300CE24 transmission

[Shony]

Hi,
Just got an w124 300ce24 mercedes. leather, electric seats,conditioner etc..
Very nice car after my w124 300D )
But have a problem. it has a 5gear automatic transmission. and for some reason 5th gear doesnt turn on. MB service man said that there is some dead solenoid in the transmission.
Did anyone have such a problem? Is it a really big issue to change that solenoid?
Thanks!

 

[jeffreyli86]

Excuse my ignorance. I always thought W124s only had 4speed autos and 5speed manuals... Never knew the 300CEs had 5speeds!!

 

[Apial]

Yes, 300CEs can have a 5 speed auto box. I have an article from Autocar somewhere, where they did a test drive with one. It was an option certainly from '91 onwards. The 5 speed gave a much better fuel economy, so at the time it was seen as a desirable extra. In hindsight though it has proved to be more troublesome than the 4 speed.

I'm not trying to get you to "suck eggs", but you must be aware that the car starts in second gear, so if you are counting the gear changes you must take that into account. What rpm are you showing at 60mph? You should be running at 28.1mph/1000rpm instead of the 21.1mph/1000 of the 4 speed auto. Also the 5th gear will not work below 60mph

 

[Shony]

Driving at about 100km/h I tried to change gear to 4th and it didnt change thats why i beleive 5th gear is dead. rpm was more than 3000 at that speed.

 

[jasohal]

I have a 320 coupe with the 5 speed box.

100 kmh and 4000 rpm does not sound right - the 300 is not that much down on power from the 320 I guess.

When I am doing around 85 mph ( 140 kmh ) my rev counter is just over 3000.

Definately sounds like 5th gear is not kicking in

If you push the lever to the left so that it puts the gear into 4 make sure you are driving in 'E' mode and not in 'S' as this also tends to hold the revs higher in gears for increased acceleration instead of economy driving.

Check the revs whilst doing a steady 75 mph - push the levr to the right (D) this should then select 5th and drop the revs buy a few 100.

If it doesn't guess will need looking into..

 

[Shude]

the 300 is not that much down on power from the 320 I guess.

Wrong way around, the 300-24 has more power than the 320, 11 bhp or something more in fact due to pre-catalytic converter/different emissions regulations etc.