I bought a SL600 and had the local dealer repair the "check engine" light. The dealer diagnosed the problem as a intake gasket repair and charged me $2700. After driving 25 miles the light came back on. Did the dealer squeeze me for over $2700. The car has 54000 miles and was one owner. I hate to think that the dealer screwed my for extra work that I did not need. A SL owner said that it might of just been a faulty o2 sensor.

David 1994 SL600

The intake leaks are a common problem on the v12. This means one of two things: its a good chance you needed it or they jumped to conclusions based on the history. Your car is undoubtably better off for having the work done. Now you need the self diagnostics re-evaluated for the current problem, its very easy for the work they did to temporarily foul the O2 sensor. Even if it cleans up the light might stay on for as many as 80 drive cycles (40 or 80 I don't remember for sure). You should take it to them and let them reset the light and evaluate the codes. I would think they would do this much as a customer service after that ticket. Evaluating their answer is the next question.

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Steve Brotherton
Owner 24 bay BSC
Bosch Master, ASE master L1
26 years MB technician

alddave,

Before you get too panicked, remember that there are alot of things that can again trap an error and turn on the light. When troubleshooting, it's quite common to go back to the last thing you recently did to find the problem. Sounds like the O2 sensor Steve mentioned could easily be related and a likely candidate. I can't imagine that even the worst MB dealer service department wouldn't extract the code for you, at no charge, after such a bill.

Good Luck,

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Larry Bible
'84 Euro 240D, 516K miles
'88 300E 5 Speed
Over 800,000 miles in
Mercedes automobiles