W210 E280 auto rolls backwards on hills

[welland99]

Just noticed today that when doing hill starts either going forwards or backwards that the car rolls the wrong way (ie down the hill) unless I use the parking brake to hold it.

I don't remember it doing this before - does it indicate that something is out of adjustment or needs attention?

Auto box functions fine otherwise.

Car is a 1999 face lift and done about 95k miles.

 

[franey]

You could start by checking the propshaft couplings.

 

[lynall]

As always with potential gerabox faults get the oil level checked first.



Lynall

 

[EDZ649]

Just noticed today that when doing hill starts either going forwards or backwards that the car rolls the wrong way (ie down the hill) unless I use the parking brake to hold it.

I don't remember it doing this before - does it indicate that something is out of adjustment or needs attention?

Auto box functions fine otherwise.

Car is a 1999 face lift and done about 95k miles.

All hills or just steep ones?

 

[welland99]

All hills or just steep ones?

Just steep ones I think.
It can be held on the throttle, but in the short time it takes to get your right foot from the brake to the gas, the car has already rolled.
If I use the parking brake to hold it, then once I've got off the normal brake and got on the gas, I can hold it when the parking brake is off.

 

[welland99]

You could start by checking the propshaft couplings.

Really? If they were worn, wouldn't this just introduce play, rather than continuous rolling down a hill?

 

[EDZ649]

Well its quite normal on steep hills for the car to roll, all three of my vehicles do it. If you had said that it did it all the time I would have said that you had a problem somewhere.

 

[spock500]

Is the tick over a bit low?

 

[franey]

.....aaah I see, continuous roll? Thought you meant a couple of inches sorry.

 

[AMGeed]

Have you tried switching the setting from S to W ? W is starting in 2nd gear and its known that the S setting doesn't always hold the car on a hill. Also a 25RPM increase in the S setting can make the difference.
This was what I found on my W210 W280 anyway.

 

[lynall]

Mines holds on quite steep hills fine.



Lynall

 

[phil c]

its normaly the one way bearing in the box that fails, causing it to roll back on inclines , nothing to do with gearbox mode or oil level . hope this helps , oh and not that bad a job if you know what your doing

 

[welland99]

Thanks everyone for your views. I went out for a spin by myself this evening to find some steep hills to do a bit more testing (not hard where I live - Malvern).

It actually seems fine on all but quite steep hills, and now I know about it, I can take precautions by using the parking brake. :bannana:

This morning, when I first noticed the problem, I drove forwards down a hill to park, then tried to reverse back up the hill. I think I took my foot off the brake half a second too early before reverse had properly engaged. After my further testing this evening, I noticed that if I wait for the change in engine tone to indicate that reverse has properly engaged, then the rolling downhill is not nearly so bad.

I don't think there is anything seriously wrong, as I first feared there might be.

 

[fuzzer]

W will hold the car on hills

 

[spock500]

 

[AANDYY]

Mine also rolls on steep hills, like this one, Hardnott Pass .

 

[kth286]

its normaly the one way bearing in the box that fails, causing it to roll back on inclines , nothing to do with gearbox mode or oil level . hope this helps , oh and not that bad a job if you know what your doing

Is that a box out job ? or can it be done with box in situ ?

 

[phil c]

It's a box out job I am afraid ,the outer casing of the box off and then strip box down to locate the one way

 

[BlackC55]

My E280 210 does it too. I don't tend to worry about it much.