Help with gear box problem

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ChrisLove

New Member
Joined
Mar 13, 2021
Messages
6
Location
Manchester
Car
Mercedes Vito Campervan 1996
Hi
I have an old Vito campervan (1996) with an intermittent gear fault. Sometimes when you start the engine, after stalling, it clunks putting the gear stick into drive and then is clearly not going into 1st. When driving it then doesn’t go through the gears and feels as if it’s in 3rd all the time. Another time it works perfectly fine, going through all the gears. It will do the fault one time and then after switching off the engine and then re- starting it goes into the fault mode. We’ve had the gear box oil changed and the hydraulic block control unit changed (at the MB garage in Manchester) but fault remains. Any thoughts would be so welcome. ( could it be electrical and not a mechanical gear box problem?) Thanks
 
Hi
I have an old Vito campervan (1996) with an intermittent gear fault. Sometimes when you start the engine, after stalling, it clunks putting the gear stick into drive and then is clearly not going into 1st. When driving it then doesn’t go through the gears and feels as if it’s in 3rd all the time. Another time it works perfectly fine, going through all the gears. It will do the fault one time and then after switching off the engine and then re- starting it goes into the fault mode. We’ve had the gear box oil changed and the hydraulic block control unit changed (at the MB garage in Manchester) but fault remains. Any thoughts would be so welcome. ( could it be electrical and not a mechanical gear box problem?) Thanks
Do you know which model of gearbox you have fitted? There should be a number on the gearbox.

Assuming it is electronically controlled then check that transmission oil has not leaked out via the electrical plug and wicked up into the transmission control unit as this can cause a host of gearbox issues.

The electrical plugs (also known as a pilot bush)were prone to leaking and causing problems. Replacement is fairly straightforward and the part is not expensive.
 
Do you know which model of gearbox you have fitted? There should be a number on the gearbox.

Assuming it is electronically controlled then check that transmission oil has not leaked out via the electrical plug and wicked up into the transmission control unit as this can cause a host of gearbox issues.

The electrical plugs (also known as a pilot bush)were prone to leaking and causing problems. Replacement is fairly straightforward and the part is not expensive.
Thanks very much. I will ask our mechanic about this. We have had the hydraulic block control unit changed. Is that the same as the transmission control unit you mentioned?
 
Thanks very much. I will ask our mechanic about this. We have had the hydraulic block control unit changed. Is that the same as the transmission control unit you mentioned?
No, the TCU is the electronic control unit for the transmission not the electro hydraulic unit
 
No, the TCU is the electronic control unit for the transmission not the electro hydraulic unit
Thanks very much. I will ask about this too. It does sound like a really obvious part to consider with the fault we have so it's hard to believe MB didn't consider this! I might try to get hold of the engineer who worked on it to ask him if he thought about this part.
 

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