Sl500 pse problem urgent!!

[jareddavis]

After finally accepting defeat on my sl350 last year and selling on at a depressing loss, my father I law asked for my help with his 2008 sl 500.

The pse pump has gone (again) and the boot looks more like a pond... Problem is he can't get the fuel filler cap to pop open to get fuel to get the car home to be looked at.

The boot will open with the key, as will the doors but how the hell does he open the fuel cap without first getting the central locking working?

Any help much appreciated, particularly fixes that are easy in the dark with flashlight. Think he's learnt not to be without fuel while the boot swims with water and to focus on seals at a later date.

Cheers
Jared

 

[reflexboy]

After finally accepting defeat on my sl350 last year and selling on at a depressing loss, my father I law asked for my help with his 2008 sl 500.

The pse pump has gone (again) and the boot looks more like a pond... Problem is he can't get the fuel filler cap to pop open to get fuel to get the car home to be looked at.

The boot will open with the key, as will the doors but how the hell does he open the fuel cap without first getting the central locking working?

Any help much appreciated, particularly fixes that are easy in the dark with flashlight. Think he's learnt not to be without fuel while the boot swims with water and to focus on seals at a later date.

Cheers
Jared

Luckily this is easy. Open the boot and simply remove the lining inside the boot on the inside of where the fuel filler flap is. There is a mechanism that shoots a plastic pin out which goes in to a small plastic type loop on the flap which locks it. The mechanism can be unclipped and then the flap will open. I had a problem with mine where the flap wouldn't lock. I took the mechanism out cleaned it and lubed it and it's been fine since. Good luck. You really need to make that boot watertight ASAP. Lots of posts on this and other forums about a simple DIY fix for that too

 

[jareddavis]

Thanks reflexboy. I has endless problems and got mine almost watertight, and the pump sealed in plastic etc until the boot contact then failed! Appreciate this, will let him know. He did have the problem on previous sl, 2005 and did something similar but as this is facelift model seemed to think the original solution wasn't possibles sure that design has remained throughout
Cheers

 

[reflexboy]

No problem and best of luck

 

[richard]

The early SLs had seal problems, but these were fixed.

But what can happen even with the repaired (or newer) seals is
a) The vent pipes in then can block (you can see these corrugated flex rubber tubes as the roof opens
b) The seals just go out of shape and then it leaks a little - this happened to mine, I just cleaned them and flexed them a bit back into place and now all watertight again

- I also have a genuine mercedes plastic boot tub, that is the shape of the boot and about 1" high - this means small leaks don't get any further into the stuff below the carpet - of course the boot gets damp, so you need to take everything out and dry it all on a nice warm day

My 10 year old PSE is just failing - occasionally pops the 20A fuse when its very cold - I guess the pump motor and solenoids are just getting sticky. Sadly new pumps are about £850 RRP :-(

Cheers

Richard