Hello R107 owners and enthusiasts! Happy to join your ranks.
With airline flights and gasoline being so cheap I decided to fly up to Northern New Jersey from Atlanta to go pick up a 1989 560 SL with 146,242 miles on it.
The car belonged to my parents and has just been sitting in my parents’ garage for the last 2 years. In their bid to downsize before moving off to retirement I had a choice of a ‘69 Dodge Charger, ‘94 Porsche 928 GTS. The Benz in my opinion was the most roadworthy so I had an independent MB tech take a look at it to make sure the basics were in working order. (Note: unless my expectations are too high, I don’t think he actually drove the car).
Yesterday morning after tracking the weather, putting my finger in the air to gauge the wind and releasing 2 doves in the sky...I set out at 6am.
Here are my experiences with this vehicle. I have a lot of researching I need to do on these forums as I am new to Benz being a Porsche and Bimmer guy, but in the event you can shed some light or solutions or quite candidly any kind of feedback based upon your experiences with your SL...I am all ears!!! I don’t know all the terms for options and features, but you’ll know what I am referring to.
-Ambient Temp fluctuated between 80 to 100 degrees during the trip as per the central dashboard temp gauge between the 2 center vents.
-Drove through 7 different thunderstorms, some very torrential including the one attached to a tornado warning while driving through PA.
-Averaged driving between 70-90mph on the highway.
-Filled up the fuel tank 5 times with premium gasoline. I did not allow the car to go into the reserve tank as I didn’t trust the gauge, but got about 215 miles to the tank. Does anyone recommend using any fuel additives?
-Before the car sat for 2 years, my father allowed one of his medical residents to drive the car. We noticed that he withheld having done some manhandling of the hardtop to do some top-down driving.
-The release crank in the “backseat” was broken in half leaving a jagged edge that scratches the interior each time the lever is rotated.
-He severely scratched the boot of the car allowing the roof to slide off it...he probably tried to remove and put the roof back on by himself!!!
-And when putting the roof back on the chrome above the windshield where the two locking devices are...the chrome is all smashed up.
-I mention all this because the hardtop now does not seat properly. The rear hold down pin must be damaged because it will not release the roof. This has caused a 2mm gap preventing the roof from creating a seal between the top of the driver’s side window and roof which allowed some water to penetrate during the thunderstorms.
-All in all, there is about a one inch gap between the hardtop and and the back of the car giving the appearance the roof is slightly floating on top of the deck lid. If you look underneath the gap I can see into the car in some spots.
-About 50 mins into the drive there was severe overcast so I pulled off the interstate to fill up for the first time and track the weather. I shut the engine off. Upon restarting, the AC was blowing hot air for the first 5-6 minutes.
-I thought I could avoid the first thunderstorm, but as I entered PA I received the messages on my phone that there was a tornado warning “seek shelter”. OEM wipers work fine, but the first turn of the stalk which I believe to be intermittent was inoperable. Had to rotate to the next setting to activate the wipers and sometimes rain was bad enough I had to use the fastest wiper speed setting which I hate using in fear of burning the rubber and causing streaking on the windshield.
-Can anyone charge their iphone using the cigarette lighter? I could not.
-About 20 mins after filling up I attempted to use the Cruise Control. Very simple operation and I was thrilled that I’d be able to give my leg a rest as the accelerator pedal I find to be very heavy and squishy. I had to position myself in the driver’s seat more to the right of the seat since it feels like there is a broken spring making the seat sag to the left...very squishy on the left whereas the right side of the seat bottom was firm. I sat on the passenger seat to compare and it’s as it should be....even.
-there must be an issue with either the accelerator pedal or the cruise control system itself because it will not hold the desired speed for more than a minute or two before it abruptly knocks the pedal out of place and I start slowing down. If I use the stalk to accelerate the engine seems to work harder than it needs to.
-About 30 minutes after fueling, the car went into some sort of failsafe engine limp mode as I could not accelerate. Losing power, I coasted to the emergency lane and let the car stall out, activated the hazards. It was still raining which allowed me to see if I could torque the roof down more to prevent water from coming in.
