Living with an R230

[Mark Q]

We've been looking at Range Rover Velar against Jaguar F pace Same floorplan size, engine etc the RR is roughly twice the price to insure.
I think its down to the number of thefts.

 

[00slk]

We've been looking at Range Rover Velar against Jaguar F pace Same floorplan size, engine etc the RR is roughly twice the price to insure.
I think its down to the number of thefts.

The higher premiums are also based on popular cars, as these are most common to have claims on.
Our SLK is £258, so this is because there are more SLK's, so more likely to be involved in a claim than the SL at £207

 

[PHUNN]

Which flavour of 231 are you buying?

The deed is done!
So the 2008 R230 500SL morphs into a 2014 R231 350SL AMG.
Same in many respects; Iridium Silver, pan. roof, air scarf, etc.
Changes? Reversing camera and a colour screen. V6, not V8. Down 90+ BHP but slightly quicker 0 to 60 (they tell me...). MPG up by about one third. Road Tax less than half....
First impressions;
All aluminium, which means shutting the doors does not sound like tectonic plates in motion. (I miss that....)
Only done 100 miles, in 'Comfort' mode since delivery; very much 'first impressions' so far.
The car looks more 'planted' somehow than the R230.
Engine note less sonorous but more eager. I like that. Roof down the car feels just like the old one, but it sounds sublime...
No covered 'saddlebags' in the doors; standard door pockets.
Less space behind the seats, so the two Merc bags which used to fit there will need to go elsewhere. The boot seems bigger, but yet to make serious experiments with luggage arrangements.
19 inch wheels and wider tyres. No ABC, so no buzzing and groaning on start-up (or fear about what is going to go wrong THIS time...)
The pundits tend to say the 'ride' is compromised by comparison, but I find the reduced weight of the engine , which is also set further 'aft' (there is actually several inches of space between the radiator and the various drive belts!) gives the car a better/lower centre of gravity. It certainly handles the foibles of our country lane at least as well as the ABC on the previous car and on the open road there is no discernable difference.
The steering is 'electric' and feels more 'direct'; but that may be the effect of less weight to fling about....
We move down the road at seventy MPH with just over 2000RPM on the dial and noise levels, despite bigger tyres, indistinguishable from the 500SL.
Less torque, so going up our low-speed hilly lane causes more gear changes from the (same 7 speed) box.
Using the brakes is less of a competition with Old Captain Momentum, but the car is less of a 'horseless carriage' as a consequence.
Yep; 'more eager' sums it up.
The Comand system will need extensive study because there a many features available which would seem like science fiction in the R230.
Merc cured the leaf-collecting air box problem on the R230 with a fine mesh grill on the R231, but they hid the brake fluid reservoir under a plastic cover (on the opposite side of the engine bay) and neglected to mention that fact in the owner's manual (as far as I can see).
There is an enormous battery strapped in the bottom of the boot, under a removable and doubtless very sound-deadening lower boot liner, but I can see no mention in the manual about whether or not this battery can be charged in situ by using the charge point supplied under the bonnet. I suspect not, because, in true paranoid (R230!) fashion I charged the batteries almost as soon as the car arrived!!
My CTEK charger annouced, using the under-bonnet facility, that the connected battery system was fully charged after a couple of hours. It was a bit later that I discovered the boot battery; and that took another couple of hours to complete it's own charging process.
Onwards and upwards!

 

[PHUNN]

A bit more, on the topic of running cost.
RTF is £290 on the R231 350 . So 'whoopee' in comparison to the R230 500. In fact the RFT refund from the 500 has more than covered the new RFT!!
The car insurance came as a major (and welcome....!!) surprise.
Just to pad out the story.... We are OLD and live in the countryside, where you are more likely to run into a sheep than into a bus.
So the insurance (comp., excess of £500ish, 10,000 miles limit , EU travel for 90 days, protected NCD (no claims discount of more than a decade) and windscreen cover, has tended to be around £300 for a while.
Confused.com and the like were threatening £400+ for the R231. So quite a big jump, although the car has a higher value than the dear departed...
Well, we've been using the AA for a couple of years and while, over the decades, they have sometimes lost the business by over-inflating the price, generally they've been fine.
Their equivilent price for twelve months for the replacement car is £330ish
However, this time they were more than 'fine'!
To transfer the car insurance, which expires in July next year, how much?
£41.42.
Anyway, enough of the warm, glowy schtick.
Here and now it is (quoting from long-gone Kenny Everett) ****s isss tently raining: so the ' To leak, or not to leak' question is being tested on the new motor even as I type.
We'll see.

 

[s5tuart]

Glad you're enjoying the new car and reaping the benefits too.
I've just got permission from my neighbour to use her parking space which means I can safely run an extension lead to the car for a battery maintenance charger. If I can figure out a way to charge the starter battery too I'll add another charger.
I now have the use of another car so the SL will only get a maintenance run every week or so over the winter. The parking space is fairly well protected too so with the cover on the winter won't be as fearful as I've been anticipating. I may even SORN the car for a month in January.

