weight MERCEDES-BENZ SL550 2007 R230 Owner's Manual

Contents
Practical hints................................. 331
What to do if … .................................. 332
Lamps in the instrument cluster .. 332
Air bag off indicator lamp ............. 345
Vehicle status messages in the
multifunction display .................... 347
Where will I find ...? ........................... 388
First aid kit ................................... 388
Vehicle tool kit, jack, and spare
wheel ........................................... 388
Locking/unlocking in an
emergency ......................................... 391
Unlocking the vehicle ................... 391
Locking the vehicle ...................... 393
Lowering the load assist manually 394
Replacing SmartKey batteries ........... 395
Replacing bulbs ................................. 397
Bulbs ............................................ 397
Replacing bulbs for front lamps ... 399
Replacing bulbs for rear lamps..... 402
Replacing wiper blades ...................... 403
Placing wiper arms in vertical
position ........................................ 403
Removing wiper blades ................ 404
Installing wiper blades................. 404Flat tire ............................................... 405
Preparing the vehicle .................... 405
Mounting the spare wheel ............ 405
MOExtended system* ................... 413
Batteries ............................................. 414
Disconnecting the batteries .......... 416
Removing the batteries ................. 417
Charging and reinstalling
batteries ....................................... 417
Reconnecting the batteries ........... 418
Jump starting ...................................... 419
Towing the vehicle .............................. 421
Installing towing eye bolt .............. 423
Fuses .................................................. 424
Fuse boxes in engine
compartment ................................ 425
Fuse box in passenger
compartment ................................ 426
Fuse in trunk ................................. 426
Emergency engine shut-down ....... 426
Technical data.................................. 427
Parts service ...................................... 428
Warranty coverage ............................. 429
Loss of Service and Warranty
Information Booklet ...................... 429
Identification labels ............................ 430
Layout of poly-V-belt drive.................. 432
SL 550 .......................................... 432
SL 55 AMG ................................... 432
SL 600, SL 65 AMG ...................... 432
Engine ................................................ 433
Rims and tires .................................... 435
Same size tires ............................. 436
Mixed size tires ............................. 437
MOExtended tires* ....................... 439
Spare wheel .................................. 440
Electrical system ................................ 441
Main dimensions ................................ 442
Weights .............................................. 443

43 Getting started
Adjusting
Seat adjustment
The seat adjustment switch is located in
the door.
1Head restraint height
2Seat height
3Seat cushion tilt
4Seat cushion depth
5Seat fore and aft adjustment
6Seat backrest tilt
Switch on the ignition (
page 39).
or

Open the respective door.Seat fore and aft adjustment

Press the switch forward or backward
in direction of arrow 5.
Adjust seat to a comfortable seating
position that still allows you to reach
the accelerator / brake pedal safely.
The position should be as far to the rear
as possible, consistent with ability to
properly operate controls.
Warning!
G
Children 12 years old and under must be
seated and properly secured in an appropri-
ate infant or child restraint recommended
for the size and weight of the child.
The infant or child restraint must be properly
secured with the vehicle’s seat belt fully in
accordance with the child seat manufactur-
er’s instructions.
A child’s risk of serious or fatal injuries is
significantly increased if the child restraints
are not properly secured in the vehicle and
the child is not properly secured in the child
restraint.
i
The memory function (
page 126) lets you
store the settings for the seat position together
with the settings for the steering wheel and the
exterior rear view mirrors.
!
When moving the seats, make sure there are
no items in the footwell or behind the seats.
Otherwise you could damage the seats.

