My new '86 560SL - Pictures

[rgnprof]

Following is a link to some pictures of my new (to me) '86 560SL:

http://s511.photobucket.com/albums/s360/rgnprof/Mercedes560SL/

Already received some valuable assistance from this forum - thanks.

ryan

[rocky raccoon]

nice car. Drive it daily and it will treat you right. Those who enshrine thier SLs seem to have the most problems. Mine is a daily driver and after fixing the small stuff as you have, has never let me down.

I see from your photos you are using Prestone antifreeze on something else green. The consensus on this panel seems to be that the green stuff will eventually give you problems. Next time you flush and change, put MB spec or Zerex 09 in your cooling system. When removing your upper radiator hose be careful with the plastic neck on the radiator. They seem to be particularly fragile and a crack on the road will cause instant and massive coolant loss with concommitant damage to your aluminum heads and/or block.

You can be proactive in preventing this by going to your closest big box hardware store and buying a copper pipe nipple that fits snugly inside the upper plastic hose neck. Next time you drain the radiator, pull the upper hose off (carefully) and epoxy the nipple inside the plastic radiator neck to strengthen that joint. No hurry; do it when you next change antifreeze.

[Louis8]

Yes and be darn sure you do what rocky said cause a new rad cost me a grand for the same reason. Of course i could of put in a third party rad for 1/2 the price but no way i was gonna put in any thing else but the original. Louis

[Strife]

I and some others think that the real cause of radiator neck failure (beyond the obvious one of overtightening) is bad subframe/motor mounts. That upper hose is pretty tight when cold, and REALLY tight when hot. If the motor jumps up and down, if the frame jumps up and down, the hose will pull on the neck.

Included are some pictures of subframe/motor mounts I removed very recently from my '85 380SL. My 560's looked about as bad. Those cars were done at 115K/23 years and 86K/19 years,respectively.

[TylerH860]

Originally Posted by rocky raccoon

nice car. Drive it daily and it will treat you right. Those who enshrine thier SLs seem to have the most problems. Mine is a daily driver and after fixing the small stuff as you have, has never let me down.

Bullocks.

Do you honestly think your daily driver SL will out live a sub 5k a year fair weather driver with the same fastidious maintenance schedule? Certainly allowing these cars to sit for long periods creates issues, but as long as you get them out a few times a week in fair weather, you should have less problems than daily users.

I certainly don't want to discourage anyone who drives their SL daily (I used to), but I couldn't let that statement go.

[rocky raccoon]

Tyler:
Of course daily driving creates wear and tear. I do believe however that daily use forestalls many of the mystery problems that SL owners seem to have. I am not a collector and would not have a car I couldn't drive whenever I wanted. We also have a 2008 E320 Bluetec that is the "wife's car" but my choice for getting to work every day for the sheer pleasure of driving is the 560SL. It was an ebay purchase and I have never been sorry that I bought it.

By the way, I see your daily driver is a 1985. Reliable? I'll bet it is. When I get too old to struggle into and out of the SL, I'll look for a good 300D 123 body.

[rivermasternc]

Originally Posted by rocky raccoon

I see from your photos you are using Prestone antifreeze on something else green. The consensus on this panel seems to be that the green stuff will eventually give you problems. Next time you flush and change, put MB spec or Zerex 09 in your cooling system.

"Mercedes" antifreeze IS Valvoline Zerex G-05. See
http://www.valvoline.com/pages/products/product_detail.asp?product=10

-Scott

[Dee8go]

Originally Posted by Strife

I and some others think that the real cause of radiator neck failure (beyond the obvious one of overtightening) is bad subframe/motor mounts. That upper hose is pretty tight when cold, and REALLY tight when hot. If the motor jumps up and down, if the frame jumps up and down, the hose will pull on the neck.

Included are some pictures of subframe/motor mounts I removed very recently from my '85 380SL. My 560's looked about as bad. Those cars were done at 115K/23 years and 86K/19 years,respectively.

That makes a lot of sense, Strife. I've never heard anyone say that before and just assumed it was only due to overtightening. Another good reason to check one's motor mounts regularly.

[ctaylor738]

Nice car, but please lose the cupholder!

[rivermasternc]

Ryan:

Here's a look at our 1989 we purchased last March. We are also on the learning curve with the R107.

http://picasaweb.google.com/Rivermaster/1989560SL#

-Scott.

[jplinville]

Beautiful car!! Looks identical to my '87. I must ask, how much did you pay for it?

Like the others have said, drive it daily and in addition...find a place where you can open it up and take it over 100mph. It will keep the engine running better.

[rgnprof]

Thanks for the replies. I am still somewhat 'out of the loop', so to speak. My wife and I were out of the country last semester and are still trying to adjust to being home.

So, I bought the car in August, drove it for a few weeks and then parked it until mid December. I am just now thinking about addressing a few issues. I still have not fixed the Defrost/Central vent pod, and my main problem has been the slight miss at idle and upon acceleration (occasional problems, not always). I added a couple of bottles of Techron at my last fill-up and that has helped. I just bought all the tune-up stuff - new wires (Kingsborne), new plugs (NGK), air filter, O2 sensor, fuel filter, cap, rotor. I am getting mixed recommendations per the maintenance schedule - for instance, my original maintenance schedule which came with the car says to replace spark plugs every 15,000 miles! I never heard of that frequent a change - anyway, I'm trying to figure out if I should just go ahead and change out all of the stuff, or not. BTW, car has 75,000 miles and seems to have been well maintained and I paid $6000.

The only other bothersome issue is a clunking coming from the front end - again an occasional problem mostly noticed while making a turn.

The car is a blast to drive and is going to be used as my wife's daily driver.

And Chuck, what do you got against cup holders? ha!

ryan

[jplinville]

I noticed some hesitation on mine after I bought it...After adding Techron every fill up for 2 months, I decided to change the fuel filters (they only had 6000 miles on them) and check valves at the pumps. BINGO!!!

Runs much better now with no hesitation, and it starts easier too!

[eefox49]

About the daily driver thing...my '86 500SL has 218,000 on it now and it's still great (knock wood). Proper maintainence is the key, isn't it? I would love to get to a million miles, but I"m probably going to run down before the car does

[Mistress]

stellar looking car....Looks just like my 87. Drive it as much as you can.