Hello Folks,
The old girl (an SL 350 (R230) manufactured in 2004) has been in my care for around four years now, but yesterday was the first time she misbehaved so badly that I’m now seriously considering changing her for a newer model!
To cut a long story short, the gear selector module was jammed in ‘park’ and would not budge.
What follows is a summary of the saga. Admittedly, before I set off on the brief journey of roughly two miles, the rear battery (electrical consumers) was severely discharged, and ‘red-lighted’ me with a demonic red display, instead of the typical “Electric consumers offline!” message.
On balance, I decided to take the risk of a short run, since I anticipated that the battery should get sufficient charge and all would be well, besides the MoT was due soon.
The plan was to take a slight detour, increasing the distance, thereby giving the consumer battery enough charge, for the time being.
Before moving off I had trouble selecting ‘drive’, but after a few attempts the selector did move freely and without any excessive force.
I parked up and visited the parts shop for a new tool I needed and returned to the car straight away.
The engine cranked and started perfectly, but the gear selector refused to move out of the park position. No amount of pumping the break pedal would persuade it to play ball this time!
My only option was to call an emergency service. The eventual result being that the engineer identified a little online help message (on his tablet) that required seven small Torx screws to be removed from the rubber gate in order to expose a grey or yellow tag which would release the selector. However, when the black rubber part was moved away, there was no tag visible!!
Applying the brake produced a click sound from the selector module, so it seemed obvious that the solenoid in the selector was trying to do something.
Sadly, the recovery of my immobile car was a long process, which took six hours in total! It was towed with the front wheels on a special trailer. The rear wheels were temporarily removed and freewheeling hubs and wheels were bolted on instead.
Apparently, this car does not have a manual override switch to disengage the selector. It that right?
Can anyone confirm this or perhaps let me know how it perform an emergency release, please?
If possible I want to avoid having to organize another car recovery trip to a workshop.
One relevant service history item is that the brake light switch was replaced in April 2022.
Today, I charged the consumer battery to 12.56V, yet the ‘selector stuck in park’ fault persists.
Any help with this fault will be very much appreciated.
I should mention that last night I trawled YouTube for answers and know about the anti-tamper pin above the front fixing bolt on the selector module. This makes it a specialist repair job for me.
If anyone knows of an independent Mercedes specialist located on or near the east coast of Suffolk (UK), I would be very interested to hear recommendations.
Thanks for reading!
Cheers, Phil311
The old girl (an SL 350 (R230) manufactured in 2004) has been in my care for around four years now, but yesterday was the first time she misbehaved so badly that I’m now seriously considering changing her for a newer model!
To cut a long story short, the gear selector module was jammed in ‘park’ and would not budge.
What follows is a summary of the saga. Admittedly, before I set off on the brief journey of roughly two miles, the rear battery (electrical consumers) was severely discharged, and ‘red-lighted’ me with a demonic red display, instead of the typical “Electric consumers offline!” message.
On balance, I decided to take the risk of a short run, since I anticipated that the battery should get sufficient charge and all would be well, besides the MoT was due soon.
The plan was to take a slight detour, increasing the distance, thereby giving the consumer battery enough charge, for the time being.
Before moving off I had trouble selecting ‘drive’, but after a few attempts the selector did move freely and without any excessive force.
I parked up and visited the parts shop for a new tool I needed and returned to the car straight away.
The engine cranked and started perfectly, but the gear selector refused to move out of the park position. No amount of pumping the break pedal would persuade it to play ball this time!
My only option was to call an emergency service. The eventual result being that the engineer identified a little online help message (on his tablet) that required seven small Torx screws to be removed from the rubber gate in order to expose a grey or yellow tag which would release the selector. However, when the black rubber part was moved away, there was no tag visible!!
Applying the brake produced a click sound from the selector module, so it seemed obvious that the solenoid in the selector was trying to do something.
Sadly, the recovery of my immobile car was a long process, which took six hours in total! It was towed with the front wheels on a special trailer. The rear wheels were temporarily removed and freewheeling hubs and wheels were bolted on instead.
Apparently, this car does not have a manual override switch to disengage the selector. It that right?
Can anyone confirm this or perhaps let me know how it perform an emergency release, please?
If possible I want to avoid having to organize another car recovery trip to a workshop.
One relevant service history item is that the brake light switch was replaced in April 2022.
Today, I charged the consumer battery to 12.56V, yet the ‘selector stuck in park’ fault persists.
Any help with this fault will be very much appreciated.
I should mention that last night I trawled YouTube for answers and know about the anti-tamper pin above the front fixing bolt on the selector module. This makes it a specialist repair job for me.
If anyone knows of an independent Mercedes specialist located on or near the east coast of Suffolk (UK), I would be very interested to hear recommendations.
Thanks for reading!
Cheers, Phil311