49 Getting started
Driving
Driving
Fastening the seat belts
Warning!
G
Make sure that absolutely no objects are ob-
structing the pedal’s range of movement.
Keep the driver’s footwell clear of all obsta-
cles. If there are any floormats or carpets in
the footwell, make sure the pedals still have
sufficient clearance.
During sudden driving or braking maneu-
vers, the objects could get caught between
the pedals. You could then no longer brake
or accelerate. This could lead to accidents
or injury.
Warning!
G
Always fasten your seat belt before driving
off. Always make sure your passengers are
properly restrained, even pregnant women.
Failure to wear and properly fasten and po-
sition your seat belt greatly increases your
risk of injuries and their likely severity in an
accident. You and your passenger should al-
ways wear seat belts.
If you are ever in an accident, your injuries
can be considerably more severe without
your seat belt properly buckled. Without
your seat belt buckled, you are much more
likely to hit the interior of the vehicle or be
ejected from it. You can be seriously injured
or killed.
In the same crash, the possibility of injury or
death is lessened if you are wearing your
seat belt. The air bags can only provide the
protection they were designed to afford if
the occupants are using their seat belts
(page 66).
Warning!
G
Children 12 years old and under must be
seated and properly secured in an appropri-
ate infant, or toddler restraint, or booster
seat recommended for the size and weight
of the child. For additional information, see
“Children in the vehicle” (
page 83).
A child’s risk of serious or fatal injuries is
significantly increased if the child restraints
are not properly secured in the vehicle and
the child is not properly secured in the child
restraint.

69 Safety and Security
Occupant safety


Occupants, especially children, should
never lean their heads in the area of the
door where the head-thorax air bag in-
flates. This could result in serious inju-
ries or death should the air bag be
triggered. Always sit nearly upright,
properly use the seat belts and appropri-
ate size infant or child restraint system.
Failure to follow these instructions can re-
sult in severe injuries to you or other occu-
pants.
If you sell your vehicle, it is important that
you make the buyer aware of this safety in-
formation. Be sure to give the buyer this
Operator’s Manual.
Warning!
G
It should be noted, however, that there is a
possibility for a head-thorax air bag related
injury if occupants, especially children, are
not properly seated or restrained when next
to a head-thorax air bag which needs to de-
ploy rapidly in a side impact in order to do its
job.
To help avoid the possibility of injury, please
follow these guidelines:
(1) Occupants, especially children, should
never place their bodies or lean their
heads in the area of the door where the
head-thorax air bag inflates. This could
result in serious injuries or death should
the head-thorax air bag be triggered.
(2) Always sit nearly upright, properly use
the seat belts and for children 12 years
old and under, use an appropriately
sized infant or toddler restraint or
booster seat recommended for the size
and weight of the child.
(3) Always wear seat belts properly.
If you believe that, even with the use of
these guidelines, it would be safer for your
passenger seat occupants to have the pas-
senger side head-thorax air bag deactivated,
then deactivation can be accomplished
upon your written election to do so at an au-
thorized Mercedes-Benz Center at an addi-
tional cost. Please contact your local
authorized Mercedes-Benz Center or call
our Customer Assistance Center (in the
USA) at 1-800-FOR-MERCedes, or Customer
Service (in Canada) at 1-800-387-0100 for
details.

71 Safety and Security
Occupant safety
When you sell your vehicle, we strongly
urge you to give notice to the subsequent
owner that it is equipped with an SRS by
alerting them to the applicable section in
the Operator’s Manual.Front air bags
1Driver air bag
2Passenger air bag
3Knee bag
Driver and passenger air bags are de-
ployed:


in the event of certain frontal impacts


if impact exceeds a preset deployment
threshold


independently of the head-thorax air
bagsThe air bags will not deploy in impacts
which do not exceed the system’s deploy-
ment thresholds. You will then be protect-
ed by the fastened seat belts.


In addition, improper repair work on the
SRS creates a risk of rendering the SRS
inoperative or causing unintended air
bag deployment. Work on the SRS must
therefore only be performed by qualified
technicians. Contact an authorized
Mercedes-Benz Center.


For your protection and the protection
of others, when scrapping the air bag
unit or emergency tensioning device,
our safety instructions must be fol-
lowed. These instructions are available
from your authorized Mercedes-Benz
Center.


Given the considerable deployment
speed, required inflation volume, and
the textile structure of the air bags,
there is the possibility of abrasions or
other, potentially more serious injuries
resulting from air bag deployment.
i
The front air bags in this vehicle have been
designed to inflate in two stages. This allows the
air bag to have different rates of inflation that are
based on the rate of relevant vehicle decelera-
tion as assessed by the air bag control unit.
On the passenger side, the front air bag deploy-
ment is additionally influenced by the passen-
ger’s weight category as identified by the
Occupant Classification System (OCS)
(
page 72).
The lighter the passenger side occupant, the
higher the vehicle deceleration rate required for
the second stage inflation of the air bag.

