2002 SLK32 blog

BaD_81

7,377 posts · Joined 2019

#2 · Sep 10, 2022

You polished the car too?

 

SLK32Rick

786 posts · Joined 2020

#3 · Sep 10, 2022 (Edited)

Welcome to the '32 club! An awesome gem.

A few more suggestions for reliability and best enjoyment:

Check the supercharger pulley bearing, with belt off give it a spin by hand, it should be quiet and obviously lubricated. If dry or making any noise the bearing in the pulley should be replaced. A relatively easy job and $30 bearing (NSK or Naachi).

On a warm day with engine fully up to temperature, give the car a few good full throttle blasts in sequence to test the intercooler water pump. If the car gives one good blast and successive full throttle attempts give a muted response, the intercooler pump is bad or fuse blown (should be 7-10a fuse, there was a tsb on this). Oddly, this doesn't cause a fault light.

Check harmonic balancer for any pulley wobble or elastomer degradation. If this comes apart at speed it can damage many other parts and be very expensive. If in question, proactively replace ($800, genuine MB only).

Open roof halfway and leave engine running or have helper hold roof in position if engine off. With roof open, remove 3 screws in front edge of headliner and pull down headliner to see hydraulic cylinder in roof lock. The cylinder shaft seal must be dry. Any leakage must be addressed immediately, as this will ruin a discontinued headliner that can be hard to find. Ideally, if no record of this seal being replaced, it should proactively be done. 4 hr job, $20 seal kit with instructions on ebay. A test of dexterity but can be done in the car.
I've had 5 R170's, and this roof cylinder seal leaked on 3 of them, ruining 2 headliners, I proactively replaced the seal in other two cars to prevent more surprises. Also worth noting, the roof system has 5 hydraulic cylinders, I have only ever had the one in headliner leak.

Intermittent brake light bulbs can be fixed with latest part number blue bulb sockets, use MB genuine parts (genuine bulb or exact wattage, no aftermarket sockets). Also check socket contact area in light assy for pitting, and this can be fixed by soldering over the pits for a permanent fix.

Interior and drivers door dimming mirrors can go bad, ugh. Pricey parts, but nice to have them working. Damn the expense, I have made sure these worked on every car and had no recurring issues.

Check door interior panels for loose glue seams and attachment points. If found, remove complete door panel and reglue. Gorilla glue is the answer. This is about a 4-6 hour job for both panels.

Rear package shelf may rattle due to 2 missing rubber bumpers it sits on at rear lip. Also, the "wing" flip up ends may rattle and need piano hinge fingers crimped with chanelock pliers.

These can be very tight and quiet interior cars, but any previous work may have inexplicably left out attachment screws, snaps, etc. Chase it all down, its worth it.

Happy top down spirited motoring, sorted.
R

 

SLK32Rick

786 posts · Joined 2020

#4 · Sep 10, 2022

Oh, and one other joy...
The AMG seats in the SLK32 have the seat heaters go bad in a very high percentage of them. In this seat, the heater elements are stitched into the leather covers and can be daunting to fix. The easiest solution is to buy the heater element from Mercedes for the SLK230/320 and just put under the leather covers, it plugs in and is correct wattage. About $120/seat.

 

SLK32Rick

786 posts · Joined 2020

#7 · Sep 11, 2022

Pulley mods...

There is much talk in these forums and on the internet of HP gains to be had with pulley size swaps.
It depends..
If one was to want to track the car and squeeze every ounce of performance out of it, well, pulleys are short path to more power, but can come at the cost of reliability and needing other mods such as high flow intercooler pump. There are tales of melted pistons, shredded superchargers, and aluminum pulleys that fatigue and fly apart, damaging the adjacent oil cooler and fragments puncturing the hood. Recovering from this experiment can be very expensive and there isn't an abundance of replacement parts, some things are discontinued. Proceed at your own risk if you are resourceful enough to solve any eventuality. This may diminish future resale value.

