chino88nyc

Hey everyone -

Read about glycol contamination / tranny jerk and transmission conductor plate replacement, but I don't know if my situation meets those criteria.

Drove car into safe mode and then lost the tranny altogether one day. Parked up and the following day turned on the car cold and while jerky - was able to drive it half a mile on level road til I came to a hill and lost the tranny again.

Got it towed to a tranny shop and they say it needs a full rebuild for $3500. I say no thanks - and he goes around the block and drives the car over to me, reversing into a parking spot and hands me the keys. I get it towed back home.

Do I really need a new tranny? 100k miles, occasional jerkiness with Valeo radiator and did a MB dealer tranny flush @ 70k. Hope someone here could offer some advice.

Thanks!
Mike

macbryanie

if it is the tranny - just buy a secondhand one - $3500 is crazy.

insame1

Have you had the fluid tested? Have you checked the level? When was the last service? Have you done anything besides having one person look at it?

macbryanie

100% - Take it to an indie and get the codes pulled to lead to the problem.

Naugamanator

+1 on insame1's advice - get the fluid tested, and pull the codes to understand what to do next.

chino88nyc

Thanks for the replies everyone.

When this initially occurred my friend topped off the tranny with two quarts, borrowed a reader and pulled Codes P2500 and P220A. Seems like speed sensor solenoids which other threads are implying conductor plate problems. Am I on the right tracK?



Quote was from an indie which I didn't believe. He said he dropped the pan and found metal shavings in the filter screen. From what I understand if you dropped the pan you lose and will need to replace all the tranny fluid. So he gave me this inspection and estimate for free, replaced my fluid free of cost and let me drive away?

Tranny flush was @ 70k so it's 30k old. Have not tested for glycol but will probably swap original radiator as a precaution if I can get tranny working again.

Thanks!

Naugamanator

Yes, I had the same codes when my conductor plate failed. You'll also want to replace the 13-pin connector on the side of the transmission at the same time if you haven't already, and also check that you don't have fluid wicking up into the TCU.

After replacing the conductor plate and connector, you need to clear the codes from both the ECU and TCU.

"occasional jerkiness" -- Sounds like you'll also want to replace the PWM solenoid while you've got the pan off.

insame1

I also recently found out that there is a reset procedure when you replace the conductor plate. That being said I only cleared the trans codes when I did my c32 but the shop I took the c55 too said there is a series of adaption steps listed in the the book.

chino88nyc

Hey,

Wanted to say thanks because the car is running again! Changed conductor plate, pin connector and solenoid and was able to plow through the gears on multiple pulls to 100 mph. Now I need to get the codes reset.

Thank you again!
Mike