72 Safety and SecurityOccupant safetyThe passenger front air bag will only be de-
ployed if:

the system, based on OCS weight sen-
sor readings, senses that the front pas-
senger seat is occupied


the5/ indicator lamp in the
center console is not lit (
page 76)


the impact exceeds a preset deploy-
ment threshold
Knee bag
The knee bag is located on the driver-side
lower instrument panel. It is designed to
operate together with the driver air bag in
certain frontal impacts exceeding a preset
threshold. The knee bag operates best in
conjunction with a properly positioned and
fastened seat belt.Head-thorax air bags
1Head-thorax air bag
The head-thorax air bags are deployed:


in impacts exceeding a preset deploy-
ment threshold


on the impacted side of the vehicle


independently of the front air bags
The head-thorax air bags are not deployed
in impacts which do not exceed the sys-
tem’s deployment threshold.
Occupant Classification System
The O
ccupant C
lassification S
ystem (OCS)
automatically turns the passenger front air
bag on or off based on the classified occu-
pant weight category determined by
weight sensor readings from the
passenger seat.
Occupants must sit properly belted in a
nearly upright position with their back
against the seat backrest and feet on the
floor to be correctly classified. If the
occupant's weight is transferred to
another object in the vehicle (e.g. by
leaning on armrests), the OCS may not be
able to properly approximate the
occupant’s weight category.
i
The system does not deactivate the
head-thorax air bag and the emergency tension-
ing device.

73 Safety and Security
Occupant safety
Both driver and the passenger should al-
ways use the 5/ indicator lamp as
an indication of whether or not the passen-
ger is properly positioned.i
If the seat, including the trim cover and
cushion needs to be serviced in any way, take
the vehicle to an authorized Mercedes-Benz
Center.
Only seat accessories approved by
Mercedes-Benz may be used.
Warning!
G
If the 5/ indicator lamp illuminates
when an adult or someone larger than a
small individual is in the passenger seat,
have the passenger re-position himself or
herself in the seat until the 5/ indi-
cator lamp goes out.
More information about air bag display
messages (
page 356).
In the event of a collision, the air bag control
unit will not allow passenger front air bag
deployment when the OCS classified the
passenger seat occupant as being up to or
less than the weight of a typical
12-month-old child in a standard child
restraint or if the passenger seat is sensed
as being empty.
When the OCS senses that the passenger
seat occupant is classified as being up to or
less than the weight of a typical
12-month-old child in a standard child
restraint, the 5/ indicator lamp will
illuminate when the engine is started and
remain illuminated, indicating that the pas-
senger front air bag is deactivated.
When the OCS senses that the passenger
seat is classified as being empty, the
5/ indicator lamp will illuminate
when the engine is started and remain
illuminated, indicating that the passenger
front air bag is deactivated.


74 Safety and SecurityOccupant safetyWhen the OCS senses that the passenger
seat occupant is classified as being heavier
than the weight of a typical 12-month-old
child seated in a standard child restraint or
as being a small individual (such as a young
teenager or a small adult), the 5/ in-
dicator lamp will illuminate for approximate-
ly 6 seconds when the engine is started and
then, depending on occupant weight sensor
readings from the seat, remain illuminated
or go out. With the 5/ indicator lamp
illuminated, the passenger front air bag is
deactivated. With the 5/ indicator
lamp out, the passenger front air bag is acti-
vated.
When the OCS senses that the passenger
seat occupant is classified as an adult or
someone larger than a small individual, the
5/ indicator lamp will illuminate for
approximately 6 seconds when the engine is
started and then go out, indicating that the
passenger front air bag is activated.
If the 5/ indicator lamp is
illuminated, the passenger front air bag is
deactivated and will not be deployed.
If the 5/ indicator lamp is not
illuminated, the passenger front air bag is
activated and will be deployed:

in the event of certain frontal impacts


if impact exceeds a preset deployment
threshold


independently of the head-thorax air
bags.
If the passenger front air bag is deployed,
the rate of inflation will be influenced by:


the rate of relevant vehicle deceleration
as assessed by the air bag control unit


passenger's weight category as identi-
fied by the Occupant Classification
System (OCS).
Warning!
G
Children 12 years old and under must be
seated and properly secured in an appropri-
ate infant or child restraint recommended
for the size and weight of the child.
The infant or child restraint must be properly
secured with the vehicle's seat belt fully in
accordance with the child seat manufactur-
er's instructions.
Children can be killed or seriously injured by
an inflating air bag. Note the following
important information:

