Hello,
In years past, Daimler-Benz periodically published shop manuals covering current models being produced. In many cases they were not model specific, but covered most of the models introduced or in production at the time. Often times 15 or 20 different models were covered in the same volume.
Since these Factory Shop Manuals were normally published early in the production of a new model, early versions of the shop manuals soon became out of date as production changes, upgrades and variations of the models occurred. To keep the dealers up to date, supplements were published to add to the dealer Shop Manuals which were often "loose leaf format" making it easy to update. In addition bound versions (non loose leaf) were published also.
Depending on when the bound versions were published, they may or may not have all the latest supplements and variations included.
The W113 era stretched from 1963 through 1972. During this period information on these cars was mainly in two major BBB Shop Manuals. "Service Manual Maintenance, Tuning, Unit Replacement, Passenger Cars starting August 1959" deals with early W113 cars and some specific information on the 230SLs not covered in the later BBB. In addition some information in this manual relevant to the latter W113 cars is not covered in the latter BBB.
The later Factory Manual "Service Manual Passenger Cars Starting 1968 Series 108, 109, 111, 113 Maintenance, Tuning, Unit Replacement" deals with the W113 model also and has more information on the latter cars.
To cover all most systems on the 230SL the early manual will do fine. For the latter W113 cars, having both manuals is useful but having the later is next best.
Now if you are purchasing a bound or loose leaf manual and it does not have all the supplements and updates you will be missing a lot of information you need. Get the latest printing of the bound manual to be sure you are getting a complete BBB. I have two versions of the 1968 BBB, one printed in 1968 and oneprinted in 1973. The 1973 includes all the supplementary information not available in 1968. The 1968 printing is very incomplete.
I also have the latest bound printing of the early 1959 BBB (Factory Shop Manual), which was printed in the 80s and has supplementary information included which were up until 1967. So if you were a dealer you started with a loose leaf manual in 1959 and were issued supplements for the next eight years. Eventually as models went out of production, or a new BBB replaced a previous version, Daimler Benz would publish a complete bound latest version with all the supplements included. In the case of my latest version early manual The Forward reads "Supplements as such are no longer available for this Service Manual". In other words it is complete and the latest version.
