I have an opportunity to buy a 93 500Sl for just a few hundred dollars. Coworker inherited it non op due to a leak in the front of the transmission. Gorgeous car. Always stored inside.$90,000 back in the day. The last of the land yachts. The catch is that it's had the trans out at least twice ( I have witnessed this) at a "Euro car shop" without resolve. It would be a great car to drive until it drops, remove the tag, and leave on the roadside dead, but you can't even do that with a gushing trans. My fear is taking on someone else's frustrating money pit. They only go for 3-5k now. It's not a unicorn. A trans is just a trans right?
A remanufactured unit is about 2k. Doing this on the garage floor falls into the much frustration category. I could have Jason Randalls transmission here in Chattanooga look at it. Impeccable service. But surely the other shop did the simple items? Both scenarios would involve me owning said money pit first.
Sounds like you have the trans figured out your just deciding if you want to spend the money or not. They aren't known for problems if thats what your asking, so a rebuilt should last the rest of the cars life considering its not a daily driver these days. And now for the completely un-asked for opinion, I don't find them gorgeous, or desirable. Used prices show most people agree with me. So make sure it something you want, not something you want to make money on.
Agreed. The low used prices speak volumes. Not in it to make money, but it would a nice fun ride if just for this one problem. The ideal is not to eclipse what I could just go buy any other for if I was inclined. We've all gotten "deals" that we wished we never got involved in
Not a shit ton of things that can leak in a bell housing. Pump body seal, Pump shaft seal, any of the bolts, have seen case porosity on some vehicles (very slow leak usually) or even a cracked housing (hard to see sometimes) and have seen converters leak as well (anything from the lugs being cracked on their welds to people running too long of a bolt in it and piercing the body of it). . Would be nice to have it be put on a dyno after any repairs made to verify before going the length to reinstall it. Shitty thing is you typically cant see it actively leak, you're going off of evidence of what was before you started removing it. Bore scopes are nice if you can get one up in there to get a better idea of what the cause is.
Id say it's worth a go, really. The plus side is you can ride around in white shirts and call yourself "Dalton"
Swap out, do not rebuild. adsit.com has rebuilt transmissions for most sl Mercedes models on a swap or out right basis, guaranteed and often have sales with good prices. Rust free pre 2000 SL's have bottomed in value with rust-free 1970's and 80's 450 and 560SL going for $15-30k now. Good cars, drive nice but run away from any rocker, fender rust. Just to be clear, RUST is the enemy of older Mercedes, otherwise parts have gotten much cheaper over the last 20 years due to China.
Even if you did, they would most likely have used not rebuilt transmissions in them, so your still ahead in my book.
Thank guys. Just the type of advice I was looking for. Doing my research on this car I see they made a 600 series too...with a V12! Dang, Mercedes wasn't playing around
I worked at a Benz dealer in high school from 95-97 washing cars and got to drive all of them. I think 92 was the first year for the new body style but the 500 and 600 both drove really nice. I’d snatch that thing up and if everything else is good find a new trans for it and take care of it for a while. You should be able to enjoy it for a while and still make a few bucks. BMW and Benz both had V12s back then but I think they were only 400 hp or so. Now days it would be 650 or some shit. I delivered a sweet BMW 750I sedan to a guys house one time that had the full alpine treatment. Super nice ride.
we own a 95 SL320. Excellent car. Buy it and find a new transmission. Drive it for years with the new gearbox.
I made a typo. It's an SEL not Sl. The barge, not the coupe. The body style still holds it own today. The most common faults I'm seeing for these is the wiring harnesses starting to fail. Are these of the vintage with the through the firewall connectors? I will have a chance to drive it in a few days. We shall see.