One of the best looking cars ever in my opinion. Beautifully simplistic. 🔥

You purchase a neglected vehicle, loose some parts on the way home, keep on neglecting it and are seriously complaining about the condition? What even qualifies you to talk about cars? You sound like you have no clue....

Friend, the R129 is one of the best models, still designed by engineers, not economists. It deserves much better, than to be neglected and downrated - you should complain about yourself!

Some Vollhorst obviously has blown up at least one gasket, driving with a defect fan - facepalm -

I’ve got to say I had same thing happen with my top first time. Keep in mind you can still use the up and down feature on the roll bar as long as you have fluid in the trunk area. If you lost all fluid your roll bar won’t work.

welcome to the R129 adventure, pressure is normal when you take cap off, hydraulic front shocks are on the 600SL

Did your car come with the standard hardtop? You can manually lower & raise the soft top and also lock the hard top on using one of the tools in the trunk. Sounds like you have bigger mechanical issues rn but If you eventually want to replace your top cylinders I highly recommend top hydraulic.

Thats probably convertible top fluid leaking under the car

I hope you didn’t give up on this car. There is a plethora of OEM parts available on the inexpensive side, while I also note that the OE Mercedes parts can be Uber expensive. There are many ways to fix this car as long as you do the work. It is a very easy car to work on in MHO.

Look, there's nothing wrong with the car. It's the operator, not the equipment. In plain German: Wenn der Bauer nicht schwimmen kann, liegt es an der Badehose.

After watching, make sure to go check out “Pete’s Carport” on KZfaq and let him know I sent you

The car is missing hard top tools in trunk, the one with hex end and wrench end is tool to manually release hard top. I own 2000 SL500

What was that stuff that was leaking?

The R129 SL is a relay nice ride when it is running properly. The V8 should be running at 81 or 82 degrees Celsius. for optimal performance once up to temperature. Don't let it go over 100 Celsius or you risk warping the aluminium cylinder heads. You will need a new viscous fan clutch to resolve your over heating issues. If you turn on the heater fan full blast it will help keep the engine bay below 100 Celsius if your stuck in traffic. Sounds like you could have broken catalytic converters, hence the popping and lack of power going up hill. Rattling from the exhaust is also consistent with broken cats. There are a few easy checks you can do yourself. Check that there is back pressure coming from the exhaust by putting your hand over the exhaust outlet. No pressure at the outlet would point to a blockage. Check the temperature difference up stream and down stream of the cats when the car is up to temp. It should be roughly the same on both sides if there is no blockage and the engine side will be much hotter than the outlet side if there is a blockage. Check the condition of the injectors too but be careful when reconnecting the fuel lines not to cross thread them. Screw down the fuel lines by hand first to make sure they are seated correctly. To check the EHA valve you can run the car with it unplugged. It will be down on power and fuel economy will be very bad but this is natural. If there is no stalling then your EHA is bad. If there is still stalling then your problem lies elsewhere. Both the locking cylinders at the top of the windscreen and the main lift cylinder seals are perished and that's what is causing them to leak. There is two tell tale holes in front of the rear wheels where the main lift cylinders leak hydraulic fluid from also and I see that yours is leaking from these also in the video. At very least, you need to get 4 hydraulic cylinders rebuilt by Top Hydraulics. If your central locking is not working it is probably the vacuum pump in the trunk. Unfortunately there are lots of things required to run perfectly with these cars to run sweetly. The basics that need to be done as a minimum are spark plugs, fuel filters, oil filters, oil change, electrical distributors, rotors and dust caps. If you still have problems then I would start looking at the fuel injection system,. Injectors, EHA valve, regulator, accumulator, fuel distributor and mass air flow meter. Your ignition leads look to be in a right mess. They should be routed through the numbered plastic channels on the front of the cylinder heads. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if some of them are connected incorrectly. I hate to say it to you but your looking at a minimum of $5000 in parts alone in maintenance and probably another $2000 on a new soft top if you want to turn this car into an average car that runs good. These cars were expensive cars when new and they are expensive to maintain also. On the plus side they are appreciating classics now and prices are increasing steadily so if you hold on to it and do the required work you will have a great car to drive and something that might be worth a few more bucks in a few years time. Best of luck with it what ever you decide to do with it.

this vid is unintentionally hilarious lmaoo

Your Abs light is on plus ASR light throttle body.

Ignition coils definitely need to be replaced their two. Disconnected the battery mandatory.

I have the 96 sl 320 had to replace the front hydrolysis by sun visors

Can’t watch this, too painful to watch the beautiful r129 being treated like this.

it isn’t 4 cylinders

It will run on all 8 cylinder.

Top hydraulics in Oregon ask for Klaus when it comes to the convertible hydraulic cylinders absolutely the best on the planet and they come with a 3 year guarantee. Let me know if you're in Florida I would recommend somebody in Melbourne Florida to install the cylinders

Top hydraulics, they will rebuild your cylinders if you can take them out and put them back yourself, on another note; that car needs the right battery to function properly, go to Mercedes and get the right battery for this car!

these cars need tlc.....so buy with care

Naw, throttle body is bad.

Language

Why buy a piece of crapbola like this ?….