w210 320CDI Gearbox

[ShinyF1]

I noticed driving the car today that the gearbox was permanently in a high gear - lots of slippage [high revs with road speed building up] and the 'tip' function not working.

I stopped and restarted the engine and it seemed to sort itself out - any ideas as to what might have caused it?

 

[television]

If the fluid has never been changed why not change it. when built they were sealed for life but things have changed now and the fluid and filter should be changed at 60k miles. Most say that the box is much smoother after doing this.

Sometimes odd things can happen,turn off and re start all is fine.

 

[ShinyF1]

Problem hasn't recurred, but my car had a long deserved ATF change today by Olly - gearchanging feels great now. Great service from Prestige too, he deserves to do well.

Downside - got a puncture on the way home. Boo

 

[Dave320]

hi guys, I wonder could this advice help me. My E320 CDI has started intermittently sticking in a lower gear for the last week or two (usually first thing when cold). Same symptoms of 'tip' function not working and cured by a restart.

Does the gearbox have some kind of limp home mode if the fluid is low? The fact it happens when it's cold seems to suggest a fluid problem (to me at least!)

Car has 160k under it , no idea if fluid has ever been changed.

 

[television]

All 722.6 boxes hold onto the lower 2 gears when cold to warm up the CAT quickly.

The chances are that the fluid has never been changed, everyone that has it changed reports much smoother changes

 

[Dave320]

thanks for the speedy reply Malcolm

It sounds like it's worth a try, I was thinking of getting the car checked out soon anyway.

It's not hanging onto lower gears so much as sticking in one gear (prob second) right up to higher revs. It's been happening right from moving off first thing in the morning, but just recently. It was fine over the winter.

 

[mikevernon]

hi guys, I wonder could this advice help me. My E320 CDI has started intermittently sticking in a lower gear for the last week or two (usually first thing when cold). Same symptoms of 'tip' function not working and cured by a restart.

Does the gearbox have some kind of limp home mode if the fluid is low? The fact it happens when it's cold seems to suggest a fluid problem (to me at least!)

Car has 160k under it , no idea if fluid has ever been changed.

Dave. It does sound to me as though your gearbox is going into a limp home mode. Quite often it is accompanied by a clunk as you move the selector into Drive. You should take the car to somebody who can read the fault codes which should be stored. When this happened to me I was told that it was caused by a faulty brake light switch, although it hasn't occurred again and I never did replace the offending switch.

 

[Dave320]

thanks for the info.

I did notice a bit of a lurch coming into or out of Drive actually.

Odd that there's no warning on the "Malfunction" display, you'd think activation of Limp Home mode is something you might want to be told about!! It's potentially a lot more serious that "washer fluid low" or the renowned intermittent "faulty bulb" warnings

think I'll make an appointment and get it looked at

thanks guys

 

[maddog]

My gearbox is much smoother now Olly changed the oil , thing was MB charged me for changing the oil at the last service and clearly didnt do it

Hard to prove anything now of course

 

[Dave320]

The saga continues ...

I took it up to some MB "specialists" who read off all the fault codes but couldn't find anything. They made one odd comment which was that the fault log may not pick up an intermittent issue. I would have thought that was exactly what a fault log was for ?!?!

But the guy was able to replicate the fault on a test drive, and they recommended getting the gearbox serviced, which i duly did.

I seemed to notice a real improvement as has been mentioned above in terms of smoothness of changing and everything seemed grand. This was Friday week ago.

However, yesterday it started happening again and this morning too (

So,
- first thing in the morning, start the car,
- move to R to get out of the driveway - clunk,
- move out and shift to D - big clunk/lurch.
- Move off - stuck in 2nd
- Stop, switch off, switch on again ... everything fine, back to smooth changing, no further problem.

So, my first suspicion (which is a bit sad) is that the "specialists" are not very special and did bugger all to the car, but it did definitely seem to be changing more smoothly last week.

My second suspicion is that they didn't do it right, because I notice on other posts that you have to start the car up and move it before you can properly refill the ATF in the gearbox.

They did mention they had seen ECU problems that can cause gearbox issues. Does that sound plausible?

The only other thing I can think of is that I have recently noticed a bit of a squeal from the drive belts when the car is idling that wasn't there before. It's not very loud and isn't a squeal that carries on as the engine revs up, but is it possible that this could be related?

Any ideas would be appreciated. I can see myself trying out another 'specialist', but I don't want to find out the first guys messed me about and all the hassle that entails

 

[vijilants]

The saga continues ...

I took it up to some MB "specialists" who read off all the fault codes but couldn't find anything. They made one odd comment which was that the fault log may not pick up an intermittent issue. I would have thought that was exactly what a fault log was for ?!?!

But the guy was able to replicate the fault on a test drive, and they recommended getting the gearbox serviced, which i duly did.

I seemed to notice a real improvement as has been mentioned above in terms of smoothness of changing and everything seemed grand. This was Friday week ago.

However, yesterday it started happening again and this morning too (

So,
- first thing in the morning, start the car,
- move to R to get out of the driveway - clunk,
- move out and shift to D - big clunk/lurch.
- Move off - stuck in 2nd
- Stop, switch off, switch on again ... everything fine, back to smooth changing, no further problem.

So, my first suspicion (which is a bit sad) is that the "specialists" are not very special and did bugger all to the car, but it did definitely seem to be changing more smoothly last week.

My second suspicion is that they didn't do it right, because I notice on other posts that you have to start the car up and move it before you can properly refill the ATF in the gearbox.

They did mention they had seen ECU problems that can cause gearbox issues. Does that sound plausible?

The only other thing I can think of is that I have recently noticed a bit of a squeal from the drive belts when the car is idling that wasn't there before. It's not very loud and isn't a squeal that carries on as the engine revs up, but is it possible that this could be related?

Any ideas would be appreciated. I can see myself trying out another 'specialist', but I don't want to find out the first guys messed me about and all the hassle that entails

There are speed sensors and an electronic plate that can cause these problems on the gearbox. The gearbox also has its own ECU.

This problem has to be checked by a specialist that knows this gearbox.

Strange that reading the codes didn't bring anything up.....get them checked again as MB should have wiped any existing fault codes.

 

[television]

When checking box fault codes,, if any do not show up, then you must drive the car until the fault condition arises then go and have the codes read off without turning off the engine. the gearbox ECU only has a limited memory

 

[Dave320]

Guys, thanks for the advice.

The problem became permanent, rather then intermittent so I headed off (slowly) to another MB specialist today.

Quickly traced the fault to an RPM sensor in the gearbox. Oddly enough he had another similar vintage E320 to mine with exactly the same fault.

He cleared the alarm, which lets me drive about again. He reckons to give it one more chance, it's possible that the service of the gearbox has dislodged some metal filings which can contaminate the sensor. But if it happens again, he'll change the sensor for me.

Can't complain to that, didn't charge me anything today

For any other MB owners near Belfast, he's "Merc-Tech" off Kennedy Way. Popular with taxi-owners, which is probably a good sign !!!

 

[KLP 92]

I have a W210 E320 CDI as well, suffered the same probs you did. I replaced the electric plate in the gearbox to no joy, ended up with a replacement gearbox last month.

Had the same issues on my C270 CDI that i woned previously, i've never found the electric plate to fix my faults, always ends up with a replacemtn box. But then again my gearbox guys reckons its my driving