Car wont come out of 1st gear for a few minutes

[dbaplayer]

When i start my 300SL up from cold and drive down the road, it wont change up a gear (i presume it starts from 2nd?). I havnt tried flooring it to see if it changes. I cure it by putting it into N then back to D and it sometimes is ok.

Any ideas? The car has done 205k miles and is otherwise sound.

 

[neilrr]

Change the ATF & filter.

 

[sinewave]

Frightening to think that car may never have had an ATF change!

 

[kth286]

from cold the gearbox is designed to stay in lower gear to enable the cat
to heat up to temp quicker to reduce emissions.

I believe you can override it by revving the engine hard and it will move up a gear.

I let the car do it's own thing as it was designed to do, even though you may feel you are holding the trafice up a bit initially.

 

[dbaplayer]

is the atf change a DIY job on these? Or garage only? thanks

 

[Martyn_n]

is the atf change a DIY job on these? Or garage only? thanks

Easy enough to do yourself. Just make sure you drain the torque convertor to make sure you do a thorough job. Also make sure you have a torque wrench that has a low enough setting for the sump bolts, too tight and you buckle and ruin the sump pan, too loose and it leaks really badly as the gasket is below fluid level.

 

[dbaplayer]

Ok, maybe a bit out my depth here, although I'm pretty good at DIY. Any youtube vids that any forums members have done or can recommend? Thanks

 

[Gooner1]

Car sticks in first gear............

Is your battery OK? Had same prob with my E320 CDI..........got car when 8 ys old and still had original battery........reduced voltage screws up some elec box in auto transmission.....got new battery.....no more problem! Happy Days!....Can you borrow a decent one to try out before buying?

 

[spike60]

If your car has winter and summer settings a change to W and back again can trick the box into changing. We had a 540i Bmw that was sometimes slow to change for the 1st mile then fine, doing the above when needed it remained perfectly usable for years.