It's listed in the classifieds here but no interest yet. Hopefully when spring arrives I will get it on Autotrader

 

[Conor]

Glad you're enjoying the new car and reaping the benefits too.
I've just got permission from my neighbour to use her parking space which means I can safely run an extension lead to the car for a battery maintenance charger. If I can figure out a way to charge the starter battery too I'll add another charger.
I now have the use of another car so the SL will only get a maintenance run every week or so over the winter. The parking space is fairly well protected too so with the cover on the winter won't be as fearful as I've been anticipating. I may even SORN the car for a month in January.

It's listed in the classifieds here but no interest yet. Hopefully when spring arrives I will get it on Autotrader

If you have a charger connected to the convenience battery in boot, you don't need one for the starter - one charger will charge them both.

 

[s5tuart]

If you have a charger connected to the convenience battery in boot, you don't need one for the starter - one charger will charge them both.

Awesome. There was a thread earlier but as far as I remember there was never a resolution.
Thanks for that @Conor

 

[Hotspur]

If you have a charger connected to the convenience battery in boot, you don't need one for the starter - one charger will charge them both.

Are you sure? I had heard otherwise.

In the meantime, I have both front and rear batteries on trickle CTEK chargers, and have been on for months whilst I enjoyed my other toy for the winter...however I used the SL on Sunday...oh what a lovely day out...and such an enjoyable drive...car feels tight, almost like new, purrs like a kitten...and has some considerably satisfying (well enough for me) poke for the baby 3.7L V6 equipped model...

 

[Mark Q]

I've been using mine for daily driver for the last week as I killed the Navara. Got in this morning and the below pings up before I start it.
where should I start looking ? Fuses, brake pads, ??? the fluid level is ok and the SBSC was reset just before Covid so not done much since then.

 

[00slk]

If you have a charger connected to the convenience battery in boot, you don't need one for the starter - one charger will charge them both.

Certainly not on any I've had Conor.

 

[s5tuart]

Certainly not on any I've had Conor.

I'm confused again!

 

[Blobcat]

I'm confused again!

Just charge the large rear one

 

[LostKiwi]

I've been using mine for daily driver for the last week as I killed the Navara. Got in this morning and the below pings up before I start it.
where should I start looking ? Fuses, brake pads, ??? the fluid level is ok and the SBSC was reset just before Covid so not done much since then.

View attachment 86710

I'd start with pads.

 

[gez]

The roof has been faultless in the past until I operated it in my garage not realising that the car was further back than usual.
This meant that the boot lid fouled on the fridge that sits behind it.
As per the pics the roof started to rise then stopped.
It now refuses to move in either direction and just displays the "vario roof in operation" message.
I suspect that it is just confused rather than faulty, but any ideas how to either put it fully down or fully up manually?
The battery is fully charged and the boot separator is fully closed.

 

[gez]

Just to add something that may be relevant. I had removed the soft close mechanism as I had identified an air leak stopping the soft close from working. I had araldite'd one leak and had just refitted it, all done with the roof in the stored/open position. The soft close still was not working so I decided to close the roof before searching for any other air leaks to remove any risk of dropping a tool on the glass. May or may not be relevant!

 

[Mark Q]

Certainly not on any I've had Conor.

The rear battery will loose charge over time as the alarm, central locking all ancilliaries, clock etc run from that. It is an AGM battery if correctly specced. This will require charging after a couple of idle weeks.
The front battery is the starter and should not have any drain on it (Unless there is some issues somewhere else) so only used to start the car.
Assuming the battery control module does its job and allows alternator to charge them correctly the front won't require charging unless its goosed.
Front battery lead acid.

 

[00slk]

I think what Conor has implied is that you can charge bought batteries at the same time when you are charging the boot battery, or have I misunderstood Conor's posy?

 

[00slk]

Try pushing the boot lid back with your hand, it maybe that the fridge fowling it has moved the boot lid forward slightly and stopped the operation.
There is a fuse under the little trap door behind the drivers seat, you might be able to remove the fuse to reset the roof function. I am not sure which fuse it is, maybe orange in colour? Someone will be able to give you a better location, or even help you more than me

 

[NJS5]

I had a similar problem last year. You don't say where you are on the South Coast, but in the end my problem was resolved with the help of Oliver Stoner of Prestigecarservice.co.uk

Good luck.

NJSS

 

[gez]

I had a similar problem last year. You don't say where you are on the South Coast, but in the end my problem was resolved with the help of Oliver Stoner of Prestigecarservice.co.uk

Good luck.

NJSS

I'm a lot closer to indies MBS or Burseldon Motors than Prestige though have used them in the past for my previous R129 SL. Do you happen to know what the fix was?