Bowyer

2002 e430, 130k miles.

Dropped my daughter off at school and pulling away I hear trans whining. Go about 1/2 mile and it is slipping, bad. Pulled over immediately. Turned off the car restarted, same thing. Slipping in all gears, even reverse.

Had the trans flushed 10k miles ago. It's never had any symptoms until this morning.

Had it towed to my indy, hopefully the news won't be too bad. Maybe this is related to my unexplained droning noise I have never found? Was going to look into tires and have the suspension checked, but this will be first on the list.

Wish me luck....

SerbNerd

Maybe it just went into limp mode due to low fluid levels! Can't imagine it slipping :/

Wish you luck!

Bowyer

It was slipping....rpm's went up and no forward motion. No reverse, too...rps's up, no reverse. Hopefully just fluid level, but no leaks and the fluid was changed 10k miles ago. Doesn't limp mode at least give you 2nd gear? I tried putting the car into 2,3,4 and 5....nothing. After sitting an hour, car drove up onto flat bed tow truck, no problem.

Didn't hear back from the mechanic, will hopefully know something soon!

cm60k

Important to diagnose the car first, codes will help a lot,,

many things can cause this, trans. conductor plate/faulty or oil in the TCU/shifter need to be reset during unplug the harness connector..!

ZAYED,,

Plutoe

My WAG---bad torque converter!! fluid aint gong where it is supposed to be!!

Bowyer

So the saga continues. The car drove about one mile and it 'slipped' again. The mechanic comes to me on the side of the road. He pulls out a box by the top, passenger side of the engine compartment. There is oil in there! He thought it would just need to be cleaned and put back in, which he did...still no gears, or it will go and then stop. These are the codes they found. They are going to drop the pan on the transmission and see what they can find. He's convinced it's electrical....fluid not going to the right spots.

I need this resolved!

Plutoe

Well the good news is that your mechanic is using the correct and very current (ver 07_2014) diagnostic tool to locate/define the problem---why not give him a chance to do his job!!

Bowyer

Plutoe....I am....the car isn't going anywhere! I was just hoping someone has seen this or had this problem. He's confident he can fix it...just has to figure it out. He actually replace the computer part with another just to see if it helped, and it didn't, same issue. I know zero about transmissions and have faith in this shop. I'm hopeful!

Bowyer

I went ahead with a new (rebuilt) transmission from TBR. Indy said it could have been the pump or other items and looking for and replacing them could get costly and and it may still have issues. I plan to keep the car a long time and I feel it was money well spent.

Very happy with new unit, it runs and drives like a dream now. It also eliminated the 'droning' noise I could never pinpoint.

UsedLuxury

The tcm was most likely flooded because the connector in the pan wasn't replaced. This is a very common problem with this car. Next time you have it serviced make sure thats replaced.

kiffalicious

Hey there- first time caller

I'd love to bump this with a very similar story- except I just bought my wagon...ugh. From everything I have read, an ATF change is first on my list but I guess I should presume the same fate? Is that the common consensus, here, to fear the troubleshoot and just replace the entire thing?

What was the final story on the slipping and why that, itself, could not be addressed directly?

UsedLuxury

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A common issue with the trans in the w210 wagon or sadan is trans fluid wicking from the up into the transmission control module. It can be avoided. You have to replace the connector in the pan while doing a fluid/filter change. Its a cheap part, the tcm isnt. Im not sure what happened with ops trans and we will never know but his tcm was flooded. Could have been that and something else. The conductor plate and a shift spring are also common problems but that doesn't happen to everyone. Also accumulators, super easy

Bowyer

I thought I would check back with you.

Yes, the TCM was flooded with trans fluid. After drying it out with electrical spray, and even putting in a working (different) TCM, the car still wouldn't move in any gear. At that point the CEL was on and the codes I posted were present.

I elected to go rebuilt due to the fact that there were shavings in the pan and damage was likely. Instead of 'fixing' the old trans and possibly having problems continue, the new unit made more sense. I can't keep going to the shop and being without my car, plus the expense of chasing a potentially larger problem down the road. I bit the bullet. The new unit has the new connector to prevent the fluid from wicking up the wires into the TCM. Also, new torque converter and built with all genuine M-Benz parts. It should be trouble-free for a long time.

kiffalicious

do you mind sharing the cost of the new set-up?

Bowyer

I sent you a PM, good luck.

kiffalicious

+1 for Bowyer