Hi everyone,
I went to look at an SL500 last Tuesday, liked it and agreed to buy it (left a deposit). The car trader offered me a very good p/x price on my current car. He agreed to do a few jobs on the car such as new 20' inch rear tyres, refurb the alloys, new front discs and pads, new interior mats (were missing) and some other minor stuff.
When I had viewed the car they pointed out that they'd just fitted a new battery as the old one was dead.
Anyways, he called me Saturday and said there was a problem. The car had a flat battery again next day and after getting it into the Mercedes specialist next door to them it turned out there was a voltage drop (short circuit) on the car. After further investigation it turned out that the gearbox oil had been leaking through a seal and under pressure had got into the wiring loom and worked it's way into other parts of the car.
One of the mechanics at the specialist with over a decade of experience at Mercedes had seen this once before and the car in question needed a new wiring loom (which involves removing the roof) as well as some control modules and basically this car may need £4k spending on it to get it sorted out.
The trader has told me he can't afford to do this and will refund my deposit and sell the car through auction instead.
So my questions/concerns are:
1. Is this a load of bull? I can't imagine there being some wiring so very close to the gearbox that a trans fluid leak can force it's way into the wiring loom like this?
2. If this can happen then I shouldn't be buying one of these as I wouldn't like an unexpected £4k bill due to a gearbox seal failing.
3. I think it more likely that he has overvalued my p/x and then realised the expense of getting the jobs done to the SL and found he's going to make a loss?
Any advice/comments would be most welcome!
I went to look at an SL500 last Tuesday, liked it and agreed to buy it (left a deposit). The car trader offered me a very good p/x price on my current car. He agreed to do a few jobs on the car such as new 20' inch rear tyres, refurb the alloys, new front discs and pads, new interior mats (were missing) and some other minor stuff.
When I had viewed the car they pointed out that they'd just fitted a new battery as the old one was dead.
Anyways, he called me Saturday and said there was a problem. The car had a flat battery again next day and after getting it into the Mercedes specialist next door to them it turned out there was a voltage drop (short circuit) on the car. After further investigation it turned out that the gearbox oil had been leaking through a seal and under pressure had got into the wiring loom and worked it's way into other parts of the car.
One of the mechanics at the specialist with over a decade of experience at Mercedes had seen this once before and the car in question needed a new wiring loom (which involves removing the roof) as well as some control modules and basically this car may need £4k spending on it to get it sorted out.
The trader has told me he can't afford to do this and will refund my deposit and sell the car through auction instead.
So my questions/concerns are:
1. Is this a load of bull? I can't imagine there being some wiring so very close to the gearbox that a trans fluid leak can force it's way into the wiring loom like this?
2. If this can happen then I shouldn't be buying one of these as I wouldn't like an unexpected £4k bill due to a gearbox seal failing.
3. I think it more likely that he has overvalued my p/x and then realised the expense of getting the jobs done to the SL and found he's going to make a loss?
Any advice/comments would be most welcome!
