C180 (202) No Kickdown

[OGiii]

Went out in wife's C180 Esprit Auto last night.

Turned corner, outside lane, floored throtle - nothing. No kickdown. Slightly worried I stopped at the next set of lights and on changing to green floored it. The car accelerated well but seemed to be stuck in a gear (2nd or 3rd?!?).

Now seriously worried about impending bills of Graham's proportions I pulled over, turned off the engine, left it for a second then started up again and fortunatelyall was back to normal.

Should I be worried or do anything? I've searched around the forum and couldn't find anything suggesting anybody else had had this - any advice please?

Cheers
OG

ps If it helps, the car's a '97 with the S/W switch so assume it's the 5 speed auto box and has done 98k with full MB S/H. Thanks.

 

[Brian WH]

Sometimes you get a clitch in the ECU, so see how it goes mate. It might never happen again, but if it does get the Dealer to run a ECU printout to find problem.

 

[Steve_Perry]

I have exactly the same symptoms at the moment, the problem doesn't occur that often fortuately. In my case I have an intermittent fault with the pedal value sensor - that is the variable resistor/potentiometer that converts throttle pedal position into an electrical input signal for the ECU.

Brian is right though, you need to have the fault logs read via a Star diagnostics PC in order to pin-point the fault. Other likely candidates apart from the pedal value sensor - initial MAS failure or kickdown switch itself has failed.

S.

 

[sym]

Originally posted by Steve_Perry
I have exactly the same symptoms at the moment, the problem doesn't occur that often fortuately.

Steve ... are u getting that sorted before the weekend ?

S.

 

[Steve_Perry]

Originally posted by sym
Steve ... are u getting that sorted before the weekend ?

Sym, other than pulling the plug from the pedal value sensor and cleaning the electrical connectors with switch cleaner, then no I still haven't got a regular income coming in and I can't afford the £290 the dealer wants to just replace the item and hope that the problem is fixed. I drove up to the NEC last week and the car behaved perfectly.

S.

 

[OGiii]

Thanks for the replies.

We'll have to keep an eye on it.

Cheers
OG