-I tried to restart the car 3 times...nothing. Still had battery power, oil and engine temp meters were fine. Ooops! The car was not in Park. Allowing the car to rest and reset for 5 minutes I was able to fire it back up after putting the car in Park...
-Back on the road I noticed the SRS light remained on and has not shut off since. Maybe it was always on?!
-HVAC system has the ability to blow strong, but what it blows out is a different story. It cannot hold a colder temperature for long, it is very inconsistent in temperature and volume of air so I have to seriously manipulate all the settings...temperature wheel, High-Low, Auto, Med (which is depressing both High and Low button?). I never used continuous recirculation but had the opportunity to use the rear defroster button.
-Acceleration was very very clunky and slow. It felt like the car wanted to settle at 69 mph, giving a little more gas to the pedal would cause the car to activate the kick down mode which was interesting because I wasn’t even at the bottom of the pedal. It would bang into a lower gear and upon decelerating the engine would lurch and settle. This is why I think the mechanic did not drive the car.
-I will get the car looked at further but does anyone recommend using some kind of engine oil additive? At speed, I am finding:
-70 mph = 2600 rpm
-90 mph = 2900 rpm
-The accelerator pedal is very heavy and mushy, a lot of play as I stated earlier. As I accelerate below 70 mph the transmission is very uncertain of itself, perhaps not all spark plugs and cylinders are firing properly.
-75mph and over kick-down works as it should...activating at the bottom-bottom of the pedal. Above 90mph the car is very smooth and wants more, but I don’t yet feel comfortable taking her over 100mph.
-The orientation of the driver’s side seat, the dashboard, driver’s side cockpit and the front of the car gives the appearance that the steering wheel is crooked. Almost like my left hand at 9 o’clock sits more forward than my hand that is at 3 o’clock. I feel like I want to pull forward on the left side of the steering wheel!! Oh yeah, I could not for the life of me find how to adjust the steering wheel so I’ve decided it’s fixed in place...is this the case?
-In stop and go traffic and while sitting at a light, the idle is very rough jerking the car abruptly. Shifting the car into neutral is just as bad and the shuttering continues. Looking at the oil gauge it is at 3 while driving and drops to between 2-1.5 while at a standstill.
-I have the same issue I read here in the forums regarding RPM surge when shifting the transmission from P to D (or N)...and the back of the car can be felt dipping down.
-Benz being big on the “rear fog light” I can pull on the light switch one more time after the first pull activates the foglights but cannot confirm the rear fog light works.
-Here’s the biggest issue: drip-drops on my right foot while accelerating!!! At first about 2 hours into the trip I felt a drop of cool water onto my foot (I was driving in flip flops). Didn’t think twice about it but made a note of it thinking there might be a clogged weephole drain causing rainwater to get in somehow.
-A few more hours the drip turned into dripping and eventually as I took sweeping turns the drip turned into a stream of gushing water either to the left or the right from behind the center console into the foot wells.
-There must be so much condensation from the AC evaporator that the water is accumulating back there in puddles! This is the first thing I’ll have the mechanic look at even though I won’t ever again drive the car that long and far. But, I just don’t want ANY condensation issues that will cause mold in the car...down here being in the steamy South will amplify the issue.
-The floorboard and carpets from the front to the back are saturated!!! If I had to explain it, while taking a bending left hander, it’s almost like there was a gremlin underneath the dash taking a piss toward the passenger side door.
-The same is happening on the drivers side when I steer to the right, obviously can’t see it happening as well as I can the other side...needless to say each time water
dropped and/or gushed out onto my feet it was a good way “wake up”. Now, I have to let the car air out with the windows open in the sun.
I know this was a long post and I congratulate you if you’ve made it to the end.
New to this forum and look forward to learning from you guys/gals. And, if you are located in the Atlanta area and can recommend a good Benz tech...please let me know. Thanks!
