knight

Hello,

My stock 2002 Automatic C240 (65,000 kms) has been acting up:

- It will stay in 1st gear & will not switch to a higher gear. This is more noticeable in the morning or after being parked for many hours. Also if the car is not warmed up for a long period of time (i.e more than 5 minutes @ idle) it has this transmission problem.

Sometimes I have to pull over & restart the car, let it sit at idle, then hope the car returns to normal.

- I also have one malfunction at the moment, something to do with a light sensor. Any possibility this is relaying some msg to the computer --> causing my transmission problem?

I'm hoping this isn't to serious, as up until now the car has been relatively good, except for lights burning out etc.

Any help would be very much appreciated, I'm going to visit the dealer ASAP, however thought I would get some extra feedback. The problem is the car is no longer under warranty (purchased in late 2001).

Thanks!

elchinocache

in the morning your car needs to warm up the catalytic before it starts shifting normally. The once the cats are warmed up it should shift normally. In the winter my car does the same thing for about the first 10 minutes of my commute, in the summer its only lasts about 2 or 3 minutes. But if this is the first time your experiencing this problem, then you should get it checked out. Right now my car has 49,000 miles on it the tranny is shifting gears extremely hard, and slipping when it tries to catch the next gear. Maybe our cars have tranny problems. Mines a 2001 by the way.

GP2GP

While I am no MB mechanic, I would doubt the cats being warmed up. I would get it checked ASAP. It could be a relatively small control problem that could cause a large transmission problem.

Gentlemanjim

How about changing the fluid and filter, sounds over due to me.

knight

A mechanic looked at it today & it turns out the battery was faulty. Essentially causing the computer to reset intermittently & causing the transmission problem.

If your waiting 10mins to warm your car up, you may have the same problem. Check it out for sure, cause I don't think you should ever have your car stay in 1st gear, whether winter or summer.

Tangerine

battery problem?? interesting..

rambo2074

Just to add to the initial question . . . I was getting my 2002 C240 inspection sticker a couple of weeks ago and during the emissions testing the shop (not the MB dealer) kept getting a transmission error code. Well, as it turned out after the inspection the car would not shift out of first gear. Following a couple of days of headscratching, I finally had the shop tow it to the dealer. $2500 later, my car needs a special sensor coded from Germany and some other little something? According to the dealer, this replacement part isn't overly common. It was a pre-owned vehicle, so whomever had it before me didn't exactly keep up with the typical maintenance. I hope nothing else major happens!!!?

Brian

SlvrC230SS

Wow, that's one expensive sensor. Cuz of something like this, it makes me wonder if I should get the extended warranty or not after my 50K warranty.

BlackLiquorish8

damn... thats expensive i got warranty till 70K i think anyways can i buy more warranty after that???

1st lite

[QUOTE=knight;1670574]A mechanic looked at it today & it turns out the battery was faulty. Essentially causing the computer to reset intermittently & causing the transmission problem.

My 02 c240 had the "light sensor visit workshop" diplay also. This warning only showed up in the morning after my car has been park more than 8 hours. The dealer said the light/rain sensor would have to be replaced. I suspected the battery was on its way out. Took my car to an independent mechanic, he checked the battery (load test), and turns out it is the battery. Replaced the battery and no more error code on the multi function display.
I think if the battery is weak and when you start your car in the morning, it may drop the voltage a little too much and trip some of the sensors to display a temporary error code. Just my thoughts.