R230 SL350 - 100k miles service

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Balance

New Member
Joined
Jun 20, 2020
Messages
25
Location
Sheffield
Car
SL 350, Ponton 180D
Hey guys ... first post here ...... sooo after drooling over R230 for as long as I can remember, finally did an impulse buy .......... stupid as it may sound (it actually does sound stupid when I say it out loud!) .... I ended up buying the car without even physically seeing it ... saw the car advert on eBay...called the guy .. he sounded genuine ... agreed on the price based on the pictures and the description which the guy gave and transferred the money ........... was bit disappointed when I picked it up as the pictures were from few years ago and interior wasn't as great as I would have imagined and shown in the picture .. + remote doesn't work either (RF) ..IR works so use that to open the door.............. couldnt show my disappointment there as wife was with me and well! she would make fun of me for the rest of my life for buying something like this without even seeing or test driving it first................. However, I account the disappointment to age of car - 16-17 years !!! +been using newer models soo maybe have forgotten how things were in cars back when I had a full set of hair on my head!!
long story short ............... I love the car ...puts a smile on my face every time I drive it and I have been using it daily..... externally the car looks stunning .... I am now looking for someone to restore the interior ..... the car was serviced by merc till around 80k..but last service was done by the seller.........or so he says...sooo now i want to get it serviced...it has done 90k .... I was thinking of going to some indie garage for it...

The list of service items I want to replace is
  • oil
  • oil filter
  • fuel filter
  • air filters
  • spark plugs
  • pollen filters
  • brake pads etc seem fine

what else shall i replace? transmission oil ? coolant ? timing belt ?

I found this site BookMyGarage - Compare & Save With Instant MOT & Service Deal , if you check their major service, its lots of check this check that rather than replacement? So bit confuse!!

so is it worth going for this major service or getting the service items replaced would be better!

Thanks in advance
 
Welcome Balance.

I am sure that a good Indy is the answer. Hopefully someone from Sheffield will be along soon with a reccomendation.

Good luck.

NJSS
 
Welcome, have you any photos of your new toy??
Sorry no suggestions for an indy in Sheffield. If it is not a daily driver I would invest in a trickle charger to keep your batteries topped up
kc
 
I would get the transmission oil changed and the brake fluid. Does your SL have standard or ABC suspension (an option on the 350)? If ABC then change the fluid and filter.
 
I assume you have the 3.7litre V6 in yours at that age. They have timing chains not belts so you don't need to worry too much about that.
If you have an early 3.5 V6 you might want to research the balancer shaft issues on those engines.

I would get a good indy to change the filters and maybe the transmission fluid if it feels a bit jerky/noisy just for peace of mind.

Nice cars otherwise especially if you don't have ABC to worry about.

You might want to get a check on the SBC pump for the brakes to see where it is in it's lifespan, they have a finite number of operations, something like 300k brake pedal depressions. They can be reset sometimes but at end of life will need replacing.

Again a good indy should be able to check this for you.

Check also for water ingress into the boot, the boot seals are known for letting in water on the earlier models and the boot contains some delicate electrical gubbins for the roof, boot closing etc.

If you have rattling from the fuel tank it could be the baffles, again fairly common. There is a guy who can do these in situ now though instead of having to remove the fuel tank.
 
Which garage has Bookmygarage come up for your area? That was how I found a merc specialist in Hull

Thanks for the reply SarahAnn200.... so in book my garage ... this is the one that sounds like someone I can go to - German Autocentre ..https://germanautocentre.co.uk/
has anyone ever used them? I rang them to book, but the receptionist said we busy so will call back! lets seeee!
 
Welcome, have you any photos of your new toy??
Sorry no suggestions for an indy in Sheffield. If it is not a daily driver I would invest in a trickle charger to keep your batteries topped up
kc

yesss... I have to get that ... didn't use it first week and got error of consumer battery ... did google trickle charger and on amazon there are so many of them : ( ...at the end, decided to just use it every day... : )
 
I assume you have the 3.7litre V6 in yours at that age. They have timing chains not belts so you don't need to worry too much about that.
If you have an early 3.5 V6 you might want to research the balancer shaft issues on those engines.

I would get a good indy to change the filters and maybe the transmission fluid if it feels a bit jerky/noisy just for peace of mind.

Nice cars otherwise especially if you don't have ABC to worry about.

You might want to get a check on the SBC pump for the brakes to see where it is in it's lifespan, they have a finite number of operations, something like 300k brake pedal depressions. They can be reset sometimes but at end of life will need replacing.

Again a good indy should be able to check this for you.

Check also for water ingress into the boot, the boot seals are known for letting in water on the earlier models and the boot contains some delicate electrical gubbins for the roof, boot closing etc.

If you have rattling from the fuel tank it could be the baffles, again fairly common. There is a guy who can do these in situ now though instead of having to remove the fuel tank.


I would get the transmission oil changed and the brake fluid. Does your SL have standard or ABC suspension (an option on the 350)? If ABC then change the fluid and filter.


Thanks Monkeylegend and flowrider for the suggestion ...

So it has standard suspension ...and unfortunately, the fuel tank has the rattle noise : ( .... that's in the to do list as well after the interior , just have to keep fuel level low and no noise ..but if fuel higher than half tank then it starts making noise.

Boot is dry .. there is an invoice in history of it getting fixed few years back.