Wish me luck everyone! Feel free to chime in or move to reading the next post...😄
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With airline flights and gasoline being so cheap I decided to fly up to Northern New Jersey from Atlanta to go pick up a 1989 560 SL with 146,242 miles on it.
The car belonged to my parents and has just been sitting in my parents’ garage for the last 2 years. In their bid to downsize before moving off to retirement I had a choice of a ‘69 Dodge Charger, ‘94 Porsche 928 GTS. The Benz in my opinion was the most roadworthy so I had an independent MB tech take a look at it to make sure the basics were in working order. (Note: unless my expectations are too high, I don’t think he actually drove the car).
Yesterday morning after tracking the weather, putting my finger in the air to gauge the wind and releasing 2 doves in the sky...I set out at 6am.
Here are my experiences with this vehicle. I have a lot of researching I need to do on these forums as I am new to Benz being a Porsche and Bimmer guy, but in the event you can shed some light or solutions or quite candidly any kind of feedback based upon your experiences with your SL...I am all ears!!! I don’t know all the terms for options and features, but you’ll know what I am referring to.
-Ambient Temp fluctuated between 80 to 100 degrees during the trip as per the central dashboard temp gauge between the 2 center vents.
-Drove through 7 different thunderstorms, some very torrential including the one attached to a tornado warning while driving through PA.
-Averaged driving between 70-90mph on the highway.
-Filled up the fuel tank 5 times with premium gasoline. I did not allow the car to go into the reserve tank as I didn’t trust the gauge, but got about 215 miles to the tank. Does anyone recommend using any fuel additives?
-Before the car sat for 2 years, my father allowed one of his medical residents to drive the car. We noticed that he withheld having done some manhandling of the hardtop to do some top-down driving.
-The release crank in the “backseat” was broken in half leaving a jagged edge that scratches the interior each time the lever is rotated.
-He severely scratched the boot of the car allowing the roof to slide off it...he probably tried to remove and put the roof back on by himself!!!
-And when putting the roof back on the chrome above the windshield where the two locking devices are...the chrome is all smashed up.
-I mention all this because the hardtop now does not seat properly. The rear hold down pin must be damaged because it will not release the roof. This has caused a 2mm gap preventing the roof from creating a seal between the top of the driver’s side window and roof which allowed some water to penetrate during the thunderstorms.
-All in all, there is about a one inch gap between the hardtop and and the back of the car giving the appearance the roof is slightly floating on top of the deck lid. If you look underneath the gap I can see into the car in some spots.
-About 50 mins into the drive there was severe overcast so I pulled off the interstate to fill up for the first time and track the weather. I shut the engine off. Upon restarting, the AC was blowing hot air for the first 5-6 minutes.
-I thought I could avoid the first thunderstorm, but as I entered PA I received the messages on my phone that there was a tornado warning “seek shelter”. OEM wipers work fine, but the first turn of the stalk which I believe to be intermittent was inoperable. Had to rotate to the next setting to activate the wipers and sometimes rain was bad enough I had to use the fastest wiper speed setting which I hate using in fear of burning the rubber and causing streaking on the windshield.
-Can anyone charge their iphone using the cigarette lighter? I could not.
-About 20 mins after filling up I attempted to use the Cruise Control. Very simple operation and I was thrilled that I’d be able to give my leg a rest as the accelerator pedal I find to be very heavy and squishy. I had to position myself in the driver’s seat more to the right of the seat since it feels like there is a broken spring making the seat sag to the left...very squishy on the left whereas the right side of the seat bottom was firm. I sat on the passenger seat to compare and it’s as it should be....even.
-there must be an issue with either the accelerator pedal or the cruise control system itself because it will not hold the desired speed for more than a minute or two before it abruptly knocks the pedal out of place and I start slowing down. If I use the stalk to accelerate the engine seems to work harder than it needs to.
-About 30 minutes after fueling, the car went into some sort of failsafe engine limp mode as I could not accelerate. Losing power, I coasted to the emergency lane and let the car stall out, activated the hazards. It was still raining which allowed me to see if I could torque the roof down more to prevent water from coming in.