Your vehicle is equipped with air bag
technology designed to turn off the pas-
senger front air bag in your vehicle when
the system senses the weight of a typi-
cal 12-month-old child or less along with
the weight of a standard appropriate
child restraint on the passenger seat.


75 Safety and Security
Occupant safety


A child in a rear-facing child restraint on
the passenger seat will be seriously in-
jured or even killed if the passenger
front air bag inflates in a collision which
could occur under some circumstances,
even with the air bag technology in-
stalled in your vehicle.


If you install a rear-facing child restraint
on the passenger seat, make sure that
the 5/indicator lamp is illumi-
nated, indicating that the passenger
front air bag is deactivated. Should the
5/ indicator lamp not illuminate
or go out while the restraint is installed,
please check installation. Periodically
check the 5/ indicator lamp
while driving to make sure the
5/ indicator lamp is illuminated.
If the 5/ indicator lamp goes out
or remains out, do not transport a child
on the passenger seat until the system
has been repaired. A child in a rear-fac-
ing child restraint on the passenger seat
will be seriously injured or even killed if
the passenger front air bag inflates.


If you place a child in a forward-facing
child restraint on the passenger seat,
move the seat as far back as possible,
use the proper child restraint recom-
mended for the age, size and weight of
the child, and secure child restraint with
the vehicle's seat belt according to the
child seat manufacturer's instructions.
For children larger than the typical
12-month-old child, the passenger front
air bag may or may not be activated
(page 74).
i
Deployment of the driver front air bag does
not mean that the passenger front air bag also
should have deployed.
The Occupant Classification System (
page 72)
may have determined:


that the seat was empty or occupied by the
weight up to or less than that of a typical
12-month-old child seated in a standard
child restraint – both instances where the
system suppresses deployment of the pas-
senger front air bag even though the impact
met the criteria and was of sufficient severity
to deploy the driver front air bag.


that the seat was occupied by a small individ-
ual (such as a young teenager or a small
adult) or a child weighing more than the
weight of a typical 12-month-old child in a
standard child restraint – instances where
the system may suppress deployment of the
passenger front air bag even though the
impact met the criteria and was of sufficient
severity to deploy the driver front air bag.

76 Safety and SecurityOccupant safetyThe 5/indicator lamp is located in
the upper part of the center console, be-
tween the center air vents.
1Front passenger front air bag off indica-
tor lamp
The 5/indicator lamp1 will be
illuminated, except with the SmartKey
removed or in starter switch position0.Self-test Occupant Classification
System
After turning the SmartKey in the starter
switch to position1 or2 or pressing the
KEYLESS-GO* start/stop button once or
twice, the 5/ indicator lamp
located in the upper part of the center con-
sole, between the center air vents illumi-
nates. If an adult occupant is properly
sitting on the passenger seat and the sys-
tem senses the occupant as being an
adult, the5/ indicator lamp will
illuminate and go out after
approximately 6 seconds.
If the seat is not occupied and the system
senses the passenger seat as being empty,
the 5/ indicator lamp will
illuminate and not go out.
Warning!
G
If the 1indicator lamp and the
5/indicator lamp are lit at the same
time, there is a malfunction in the Occupant
Classification System. The passenger front
air bag will be deactivated in this case.
In order to ensure proper operation of the
air bag system and OCS:

Have the system checked as soon as
possible by qualified technicians.
Contact an authorized Mercedes-Benz
Center.


Sit properly belted in a nearly upright
position with your back against the seat
backrest.


Do not lean on the armrests or lift your-
self from the seat by using the handle
over the door as this may cause the OCS
to be unable to correctly approximate
the occupant weight category.


Only have the seat repaired or replaced
by an authorized Mercedes-Benz
Center.


Read and observe all warnings in this
chapter.