Folks,

Just bought my second MBZ; first was a flawless 2000 E320, so I felt very comfortable coming back to MBZ. The 2003 SL500 I just got (58K miles) looks gorgeous, but has some weird, weird behaviors. I'd appreciate thoughts on any of these oddities:

1. After sitting (sometimes as little as 30 min), when I put the car in gear and start moving, the right front (or sometimes right rear) of the car will abruptly drop down. It's as if the corner of the car crept up while parked, and the car is fixing it when I start moving. Only happens on the right side, and doesn't happen all the time. But it happens a lot. I've read posts of the car dropping a corner while parked and coming back to normal height when starting, but I've never read of this dropping behavior. Supposedly the hydraulic pump was recently replaced (and it does look new with MBZ stickers on it).

2. Distronic (adaptive cruise) works, but regularly disengages with 'External Fault! Reactivate!' in the message center. The manual just says 'Try activating Distronic again later.'. Very helpful.

3. The menu system doesn't behave has the owner's manual suggests. Specifically for settings, where there are sub-menus: I use the menu button to get to 'Reset Settings', then up/down to get to Settings. Then + and - to select sub-menus. Supposedly, I'm then supposed to be able to use up/down to select within the selected sub-menu, but on this car, when I hit up/down, it just jumps to the next main menu option. This means I can't set the clock, or modify any settings within the Instrument Cluster, Vehicle, Convenience, or other sub-menus. The car has an aftermarket Pioneer head unit (complete with Apple CarPlay!), and it's clear they used some sort of third-party interface to allow the steering wheel controls to affect the stereo. But I'm surprised to think that such an interface would affect the base menu system of the car. But maybe?

4. Other problems I'd like to solve (not mysterious, but I don't know how to address):
- When the top goes up, there is a little flap on each side that lifts to allow space for the cross braces of the roof. That flap goes down when the roof is dropped to provide a smooth surface between the rollbar and the trunk deck. On my car, the plastic bits that keep those flaps in place are both broken; not on the flaps, but on the fixed portion of the deck where the flaps connect. Does anyone know how those fixed panels come off for replacement?

- The seat ventilation on the driver's side is non-functional, and the fan on the passenger side is very loud. Has anyone replaced the blowers? Does the whole seat need to be removed? If so, how do they come out?

- Highway driving with Distronic set, I'm getting around 19-20 MPG; on surface streets, I'm getting about 13 MPG. This is below what I'm getting on my 5L, 5100 lb. Range Rover, which is pretty surprising. Are those expected MPG numbers on 91 octane?

Thanks,
Doug

 

This owner did a pretty thorough review of a 2003 SL500

 

Thanks for posting, @CindyMe . Probably a good video for someone who really isn't familiar with the R230; not much here that a current owner wouldn't already have encountered though.