400 miles and first MAJOR issue
 

So last night after work I took a ride to the store, and noticed that the check engine light is on- uh oh. It stayed on until I got there, and when I got out I checked the gas cap. It seemed tight but I took it off and put it back and the light went away. Whew!

Nope. Today, I went out at lunch on a 10 minute drive and all was well. I parked and shut it off. When I came back and started it, when I put it into Drive there was a huge CLUNK as it went into gear. Weird I thought. Then realized that the check engine light was on. So I start driving and notice my back up camera wont work, there is no "S" or "C" in the center IP for the transmission, and the gear indicator in the center screen isn't lit up for which gear I'm in. I start driving, and realize the car isn't shifting out of second gear. So I had to drive the entire way back to work, about 7 miles or so, at 25 MPH with the car revving at 4k RPMs- in 100 degree heat....not good for the motor.

They are sending a flatbed out to me now as well as a loaner......I really hope this isn't a sign of things to come. I'm really bummed out right now- tomorrow will be one week that I've had the car.

Sounds like your car went into Limp Home Mode for whatever reason.

Sorry to hear about your new car, hopefully it's something simple and you'll be back with it in no time.

keep us posted

thanks man, I will. I'm hoping for simple too. The dealer has been great, they're sending me a loaner right now to my work and will flatbed the car later. UGH I'm just worried about scrapes and stuff from loading it.

Well, I haven't even hit 300 miles yet and I have a very noticeable knocking/wobbing sound from underneath the car everytime I let go of the clutch pedal. Took it to the local dealer today and they didn't know what to make of it. One guy said that's how it should sound and I was like yeah right, maybe a Kia should should like that, but not a $30K+ Mercedes.

Hope both our problems aren't that bad. I have to take mine to the dealer where I bought my car tomorrow since the dealer close to home never seen or heard of a 6-spd manual C300 before.

Yeah, stay positive for now. The W204s have proved to be reliable cars. I'm hoping for the best for you. Please let us know how it works out!

Thanks, I will post up as soon as I hear tomorrow. They gave me a Luxury edition C300 so at least I got to try out something different :)

First update- they called and told me that "the engine isn't communicating properly with the transmission" and that they are researching it and will get back to me later on today.

Edit: Here's a pic of the weird center info screen activity- notice no C or S and the D isn't highlighted...I was in Drive at the time.

Was it really 100 degrees ambient temperature at the time?

yup, that's legit......the car had been running for about 15 minutes by that point. There's been a huge heatwave up here in Mass for the past week or so.

Second update: They have narrowed it down to the Ignition switch (which they said all engine/trans management systems run through) or some type of computer module. Looking at tomorrow at the earliest, but probably not until next week.

OMG the other day my temp reading said it was 111 degrees :eek: good thing I was wearing a skirt wheewww :rolleyes: !

And oh Blackjack sounds like you're on the road to recovery !! Hopefully you'll be up and running sooon !!

I, unfortunately, was not wearing a skirt (or is it fortunately? :))

Thanks, still hoping I get her back prior to the weekend :D

I cannot even possibly imagine a heat wave like that. When its mid 80s in SF, Im already complaining.

Glad that they found the issue. Hope its an isolated incident

It's been pretty brutal- my grass is suffering the most!

To be clear, they really haven't found it yet, they think they have it narrowed down. But the SA just called me back and asked me to run down the symptoms again and said they were calling into MB so that doesn't lead me to believe that it's fixed yet...

I have to say that when these cars are so complicated that the local dealer has to send a call up to the mothership to figure out a problem, they've gone too far. Time to dumb things down a little.

Noticed today that my ambient temp reading was 103. Don't these gages read a little high?

if you park it in the sun, then yes. However, if you are moving and it reads 103, I believe it is accurate

In my experiences, the earlier that you have the first problem, the more reliable the car is in the long run. :D Every car I've ever owned has had a CEL or other major problem before 3000 miles but then everything's great after that. It's like I have to just go ahead and get the trouble out of the way.

Most cars do tend to read a little high but only by a few degrees. If it's reading 103, it's still really freaking hot even if it is really "only" 99 or 100.

I got in my car yesterday and it first said 111 after starting it. After I was moving, it "cooled down" to 105. With east coast humidity, that kind of heat makes you want to aim for the nearest brick wall.

I certainly hope you're right! The fuel pump went out on my 2009 BMW 135i Cab after 1700 miles......and I thought that was bad. At least in that case the knew exactly what it was and had it fixed in about 4 hours. Keeping my fingers crossed for tomorrow.....I told them if they kept the car for the weekend I wanted a nicer loaner :p:

Hope all goes well for you, my issue with my C right from the get go with fluctuating rpm that wouldnt stay constant even on cruise. End up being some pins being loose. GOod Luck! Feel safe that your dealer is keeping you in the loop, show you they are really working on the issue.

Yeah agree, we have had heat wave in Vancouver for the last two days and my car indicated 37 celcius while other car indicated 32..wonder if that is just like that or whether a new sensor would make a diff?

Something else I've noticed that I'd like to compare.

When I set the a/c to 76 in a hot car, the fan speed is high but the air coming out the vent doesn't feel cold cold. Drop it to 74 and you can tell that it's much colder...more than 2 degrees for sure. I would have thought that in a hot car the air coming out the vent would start off as cold as the system can deliver then as you it gets closer to set temperature that it wouldn't be as cold. Actually, it seems that its behaving correctly at 74 and not at 76. ....and yes, I'm now leaving it at 74. On top of that, if the car has been sitting in the sun (store parking lot) I'll use the key pointing at the driver's door to lower all the windows and open the sun roof and then once the car is started, switch the a/c to max.

Over here in the tropics, my would normally say 40 Celsius but in reality, its only about 36 C outside. Curious too, why do our cars give us a higher reading?

Seems that I remember something about the sensor being under the hood rather than on a side view mirror.

3rd Update: They are replacing the Valve Body in the transmission. This will be done on Monday.

Of even more concern, however, is that they say it's acting fine now. They were able to pull a ton of codes out of the memory, which helps, but I'm afraid now that I'm going to get stuck somewhere with this car and not be able to drive it home.

had a similar problem a year ago with my bmw 320

the head unit couldnt recognise gear change...

but when ey fixed it,was all ok.never bothered me again