Gearbox intermittent issue

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Stocious

Active Member
Joined
Jul 4, 2019
Messages
304
Location
Cork , Ireland
Car
2005 E200 1.8 kompressor
Hi myE200k when maneuvered fast from let’s say 1st to reverse or vice versa, I’ll keep an eye on it so as I can describe precisely, the issue is let’s say I go from first to reverse quickly the gearbox slips as in no go, just revs, then on it’s own does what was asked of it, only thing I can think of is I’m asking things too quickly of it, ie. It may still be rolling in first barely, when I select reverse and get a rise in revs and s delay in reverse engagement , is this a safety feature? Same thing causes it all the time but not 100sure of car rolling speed or if time when not transferring power is same time wise before I get engagement, all in all the gearbox is working and changing gears smoothly and there are no other problems at all, car is always set to comfort mode, if it’s ever not it’s just for giggles to see traction control light come on, and even at that only on a loose surface
 
Probably. But maybe stop before changing from first to reverse ?
 
As above; I wouldnt do what you are doing in any case.
 
I have had similar problems with my E250 estate Night Edition
Max 5th Gear, holding lower gears , paddles not working M not available etc. Has been into main dealer three times. Fifteen days off the road.

Had an ATF change in September and problems started one month later. I did ask for the torque converter to be drained but was told that it was seperate from the main gearbox.

I did try a re-set and this worked for a while but then reverted.

I cannot believe that the gearbox change doesn't involve draining the torque converter, as surely the ATF would be contaminated by the older ATF.

The dealer has changed the exhaust sensor but still the problem persists.

The car was registered in October 2015 and has covered 42,000 miles.

Luckily I took out an extended warranty as I was concerned by all the electronics on the latest cars.

The MB dealer is doing what they can but as yet they haven't solved the problem. Now 15 days off the road.
 
Hello Alf and welcome . A main dealer ? which main dealer ? It's best to drain the TC for obvious reasons , but at 6 years old and just 42K miles leaving a few litres of old fluid in the transmission (although not desirable) is not enough to kill it. The fact that you can not select certain functions on your transmission would point to a fault possibly in the conductor plate or low fluid level. But quite why your main dealer can not trace this fault is a mystery.

The gearbox in your car is a robust mass produced item used worldwide. Tracing basic faults are relatively simple to independent garages let alone MB dealerships. Very strange . keep us informed on any progress , or lack thereof. 👍
 
Didn't we have a chap on here a while back with similar problems, not shifting and revs rising, after lots of hassle the Indie reset the gearbox adaptions and it cured it.
The fact the torque converter wasn't drained wouldn't cause the issue unless they used the wrong fluid ?
It takes 10 minutes to undo the torque converter drain plug, and so simple if the same as mine, 722.9, 7G-tronic plus.
 
Hello Alf and welcome . A main dealer ? which main dealer ? It's best to drain the TC for obvious reasons , but at 6 years old and just 42K miles leaving a few litres of old fluid in the transmission (although not desirable) is not enough to kill it. The fact that you can not select certain functions on your transmission would point to a fault possibly in the conductor plate or low fluid level. But quite why your main dealer can not trace this fault is a mystery.

The gearbox in your car is a robust mass produced item used worldwide. Tracing basic faults are relatively simple to independent garages let alone MB dealerships. Very strange . keep us informed on any progress , or lack thereof. 👍
Hi Pete,
Thanks for your reply. A mate of mine also has an E class merc and he changed his ATF. He went to a Merc dealer and asked for the ATF and was given 5 litres. He said surely that's not enough. They told him that they only changed the oil in the g/box. He wasn't happy so he drained the torque converter and did the whole lot.

I have emailed MB customer services asking what the company policy is regarding draining the torque converter and all they have done is to refer the matter to my dealer. In effect they are running around in circles.

Surely it cannot be right to contaminate 5 litres of new ATF with 4 litres of old stuff. Basic common sense that it is not right.

It just seems strange that this problem only came to light one month after the ATF change.

