Scottieaye
New Member
Hi,I'm Scottie and a new member. I've owned a number of Mercedes and currently use a 2006 280 cdiestate to tow my caravan. I started having occasional problems roughly every 1200 miles. The gearbox would not change up. I would just switch the engine off and on and it would be ok for the next 1000 miles or so. Obviously I was concerned about the situation as I was due to drive on holiday to the Algarve in Portugal from my home in Scotland. I emailed 2 main dealers in Scitland, one in Edinburgh and one in Dundee. Neither bothered to answer. I took the car along to an independent Merc specialist with the Star diagnostics and he said the car needs a new electronics plate. But the plate gas to come from Mercedes via Germany. I contacted another specialist on route to Portugal and he again diagnosed exactly the same thing costing me yet more money. I decided, stupidly, to continue my holiday. I caught the boat from Plymouth to Santander the successfully towed my car so the way to the Algarve and I might add back through Spain, France and Holland and England to Scitland. On arrival back home we went to do shopping and bang.....the gearbox went and would not change gear. To cut a long story short I found an Autinatic Gearbix specialist who changed the following speed sensors on the Ekectronics Control Plate,
Output Speed Sensor
Internal Speed Sensor
After a few days same thing would not change gear
Give the guy his due he opened it up again and changed the Turbine Speed Sensor on the Electronics Control Plate. And so far it's been fine.
These sensors can be bought on line together with the removal too quite cheaply. There is also a video online showing the process to change the sensors.
Because it's just sensors bring changed there is no need for any programming.
I hope this helps somebody out there as it really is a nightmare scenario from the Stealers and unscrupulous indi's. It took the Automatic Gearbox Soecialist about 4 hours. Done.
