I took my SL for a 75 miles ride yesterday for the first time this spring.
I had taken it in to service for; I had some issues that I had chalked up to 'vintage-feel', but after reading posts here, decided to have replaced as the diagnosis appeared correct.
-Vague steering, slop, slack drifting at speed.
-Mis-aligned auto transmission shift selector; rolling on inclines & not seating correctly into Park
-Poor handling, late shifting, whine, over-revving
>The Steering coupler bushing was changed, the car drives like new. [suspension bushings/idler arm previously changed;+Bilsteins]
It tracks in straight line, and has much more linear feel, with firm resistance at slower speeds. Before I had to constanly correct over 65mph, and almost hopped a curb on some tight exit turns, and had slack at parking speeds.
>The plastic transmission bushings had completely disintegrated and were replaced.
-This made a huge difference in just shifting from Park, with a positve notched engagement and no skip/delay/lunge.
-Before it felt very rubbery, sliding with slack and sometimes didnt start (safety switch sticking) unless you firmly had lever pushed back or in neutral.
-In driving, the upshifts were all smooth (no transmission slip/redline revving), and required no feathering to blip upshifts, and down shifts were smooth with out 'thunk'/lunges.
I realize these are just linkage bushings and not integral in timing, solenoid shift, transmission gearing....but, my sense is the linkages get out of phase/synch when these bushings wear & shifter lever is not in perfect alignment, and distort/offset linkages.
These above items, made driving much more enjoyable and seemed to result in better running as the engine was not hunting for gears, transmisission was not revving/whinning with negative feedback.
I would advise all to change these items, as they are cheap OEM parts (require some labor hrs.) and are most likely worn on many cars; and seem to amplify other running issues that I thought I had (sloppy/slipping tranny, solenoid, timing, suspension alignment)