I am sure that it will end up at the conductor plate but suspect that someone is trying to keep costs down, especially as it is an extended warranty claim.

Best wishes
 
The draining of the TC is an issue that is widely discussed. The TC on my 722.6 transmission does not have a drain bolt (it used to on older versions , but for some unfathomable reason it was deleted) so changing the fluid is a more drawn out affair . The gearbox cooling lines up to the gearbox radiator have to be purged as well, 10 litres would be a good number to have in the workshop leaving about 8.5 litres in the transmission.

Your transmission has a different fluid change regime than mine , but the result is the same. all I can think is that once up on the lift the TC takes a long while to drain and they don't want the car hanging around that long ...time is money and all that 🤷‍♂️.

Don't forget you are dealing with a car manufacturer sold a lot of these cars promising a 'sealed for life' gearbox.....they were wrong.
 
The situation just gets worse. They decided that the ATF should be drained and refilled properly. Two days later I noticed a large pool of ATF on my garage floor. MB Assist dowloaded it to the garage. Another two days off the road. Trouble is that I had driven the car for 60 miles so have no idea about possible damage to the gearbox. They said that it had only lost one litre of ATF and that shouldn't cause a problem. Apparently the gasket got kinked during fitting and was put down to human error. Sounds more like carelessness/incompetence to me. For your information it was Marshall MB Chichester. If you want a recommendation please don't ask me.
 
The situation just gets worse. They decided that the ATF should be drained and refilled properly. Two days later I noticed a large pool of ATF on my garage floor. MB Assist dowloaded it to the garage. Another two days off the road. Trouble is that I had driven the car for 60 miles so have no idea about possible damage to the gearbox. They said that it had only lost one litre of ATF and that shouldn't cause a problem. Apparently the gasket got kinked during fitting and was put down to human error. Sounds more like carelessness/incompetence to me. For your information it was Marshall MB Chichester. If you want a recommendation please don't ask me.
I consider it almost impossible to kink the gasket on refuting, you can’t really do it wrong.
 
Yes this whole business of draining the converter or not is simply nonsense ,it should be done,but as I posted before there are gearboxes in cars where it is not possible to drain the torque converter, the only way is to waste a large amount of ATF,all the Aisin auto boxes fitted to many different makes of car have no drain,and so you drain 3 litres out of the box refit the plug and pour in another 3 litres run it up to temp and drain that out,and then do the whole thing again ,before you refill the box,cost of the atf is around £90 but there is no filter to buy,suspect because these boxes are built to a size that can be fitted to so many cars,that something had to give.
 
A mechanic at a main dealer pinched the gasket causing a leak ?? :confused: I thought the car had to be run while on the lift to complete the ATF change. very careless not to spot it .
 
A mechanic at a main dealer pinched the gasket causing a leak ?? :confused: I thought the car had to be run while on the lift to complete the ATF change. very careless not to spot it .
They probably didn’t tighten the drain plug afterwards is my assumption.
 
The draining of the TC is an issue that is widely discussed. The TC on my 722.6 transmission does not have a drain bolt (it used to on older versions , but for some unfathomable reason it was deleted) so changing the fluid is a more drawn out affair . The gearbox cooling lines up to the gearbox radiator have to be purged as well, 10 litres would be a good number to have in the workshop leaving about 8.5 litres in the transmission.

Your transmission has a different fluid change regime than mine , but the result is the same. all I can think is that once up on the lift the TC takes a long while to drain and they don't want the car hanging around that long ...time is money and all that 🤷‍♂️.

Don't forget you are dealing with a car manufacturer sold a lot of these cars promising a 'sealed for life' gearbox.....they were wrong.
Hi Pete, I must say that my confidence in my car is pretty low at the moment. Are there any problems with the 9 speed box, as with the GLC etc?
 
Hi Pete, I must say that my confidence in my car is pretty low at the moment. Are there any problems with the 9 speed box, as with the GLC etc?
I have no personal experience with the 9g but these pages are not exactly full of members complaining about them , so my guess is if they are serviced correctly they are probably ok.
 

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