Cant seem to understand the issue with remote control though ... the IR works fine .... lock/unlock/droptop ....but RF doesn't work..even though ...radio works perfectly fine ...

so now the list is

  • oil
  • oil filter
  • fuel filter
  • air filters
  • spark plugs
  • pollen filters
  • transmission oil change
  • brake fluid change
  • and will get the brake checked on SBC Pump.

Thanks again guys.
 
Welcome, have you any photos of your new toy??
Sorry no suggestions for an indy in Sheffield. If it is not a daily driver I would invest in a trickle charger to keep your batteries topped up
kc
6.jpg

Now, you can see why I didn't even bother looking under the hood............................went for her looks : )
 
yesss... I have to get that ... didn't use it first week and got error of consumer battery ... did google trickle charger and on amazon there are so many of them : ( ...at the end, decided to just use it every day... : )

I have mine on a £25 Halfords bike and car trickle charger attached to the auxiliary battery in the boot, this also keeps the starter battery fully charged. This has worked ok for the last 4 years or so.

They do drain after a few days so I would get one if you plan to not use it during winter for a week or so.
 
I have mine on a £25 Halfords bike and car trickle charger attached to the auxiliary battery in the boot, this also keeps the starter battery fully charged. This has worked ok for the last 4 years or so.

They do drain after a few days so I would get one if you plan to not use it during winter for a week or so.

Thanks Monkeylegend ... is it this one ?
 
The batteries shouldn't discharge in a few days if 5hey do then there is a current drain somewhere (possibly a COMAND issue), I need to recharge the consumer battery every 3-4 weeks when my SL is not in use.
 
The batteries shouldn't discharge in a few days if 5hey do then there is a current drain somewhere (possibly a COMAND issue), I need to recharge the consumer battery every 3-4 weeks when my SL is not in use.

Apparently the model I have has the high discharge issue, read it on some merc forum where they all complain of it showing that message after a week of not use..... at least that what google returned when I panic searched it seeing the low consumer battery message!
 
Thanks Monkeylegend ... is it this one ?

That's the one. It replaced a 15 year old Accumate charger and I was a bit dubious re the price, but it has worked ok.

I sorn'd mine the beginning of April due to covid and it has sat in the garage since and started up first time last week with no issues.

Before when the auxiliary battery got low it would flash up all sorts of warning messages most of which would go after a good run, but it had to be put on STAR to clear a couple. Some of the convenience functions would not work until the battery was fully charged again which normally required a 20 min drive minimum, ie the roof, central locking and a few others.

Lovely cars though and yours looks very good from the outside.
 
Has anyone got any thoughts on the remote not working ?? the remote works perfect with IR ... lock/unlock/fold and open roof and windows.............but doesn't work from distance (with RF) ............ they say that it might be the comms module ..but then the radio shouldn't work as its apparently the same module... am I wrong ?? I did the diagnostics using Carly (use it for BM so tried the free version on this one )..

these are the issues I got!
Fault code: B110C Event: Fault in CAN communication with control unit OCP.
Fault code: B1121 Event: Fault in CAN communication with control module COMAND or AUDIO.
Fault code: B112D Event: Fault in CAN communication with control unit N60 (Central locking (CL) control module).
Fault code: B1132 Event: Fault in CAN communication with control unit BNS.
 
That's the one. It replaced a 15 year old Accumate charger and I was a bit dubious re the price, but it has worked ok.

I sorn'd mine the beginning of April due to covid and it has sat in the garage since and started up first time last week with no issues.

Before when the auxiliary battery got low it would flash up all sorts of warning messages most of which would go after a good run, but it had to be put on STAR to clear a couple. Some of the convenience functions would not work until the battery was fully charged again which normally required a 20 min drive minimum, ie the roof, central locking and a few others.

Lovely cars though and yours looks very good from the outside.

Thanks a lot : ) ... yes outside is lovely ... need to fix the cracked leather on one of the seat and the trim a bit ... dont want DIY on it as I have tendency to mess up things : ) ..

and thanks for the charger recommendation ... will get this one .. it was confusing seeing tons of them on amazon .. : )
 
The batteries shouldn't discharge in a few days if 5hey do then there is a current drain somewhere (possibly a COMAND issue), I need to recharge the consumer battery every 3-4 weeks when my SL is not in use.

The auxiliary battery on mine which was replaced when I bought the car in 2016 would show a lower voltage bringing up the consumables warning after 2-3 weeks if left standing without the trickle charger,` although the car would still start with no issues.

They seem to be very sensitive to small drops in voltage, more so than my E Class, which is still on the original 9 year old battery after 316k miles and can stand for longer with no issues.

I have probably now jinxed it.
 
The auxiliary battery on mine which was replaced when I bought the car in 2016 would show a lower voltage bringing up the consumables warning after 2-3 weeks if left standing without the trickle charger,` although the car would still start with no issues.

They seem to be very sensitive to small drops in voltage, more so than my E Class, which is still on the original 9 year old battery after 316k miles and can stand for longer with no issues.

I have probably now jinxed it.

wait what!!!!!!!!! 316k miles ??????????? did you add 3 in front or 6 at the end by mistake!!! what E class is it!?
 
Nice car 👍 personally I would spend a bit of cash on a decent charger, and my research (I’ve had battery warning issues) lead me here R230 Consumer Battery - How To Charge

I have been using CTEK on my cars for years and will be using this on my SL CTEK CT5 Time to Go Fully Automatic Battery Charger with a countdown display (Charges, Maintains and Reconditions Car and Motorcycle Batteries) 12V, 5 Amp - UK Plug: Amazon.co.uk: Car & Motorbike

good luck with it
 

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