BananaSL

Owning an SL55 AMG

Driver's Door Repair

2025-07-29 Repairs Tarus

It took an extra week, but I did get the Banana back on Friday.

description of transmission issue due to bad shifter

As mentioned in my previous post, I went to pick up the car last week and couldn’t get in it due to the driver’s side door not opening. I had been having problems with the door, but the shop couldn’t recreate it until I showed up.

I left the car another week and they replaced the door latch mechanism. So far it has been working fine.

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Driver's Door Issue

2025-07-19 Repairs Tarus

I was very excited to get the car back on Friday. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen.

description of transmission issue due to bad shifter

They were able to determine that my transmission woes were due to a bad shifter, which meant the transmission had no idea which gear was selected. Replacing the part (which runs ~$1600) cleared the codes and supposedly fixed the issue.

Why “supposedly”? Because I couldn’t get into the car to drive it. (sigh)

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Transmission Woes

2025-07-11 Repairs Tarus

It’s been a long time since I updated this blog, but I hope to correct that going forward.

I’m still enjoying the Banana but I haven’t been driving it much lately. My father moved in with us and since he is getting older we decided he didn’t need to drive anymore, so I became the proud owner of his 2007 Camry. I figure it is much less stressful to park that car at the airport than the Mercedes, and since I spent the first part of the year in airports I didn’t drive the SL55 much.

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Wonkiness

2023-08-18 Repairs Tarus

I got in the Banana this morning to run an errand and meet a friend for lunch. I started it up and immediately pulled out of the garage, as my mother-in-law is staying in the apartment above it and she complains that the engine makes it shake.

I went to drop the top (as it wasn’t raining) and the screen popped up the with the “close the trunk partition” error.

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Repair Shock

2022-09-29 Repairs Tarus

Okay, look, I know that high-end sports cars can require a lot of maintenance, but I can honestly say I was really disappointed when my mechanic sent me a list of things that need to be done to The Banana.

I’m not going to do all of them at once, but here are some things I have to do now.

  • Front rotors and pads
  • Engine Mount
  • Front Thrust Arm Bearings
  • Valve Cover Gaskets
  • Transmission Oil Cooler Hose Seal Rings
  • Windshield Wipers
  • Reseal Rear Differential

That last one is a doozy, as it is mainly labor and requires removing the differential from the car. I’ve asked about Limited Slip Differential options as it should be almost no extra label to install it during this process.

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Replacing the Trunk Lift Supports

2022-08-20 Repairs Tarus

One problem with getting a new SL55 is that now I have to go through all the other things I had to fix on the old SL55.

A common issue seems to be that the trunk lift supports start to fail. In both the service records for The Shark and The Banana I saw that they had been replaced, but when I got both cars the trunk lid struggled to stay open.

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