had the car a month) but an easy fix and easy ongoing maintenance item.

Ours has the panoramic roof and on checking through the car, I found the roller blind did not retract smoothly so the roller was replaced. I think it is likely that the blind was kept open all the time (we certainly keep ours open) and the return springs just became 'lazy' over time.
 
As above. The boot/roof seals are an easy fix. MB dealers will never do it correctly because they are bound by manufacturer processes (that are flawed to start with), but the main culprit other than the drains is the seal across the base of the rear screen. To fix properly will take no more than an hour. There are four small nuts (8mm I think) - two at each end (under the seal).

You need to prop the roof open which needs a piece of timber about 12" long between the top of the windscreen & the front of the roof, then you can work on it to your heart's content without the engine running.

Basically you take off the 4 nuts, remove the sealing strip, clean up whatever cr4p MB used to seal, then using black silicone sealant you put a bead along the entire length of the metal strip it fits to, refit, replace the nuts & job done.
 
Roof seal replacement for the rear screen can be viewed on You Tube...really good video! :)
 

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