Woo-hoo! Just made a deal on a 1997 SL500. The good, the bad, the ugly:
Good: Red with black interior 40th Anniversary Edition (according to VIN) 71,000 miles Body is near perfect Interior is very good condition Soft top is as new Bad: Top hydraulics need replacement Oil tube or tubes possibly bad on right side of engine (slight single lifter tick) Aftermarket radio (owner has original Becker) CEL is on with code for O2 sensor Ugly: Hard top headliner gone, will need to replace Rebuilt title (car was totaled in 2007 due to front end damage, rebuilt by local dealer) Price: $5000 Some observations: According to the VIN this is a 40th Anniversary model. However, it has trunk badging, which the 40th Anniversary models were not supposed to have. I can only assume that this was installed in the past when there was a rear end damage noted in the DMV reports from the original owner. I'm torn as to whether or not I should leave it on the car or not. Lifter tick could very well be due to lack of use. The car has been driven less than 3000 miles in the last 4 years, so it's sat a lot. I'll drain the engine and refill with the required Mobil1 0W40 as soon as I get it and drive a little while to see if the tick goes away. Thanks to Klaus at Top Hydraulics and others it looks like the top controller is probably OK. The window drop feature does work, meaning that the system is probably synchronized. However, the PO has operated the top manually, meaning that they probably upset the system at some point and invoked the safeties, I suspect. There was some beeping when I started the car, which I believe was due to the top system complaining. I was able to raise the roll bar using the switch on the console, however, this apparently pressurized the system, which caused the leaking cylinders in the top of the windshield frame to leak hydraulic fluid out the trim covers of the windshield corners. This also leads me to believe that the hydraulic system is probably OK but needs to be sorted out. I'm figuring about $2k worth of repairs (parts) will be necessary to get it completely sorted out, after which I should have a very nice, 100% working SL500. I take delivery on Thursday. What a great Christmas present! Dan _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
