Other suspension problem on the 2003 Mercedes Benz Sl500
2 fires 2 of the 30 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
When other suspension problem gets reported
Owners of the 2003 Mercedes Benz Sl500 report other suspension problem at a median of 65,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 52,500 miles and a quarter after 82,500 miles, from 25 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 100,000 miles. It is the 1st most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 47,500 miles at the tenth percentile to 87,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 40,672 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A window that narrow is the signature of a part that fails on its own schedule rather than on how the car is driven — which is usually a design or supplier problem rather than wear and tear.
8% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 46,928 miles | 52,500 miles | 64,000 miles | 82,000 miles | 87,600 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 2 a fire is mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $350–$2,000 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 3 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2006, at a median of 30,000 miles, and latest on the 2003 at 65,000 miles.
By volume the 2003 is the worst of them, which makes this a problem of this specific year rather than of the model as a whole.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
2003 mercedes benz 500sl driving down the road the car just dropped down , the active body control system failed it ruined the undercarriage of the vehicle the car does not even have 50,000 miles on it. It's hard to get it towed. It is very low and it can cause a very serious accident , the funny thing was the next day started the car up the car came up but knowing my undercarriage is destroyed . I had couple incidents happen to men luck I was not on the freeway. It also throws your alignment out. *tr
Vehicle began having minor leak of pink color fluid that an auto repair shop identified as hydraulic fluid for abc suspension system. From a visual inspection, the fluid was leaking from abc tandem pump. The leak got worse by the week and the vehicle was immediately parked after a considerable amount of fluid was building up on the driveway. After a week, there was a large puddle of fluid under the engine and the whole left side of vehicle bottomed out and literally sunk over the front left and rear left tires. Mercedes dealership (walnut creek) said it was likely the abc pump was defective and would not fix because the car was out of warranty. My mechanic friend confirmed that the leak was coming from the abc pump. After the pump was replaced, the abc valve blocks for the front and rear began to leak. We found that there were clogs in the front and rear valves. Going back to mercedes, the parts specialists informs us about the updated parts in the abc system that needed replacement. They also informed me that they normally have all the updated parts stocked and on-hand. I ended up replacing every part in the abc system since it…
I have had ongoing / continual problems with the 2003 sl 500 model 230 abc (active body control) system. The resulting issues occur at random and with little consistency. The resulting effect causes the car to drive soft on some occasions and rigid on others. The problem has been diagnosed and reported to the local dealership and other opportunities to attempt to repair the issue. Thus far there seems to be no one who can properly affect and improve the situation. I contacted my local mb dealership on june 27, 2011 inquiring regarding a recall reported in the NHTSA recall system. The dealership said this was not a recall however the recall 08v405000 suggests otherwise. The continual problems with the abc systems makes me weary of mb ability to correct safety and driving issues. While this has not resulted in an accident or damage my fear is if mb nor the dealership recognizes there is an issue with abc systems, how many unrepaired and unsafe vehicles do we have on our streets? *tr
Also reported on the 2003 Mercedes Benz Sl500
Fuel tank, filler or EVAP failure
Other brake problem
Other electrical problem
Other steering problem
Other engine problem
Other fuel system problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 30 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does other suspension problem happen on the 2003 Mercedes Benz Sl500?
Across 25 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 65,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 52,500 miles and a quarter after 82,500 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other suspension problem on the 2003 Mercedes Benz Sl500?
30 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 11 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed