gperfrem

My R350 is stuck in park.

i had the message " drive to workshop without changing gear" yesterday.
Now it is in the driveway and i have tried to push it but it seems like its locked in gear. it wont select anything from the shifter on the steering column.


Does anybody know a way that it can be manually moved out of park so i can get it to a workshop.

my research tells me that we probably need a ISM (intelligent servo motor).

i'm in a real bind - any ideas anybody.
I'm in sydney australia

MJ50

moved to W251 forum...

optimusprime m1

Brake light switch on parking brake ,or the selector in the shift mech .Easy job realy if its that. Do a google search on it .Can you select when you are at a stand still, with engine off. You will find it is plastic ,now you can get a an alluminum part to fit in there ,they are better .

optimusprime m1

Hi as i said Google Search -- Mercedes R350 stuck in park . There is a lot of posts on there about this shifter, read the second one down .I think its on this forum .Its a plastic part again , that brakes off it is the switches for a selenoid that lets you move the selector . Please let us know how you get on ..

gperfrem

ok thank you very much for that.
i will continue my search.
my main issue here is because this seems an unusual problem i want to go to the Indi with a few suggestions to save them time and hopefully me money.
plus the car is stuck in the drive way.

optimusprime m1

gper did you say you have a paddle shift on the column ,if so you may have another problem .

gperfrem

yes i have paddle shift on the column
i will give an update later - but its back to the dealership - the indi's around here wouldn't touch it. the have so much easy **** they dont need the hard stuff it seems.
even the specialist gear box guys

optimusprime m1

Good luck mate ,but let us know please of the out come.

gperfrem

Ok this is what happened.
As I said the Indi’s and even gear box specialists wouldn’t touch it and I ended up at the local Mercedes dealership – that was Thursday.

I explained my problem and that I thought it was the ISM (intelligent servo module).

He basically “yeah whatever” and that they would get it towed to the dealership and have a look.
He said 2 days for diagnosis and up to 3 weeks for repair.

I was stuck and just had to take it on the chin. I put my saddest face on and asked how much it might be – he said “between $2000 to $5000”.
I said is there anything I can do to mitigate the cost – he said “no – leave that to me”
So I said - righto - lets go.


Later that day they sent a mechanic plus an apprentice to fit this wheel hub thing that somehow released the 4 wheels from Park.
The mechanic just stood there and had a smoke and the apprentice did all the work.
About a 20 minute easy job and after the extra hub was fitted it pushed the right hand side back wheel out about 100MM.
Lucky I live about 10 mins from the dealership.

The tow truck came and it was quite easy to put on the truck.

3 days later ( Monday) service guy rings back and says 3k but says he has asked for a better price from MB.

Same day he comes back and says 1900 all in.
I said OK and 3 days later ( Wednesday) I’ve got the car back all fixed.

I've never been so happy to spend 1900 in my life and upon reflection I was lucky I hadn’t been stranded on the road somewhere in the middle of the night.
$1900 was OK – it included the tow and I priced the servo modules and couldn’t see them for less than $1000 on eBay.

Lessons learned
1. If you get the message do as it says go to the dealership
2. If you hear whirring sound from the engine bay when going from P to D or R – dealership.
3. Buy a Toyota