A more cautious approach, if one was interested, is to take the factory stainless steel pulley to a machine shop and have it cut down from stock 74mm to 70mm (proven safe to 69mm), then put a tune on it from a reputable shop such as Renntech or Eurocharged. The net effect should be around 30 hp or so and the gains are across the entire Rev range. This uses the stock belt, doesn't run the supercharger over its design RPM, and doesn't raise intake air temp (through pressure) enough to be a real problem. Since the '32 engine was conservatively rated at 350 hp, adding a tune and machining the pulley will be at least 380 hp

The next performance mod that would have a big impact is to reduce unsprung weight by using real forged wheels of aluminum or even magnesium (stock wheels are a bit heavy). Over 10 lbs per wheel can be taken out, and not only will it ride better, this is like taking 40 lbs of rotating mass (flywheel) off the drivetrain, which is also equivalent to removing nearly 200 lbs of sprung mass off the car. Staying with stock 17in size wheels will keep the best ride. Though many like larger sizes, 18in and about an inch wider is really the limit. Augment Wheel in Canada will custom make anything you want even replica forged, for prices that aren't absolutely crazy.

 

SLK32Rick

786 posts · Joined 2020

#9 · Sep 22, 2022

If it appeared on the back window, also check the two large hydraulic cylinders, one on each side of the trunk, high and forward in compartment. (I have not seen these leak, but others have) if those are not leaking, the cylinder in roof headliner is leaking very bad.

Looks like new seals are in order.

 

SLK32Rick

786 posts · Joined 2020

#11 · Sep 22, 2022

Oh no, I'm so sorry for your fluid loss and a more pressing project.

The seal can be replaced in the car.
Open roof halfway and stabilize.
Remove headliner, 3 screws front and sides.
Disconnect leaking cylinder, careful not to bend attached hydraulic lines.
Put plastic over seats to avoid any drip of fluid on interior.
Push cylinder ram in all the way and keep pushed in during next few steps
Drill small hole in side of cylinder in line with snap ring that retains end plug.
Push jewelers screwdriver into the small hole just drilled to push snap ring out enough to pull out with needle nose pliers or another screwdriver, a test of dexterity.
Once snap ring is out, pull ram out of cylinder
Cut off old cup type seal from shaft.
Roll new seal on over piston end.

Rinse piston/ram assy in solvent, and make sure cylinder is clean, clean, clean.
Be very careful not to scratch piston shaft/ram/rod that seal mates to,
Reassemble, pushing piston all the way in, hold in while replacing snap ring.

Replace cylinder into roof.

Hopefully, you have enough fluid in reservoir for operation.
If not, use genuine MB hydraulic fluid to refill.
Removing one snap in trunk side panel near taillight allows enough room to get arm and Allen wrench in to get fill plug out of pump.
Use a syringe-hose to put fluid in, I use a turkey flavor injector from Walmart ($2)

Best of luck finding a replacement headliner, might need to get used one recovered.

 

SLK32Rick

786 posts · Joined 2020

#13 · Sep 23, 2022 (Edited)

The two rams in top front corners of trunk are clearly visible with trunk open, and you can see the shafts and any leakage, if present. Statistically speaking, I would be a little surprised if they were leaking.

The other two rams are in rear quarter panels and can be viewed by using a flashlight to view down through the side slots in trunk with the bristle guards, again, I would be surprised to see these leaking.

The profuse leak in the top cylinder probably reduced the operating pressure, slowing the operation....unless, the pump has had very high use and is also worn out. The roof should complete an open or close action in about 25-30 seconds, with no leaks.

Trivia - Mercedes tested the roof operation for over 20,000 cycles of reliable operation. So, the parts (seals) are probably aged out, not worn out

 

SLK32Rick

786 posts · Joined 2020

#16 · Sep 24, 2022 (Edited)

Make sure the trans is switched to S mode, or it will shift lazily in W mode.
Traction control can sometimes clamp response, is the TC light illuminating?
Assuming good quality premium fuel..and adequate fuel pressure.