-I tried to restart the car 3 times...nothing. Still had battery power, oil and engine temp meters were fine. Ooops! The car was not in Park. Allowing the car to rest and reset for 5 minutes I was able to fire it back up after putting the car in Park...
-Back on the road I noticed the SRS light remained on and has not shut off since. Maybe it was always on?!
-HVAC system has the ability to blow strong, but what it blows out is a different story. It cannot hold a colder temperature for long, it is very inconsistent in temperature and volume of air so I have to seriously manipulate all the settings...temperature wheel, High-Low, Auto, Med (which is depressing both High and Low button?). I never used continuous recirculation but had the opportunity to use the rear defroster button.
-Acceleration was very very clunky and slow. It felt like the car wanted to settle at 69 mph, giving a little more gas to the pedal would cause the car to activate the kick down mode which was interesting because I wasn’t even at the bottom of the pedal. It would bang into a lower gear and upon decelerating the engine would lurch and settle. This is why I think the mechanic did not drive the car.
-I will get the car looked at further but does anyone recommend using some kind of engine oil additive? At speed, I am finding:
-70 mph = 2600 rpm
-90 mph = 2900 rpm
-The accelerator pedal is very heavy and mushy, a lot of play as I stated earlier. As I accelerate below 70 mph the transmission is very uncertain of itself, perhaps not all spark plugs and cylinders are firing properly.
-75mph and over kick-down works as it should...activating at the bottom-bottom of the pedal. Above 90mph the car is very smooth and wants more, but I don’t yet feel comfortable taking her over 100mph.
-The orientation of the driver’s side seat, the dashboard, driver’s side cockpit and the front of the car gives the appearance that the steering wheel is crooked. Almost like my left hand at 9 o’clock sits more forward than my hand that is at 3 o’clock. I feel like I want to pull forward on the left side of the steering wheel!! Oh yeah, I could not for the life of me find how to adjust the steering wheel so I’ve decided it’s fixed in place...is this the case?
-In stop and go traffic and while sitting at a light, the idle is very rough jerking the car abruptly. Shifting the car into neutral is just as bad and the shuttering continues. Looking at the oil gauge it is at 3 while driving and drops to between 2-1.5 while at a standstill.
-I have the same issue I read here in the forums regarding RPM surge when shifting the transmission from P to D (or N)...and the back of the car can be felt dipping down.
-Benz being big on the “rear fog light” I can pull on the light switch one more time after the first pull activates the foglights but cannot confirm the rear fog light works.
-Here’s the biggest issue: drip-drops on my right foot while accelerating!!! At first about 2 hours into the trip I felt a drop of cool water onto my foot (I was driving in flip flops). Didn’t think twice about it but made a note of it thinking there might be a clogged weephole drain causing rainwater to get in somehow.
-A few more hours the drip turned into dripping and eventually as I took sweeping turns the drip turned into a stream of gushing water either to the left or the right from behind the center console into the foot wells.
-There must be so much condensation from the AC evaporator that the water is accumulating back there in puddles! This is the first thing I’ll have the mechanic look at even though I won’t ever again drive the car that long and far. But, I just don’t want ANY condensation issues that will cause mold in the car...down here being in the steamy South will amplify the issue.
-The floorboard and carpets from the front to the back are saturated!!! If I had to explain it, while taking a bending left hander, it’s almost like there was a gremlin underneath the dash taking a piss toward the passenger side door.
-The same is happening on the drivers side when I steer to the right, obviously can’t see it happening as well as I can the other side...needless to say each time water
dropped and/or gushed out onto my feet it was a good way “wake up”. Now, I have to let the car air out with the windows open in the sun.
I know this was a long post and I congratulate you if you’ve made it to the end.
New to this forum and look forward to learning from you guys/gals. And, if you are located in the Atlanta area and can recommend a good Benz tech...please let me know. Thanks!
Wish me luck everyone! Feel free to chime in or move to reading the next post...😄
