Just bought an 04 plate SL-350..... What is going on!?

[ostego]

Hi,

So, I bought a nice SL350 on Saturday, so far, I have noticed the following faults:

- Drivers side button to lock doors doesn't work [have researched and see this needs a new handle to be installed]
- Every morning the battery is dead and I need to manually unlock the car, but it starts fine [have researched and see there are 2 batteries, and I assume it is the one in the boot that needs replacing]
- There is a small leak in the drivers side roof seal [have researched this, and it seems some silicon is needed]

- I cannot open the glovebox.... It is locked, the manual key won't open it... it is frustrating! The owners manual says this should unlock when the smartkey is inside the car... but it doesn't! Is there a special technique!?
- The dashboard backlight is fine during the day time... but when the car thinks it is dark (turns on headlights), the radio screen goes from yellow to dark blue... which is fine.... but the backlight goes off on the dashboard... which is really annoying because I can't see any of the dials!! Is there a setting for this?


Am taking it back to the dealer on Saturday to get the leak, battery and maybe even the handle replaced..... but the glovebox and the dashboard lights seem like things that shouldn't require a garage to do.... does anyone know what is going on with these?

Whilst the car is ever so nice to drive.... it really confuses me with all of these gizmos!

 

[richard]

Sounds like lock broken on glovebox, which is a bit of a pig to fix. Assuming the lock on it is set to "not locked", when the car is open, it opens by pressing the button.

If you look at the speedo, there is a little knob, rotate it (its the brightness for the cluster etc)

In the COMAND settings menu you can prevent the COMAND from changing colours (I set mine to night colours always).

Expect the big boot battery to die regularly, I get through one every 3 or so years as car not driven a lot and I'm not good at putting it on charge

Leaking seals may well need to be replaced. You need to be careful with the rear window seal because if the metal it attaches to corrodes you can't get the new one to stick (and on my car MB replaced the rear window as a result - a long time ago)

Cheers

Richard

 

[automaniaman]

Silicon will not fix the leak, the seals will need replacing, and they are expensive...