If not, that sounds like a possibility.
Check the fuse for charge cooler, hopefully its just that.
In spite of no fault light, a code reader will show intake air overtemp condition, if supercharger is cut off due to intercooler (charge cooler) malfunction,
Changing the intercooler pump is relatively easy, bleeding air from that coolant loop is a minor pain.

 

SLK32Rick

786 posts · Joined 2020

#18 · Sep 24, 2022

The supercharger will engage until the intake air temp exceeds safe limits. If the charge cooler fuse is blown or pump bad, it cannot properly cool intake air, so, you will get tire smoking performance until engine and intake air heat up, then, blah performance.

Another thought..

The experts will say there is no substitute for a MB Star diagnostic system (SDS), however, some don't have access to this tool and have to find other ways to solve problems. A Bluetooth OBD code reader module ($20) and the Torque app ($5) for smartphone will show a lot of operational data and basic codes. The torque app may not give all the diagnostic information how to solve problems..

Torque app will show manifold/boost pressure in a neat graphical layout for current and max values. This will give you solid information when supercharger is engaged and when not, so you can at least see if it is working correctly.

 

SLK32Rick

786 posts · Joined 2020

#19 · Sep 25, 2022

Side note - in Au your SLK32 is very rare. One of 28? Or is that just for one year?

Sold: Mercedes-Benz SLK32 AMG Convertible Auctions - Lot 142 - Shannons

 

M4rCu5

6,231 posts · Joined 2014

#21 · Sep 26, 2022

There was only 263 delivered to the UK market so 28 to Oz sounds about right ~ maybe 300 production total in RHD form

 

SLK32Rick

786 posts · Joined 2020

#23 · Sep 26, 2022

Good news boost appears to be working. I noticed in your photo of treats for the car you have a code reader, maybe it will show real time boost, just to verify..

The engine and trans adaptive learning values can be reset by pedal and key, which helps responsiveness considerably.

Most Mercedes I have driven have a long travel throttle pedal that is not edgy. As surely you know, the full throttle/trans kickdown switch at end of pedal travel will have a full beans response. This somewhat nonlinear response makes driving with traction control off a little perilous, or fun if you are used to it.

 

SLK32Rick

786 posts · Joined 2020

#24 · Sep 26, 2022

Just thought of one more item to check and proactively address - look at radiator and find mfr name on it. Behr is the most common, embossed into top of radiator, and what you want to see.

I was reminded of this again recently reading a tale of woe on the less used Valeo radiators. The engine coolant and transmission cooler lines both go through the same part, in a defective Valeo, the glycol mix ends up in trans fluid, destroying the trans, oh, and the radiator is bad too.

Just make sure you have a Behr radiator. If not, change it.

 

kwando Discussion starter

35 posts · Joined 2022

#26 · Oct 16, 2022

Did the roof hydraulic pump fix today.

Took about 4 hours.

Hardest parts were probably getting the headliner back in by myself, and getting the fill bolt off on the pump (lots of scratches on arms).

Everything back together and working perfectly again.

 

SLK32Rick

786 posts · Joined 2020

#27 · Oct 16, 2022 (Edited)

Very nice work!
Indeed, my first time doing this was about 4 hrs, I think I can do it now in about 2,

That pump fill bolt is always a bear due to difficulty in applying enough torque with Allen wrench in the space constraints. I used a nutdriver with hollow shaft to slip over the handle end of Allen wrench and apply needed torque.

Hopefully you can find a clean used headliner, the good news is any R170 from 2002-2004 will fit.
I would aim for a genuine original, but have seen aftermarket copies and not sure of fit and quality... The headliners came in two colors - oyster (ivory) and quartz, which is slightly grey. The headliner trim matches the headliner color, but in my opinion either will look fine.