evilcrusher

The thread title says it all.

Background
I have recently purchased the car with 200K miles on it and it runs beautifully up until the last couple days. The transmission would shift from 1st to 2nd but not always from 2 to 3rd or 3rd to 4th. Sometimes it would be in 3rd or 4th and then just downshift and take the engine up to 5-6k RPM. I have a dipstick on the way, as even my local workshop has no way of knowing if the fluid is the correct level without doing a complete drain and fill on the transmission pan. At that point I might as well ask for the filter to be changed, and it should be as I don't know the last time it was done. Only thing is that it is costly, and I am going about this one things at a time, and doing it myself if possible and comfortable with the job (on this type of car, I am not comfortable as it's not just removing the pan, filter and gasket to be replaced like other vehicles). I am ordering a dipstick of my own.

I have seen several places talking about the kick-down switch being a possible culprit in this, and dabbling with it still in the car, I have good reason to believe it is the primary culprit. The switch is sticking on occasion and even the top part popped out at one point. I want to remove ti but I know that the carpet needs to be pulled. I have no clue because I haven't read anywhere where the carpet is removed on this model. Plenty for other models but not this one. I'd like to do so without tearing up the carpet or another other parts as I do not want to have to spend more money replacing that as well.

If you have pictures, that would be best.

Thanks for nay help one can provide on this.

raymond g-

i've not performed a complete removal. i've had someone replace the standard seats with
front air bladder seat features. i've also replaced the wing mirrors and converted them to
turn signal lights which were not offered on my 1999.

that said, i recall having to remove the under dash panels as well as the front kick panels.
I recall that the door molding and gasket may need to be removed....which, obviously, will
require that all the seating units need to be pulled. but I've not seen a step-by-step
solely for the carpet. probably embedded into WIS with PSE hose R&R etc.

in my opinion, the best $17 one can spend on the MB right now in terms of shop manual
is this set of 4 DVDs. i've seen some being pirated on the web as well

evilcrusher

It stops being that front piece right in front of the seat, so the seat is on an entirely different piece of carpet. I went out to a local pick and pull to try to figure out how to do this without tearing mine up. Still no luck. Hell I tried cutting around the carpet on those junkers in attempt to just pull a spare switch and couldn't do it without breaking the switches. Rather frustrating.

As well, I recently learned that AutoHausAZ doesn't really audit their stock catalog to check for errors because they had to contact me to let me know that a part I ordered was no longer in stock or even in stock with their importers, and apologized for it showing up in there system as in stock. Having to pay an additional $15 for the OEM stick they sell.

illest

once you remove the silver trim at the bottom of the door pulling back the carpet should not be too hard. You might also have to remove the side of the center console by the radio/ac controls. I have done this on the passenger side never tried the driver

evilcrusher

Thanks for that info. I wound up just spraying some WD-40 on the switch and manually clicking it about 10 times. Problem went away immediately and hasn't returned. Now I have to get a valve cover gasket replaced and the transmission flex disk at the differential. Fun times