W220 Gear selector Stuck in Park

[Bladerunner2125]

Have had the dreaded stuck in Park issue on my 02 S320 66k Miles, was getting problems now and then getting out of park but this disappeared then recently I started getting an intermittent problem going from drive to reverse and then suddenly it was locked in park completley, so these were the warning signs, had to use the Breakdown cover on my insurance to get recovered, I have managed to remove and strip down the Gear Selector and have removed the broken plastic lever and spring, now looking around for a replacement part, have noticed that their is a metal replacement for this part, has anyone fitted this part, any advice welcome, in the meantime I have removed the lower metal sprung piece holding the Gear change lever so that the selector can move freely going to temporarily fit it back into the car so I can move it off the street and into my garage to work on.

 

[Bladerunner2125]

I had removed the v shaped spring arm retainer this allowed me to put the gear change selector block back into the car and freely change gear without having to press the break pedal, spoke to a Transmission service Garage he said I could actually leave the retainer off and just use as it is, only thing is car can easily be taken out of park so I decided to order the Metal Gear shift Park release Part instead of the original Plastic part, at least I don't have to worry about it breaking again, fitted it today added some copper grease to the internals of the Gear Change Block and refitted it into the car, everything working a lot better now no sticking or notchy feeling gear change, the metal replacement part was £30 against £20 for the plastic part.

 

[renault12ts]

Good job.

Was it a straightforward job?

 

[Bladerunner2125]

Good job.

Was it a straightforward job?

Yes not really difficult, it looked like it might be but once you remove the center console and get access to the Gear change block your almost there, the hardest part was separating the rear plastic heater channels that run along the center console, they have to be bent back to gain access to the bolts and the linkage on the underside of the block, I actually cut about 5mm of the end of one side to make replacement a lot easier made no difference to the function of the Heater channels.

The Gearchange Block is fairly easy to dismantle you have to drill out just one rivet on the inside shield to gain access to the Part that is broken and also to replace it, but this was easy, I didn't even replace the rivet on rebuilding the block it all went together with out a problem and the gear-change is just fine.

A couple of photos of the New replacement part.

https://flic.kr/p/Nz3nJS

https://flic.kr/p/NTS2t8

 

[renault12ts]

Where did you source the new part?

 

[Bladerunner2125]

Where did you source the new part?

Ebay just do a search for

Metal Gear Shift Repair Fix for Mercedes Benz W220