Bokx_350

Something really wierd happened to me yesterday. I was on the highway doing about 50mph and I decided to pass the car in front of me. In order to avoid the downshift natural lag of the auto tranny I manually lowered gears by holding the shifter to the "-" sign for a couple of seconds (in order to make it shift to the lowest gear possible). I do this all the time, mostly because is fun and delivers more power... well, not this time!

Instead of showing the gear number, the cluster remained at "D" (even after engaging the manual gear) and the car got into neutral. When I accelerated the engine would rev up but the car didn't move. I moved the shifter to "N" and back to "D" but nothing happened. I entered panic mode (I was already down to 30mph and still losing power). I pulled over and shut the engine off, took the key off and waited about one minute (long enough for a cop to pull over and ask me if I needed a tow). I then started the car and everything worked fine. I have been driving for 2 days now without a problem, but still, I'm really concerned about what happened.

I remember reading in the manual about a safety gear lock, but in my case it was just neutral, not a gear. Also, the car didn't display any error message nor did any warning light came on. What do you guys think?

jamaicakevkev

Scary... personally have my doubts about the 7 speed transmission just doesn't instill confidence; love my car but don't think i will be keeping it too long.

CrAZyVeGAsBoY

well could be a fluke, but if it happens again then u should take it to the dealership, just to be safe.

ctgilles

Take it to the dealer and have it read, if there was a problem they should be able to see it.

Carsy

I would have thought that at 50 mph that going down one gear would provide the best accelleration rather than going down to the lowest allowable gear.

Is your 7 speed is telling you something , " I don't like being flogged" ?

JimPap

That was my first thought. The tranny was rebelling.....and as you can see...won.

Bokx_350

Yep, I have the 7 speed. It is really ironic cause I'm moving back to Dominican Republic TOMORROW (I'm done with my MBA) and I'm taking the car with me (It will take about 3 weeks for the car to get there). And guess what... no warranty there!!

I'm in Miami FL right now (where I will deliver the car to the freight company). I will contact my dealer and see if they can arrange for a "special" immediate check at one of the Miami dealers. Hopefully it would have logged any issues.

On the good side, the problem happened about 1 hour after leaving Boston on my 23 hour drive, so after that I have driven 1400 miles perfectly.

Edit:
Talked to my dealer in Boston and, after a little discussion, they said that they couldn't do anything for me, but that I can take my car to any U.S. mercedes dealer and they will check it; I would need to make my own appointment, however. In other words, it is close to impossible to have the car checked in such a short notice. I guess will have to pray that it doesn't happen again.

Krytech

Crap! Well good luck with everything. I forgot you were leaving the US soon. I hope the car is good to you once the warranty is nullified. And congrats on completing your MBA!!