SLK rust issues

[NatT]

I had the wifes car in for a service earlier this week and they called me to say the rear sub frame is rusty.

The car is a 2005 SLK. They left it on the ramps so I could see it for myself and sure enough it has numerous small rust holes on the OSR side of the sub frame. The gave me a price to get it welded up of £420 for labour and £30 welding materials, plus VAT. In fact, they had an estimate for £1200 inc other things they picked up on inc various bushes, prop doughnut, a tyre, brake fluid change and exhaust hanger fubbared.

I can probably get the welding done by a friend for less than quarter of that but has anyone else had rust issues like this? It had it's last MOT in April with a clear pass. I'll add some pictures in a bit of it that I took when it was on the ramps.

 

[NatT]

 

[Craiglxviii]

Quite normal for an SLK of that era I'd say

 

[Frontstep]

Doesn't seem much there, more about surface rust.

I think you would spend longer cleaning and prepping than welding.

Unless i'm missing something

I forgot to add rust is common in Mercedes there are many rusty SLK's etc

 

[Taffy7hfa]

Rust can have an annoying way of "hiding", sometimes for years, before it shows itself.

 

[Craiglxviii]

Rust can have an annoying way of "hiding", sometimes for years, before it shows itself.

That's right, I know an Astra that this happened to

 

[antijam]

2005 means it's an R171. These are supposed to be post Mercedes 'maximum rust' phase. That amount of corrosion seems extreme for a 2005 car - certainly a lot worse than my 2003 R170.

 

[Frontstep]

Per aspera ad astra.

Through hardship to the forum

 

[mej]

Just out of curiosity I checked the brand new subframe price on Inchcape's site. I had to make an assumption as to your exact model, so went for the SLK 280/300 - 171.454 - p/n A1713501908. It's only (!) £ 683.64. Bearing in mind that, if the car is a keeper, and to do the job properly, you might find it best to drop all the rear, bead blast and prime/paint the subframe after welding, and then replace most of the rubber, as partly indicated by the dealer, and piping, it's almost worth just buying the new unit. Especially if you receive the 10% club discount. I think doing a good job on ALL the rust will be tricky in the space available.

 

[NatT]

I think I was quite surprised as I reviewed these to death before I bought it and rust wasn't something anyone mentioned. I'll look into it during the week and see what the best options are. The rest of the car underneath and bodywork wise is spot on.

Thanks mej for checking it out Although I'd imagine it'd take a good few hours to get it changed over. It is something I could do but with the weather getting colder, it's not something I'd want to do at this time of the year on the driveway.

 

[Ductman]

Whilst I appreciate you probably want to get it done asap, rather than change the subframe now, it doesn't look too bad so could you not leave it until the weather warms up next spring? It isn't going to fall apart between now and then and would give you the opportunity to source all the parts needed over the winter, hopefully at decent prices.

 

[LostKiwi]

The only rust that looks concerning there s in pic 2. The rest looks like it should clean up with a good brush up and paint.

Pic 2 looks like a small amount of filling of the hole is required. I had far far far worse n my old Land Rovers....

 

[stuggyduggy]

Surpised

I had the wifes car in for a service earlier this week and they called me to say the rear sub frame is rusty.

The car is a 2005 SLK. They left it on the ramps so I could see it for myself and sure enough it has numerous small rust holes on the OSR side of the sub frame. The gave me a price to get it welded up of £420 for labour and £30 welding materials, plus VAT. In fact, they had an estimate for £1200 inc other things they picked up on inc various bushes, prop doughnut, a tyre, brake fluid change and exhaust hanger fubbared.

I can probably get the welding done by a friend for less than quarter of that but has anyone else had rust issues like this? It had it's last MOT in April with a clear pass. I'll add some pictures in a bit of it that I took when it was on the ramps.

I had a 2000SLK from new, I'm still vaguely in contact with it & apart from cleaning up the wheel arches it's still in good condition.

 

[NatT]

Cheers Gents. I haven't had time to do much as been away but it's booked in locally for a price to get it sorted next week. I'll update what's what then.

 

[alexanderfoti]

I would say that's quite bad for an R171. As you say the rest of the car looks good (underneath). I wonder if there was a poor anti rust treatment on that sub frame at manufacture?

I would replace the subframe, as others have said (if your going to keep the car).

 

[NatT]

To be fair, it looks worse in the pictures than in real life if that makes sense. Having done a recent search on the net it'd seem only a few have had this. It could be a manufacturer issue although I can't imagine for one minute they'd acknowledge it and give the usual - never had or heard of that happening before :lol:

I'm looking to change the sub frame as first choice but if it can be welded and be safe that is also on the cards. My mate owns the place I'm taking it too so he'll have the final say in what happens next as he does it day in and day out.

The place we had it serviced at had an identical one in a couple of weeks before this one landed with them that had more and they welded it up ok. It just didn't make sense meeting they're estimate to weld it compared to the mates rates I will get if it's a simple weld.

 

[Submariner1]

I think that looks awful. Quite shocking more like BMC in the 70s than Mercedes.
Personally I would write to A Director in MB UK, and ask for a new rear subframe. They can only say no!
I would argue the point that in the interest of the brands image they help you.
After all if older cars hold there value, that in turn keeps the price of 3 year old cars high, and in turn makes it easier for the original first time buyer owners to order a new Mercedes.

Lets face it that looks ****** awful. And that subframe probably only costs them £300!
Seems like a tiny contribution ( for an organisation like MB) to salvage a companys reputation.

You didnt say what the mileage was. I am assuming its circa 100,000?

 

[alexanderfoti]

I think that looks awful. Quite shocking more like BMC in the 70s than Mercedes.
Personally I would write to A Director in MB UK, and ask for a new rear subframe. They can only say no!
I would argue the point that in the interest of the brands image they help you.
After all if older cars hold there value, that in turn keeps the price of 3 year old cars high, and in turn makes it easier for the original first time buyer owners to order a new Mercedes.

Lets face it that looks ****** awful. And that subframe probably only costs them £300!
Seems like a tiny contribution ( for an organisation like MB) to salvage a companys reputation.

You didnt say what the mileage was. I am assuming its circa 100,000?

They didn't seem to care about their reputation when 210's, 220's and 203's were rusting away merrily at 3 years old.

 

[NatT]

I have emailed MB customer services but not holding my breath ....

I have googled it and it came back with this so there are a few cases but I fear they'll argue it could have been a coast car, old, parked in the sea, used as a boat anchor, etc, etc.

https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sour...on=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=slk r171 subframe rust

The car is 2005, SLK200 manual and just clicked over to 79k miles. It's not had any related MOT failures or advisories. In fact it's only ever had 1 advisory then failure from an faded indicator lens.

 

[Submariner1]

I have emailed MB customer services but not holding my breath ....

I have googled it and it came back with this so there are a few cases but I fear they'll argue it could have been a coast car, old, parked in the sea, used as a boat anchor, etc, etc.

https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sour...on=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=slk r171 subframe rust

The car is 2005, SLK200 manual and just clicked over to 79k miles. It's not had any related MOT failures or advisories. In fact it's only ever had 1 advisory then failure from an faded indicator lens.

Good luck, my advice when they say No, escalate to his boss.
Worked for me.