Noah McGhee

Hi, I have a 08 CLS550 that over the last few months has been my "project". I bought it from a copart auction and am now finishing up the restoration however not without some unusual struggles. I have 2 particularly difficult problems I haven't been able to find solutions to with many hours and days of research.

Problem #1
The most daunting issue is that my shifter doesn't require the brake to be pressed to move through any of the gears. But even worse the shifter will "randomly", mostly on complete stops followed by turns, shift from drive to neutral. It happens whether the car has just been started or at full operating temp. It is very frustrating to drive with one hand always pulling the shifter back to keep it in drive. It feels somewhat loose in each gear but i have no idea if this amount is normal. I can feel the individual positions for the gears but the shifter wont stay completely in the gear. I'm wondering is there a potential electrical or hardware issue associated with this. I do have a iCarsoft i980 scanner and when searching through ESM (Electric Shift Module) codes i noticed that the P/R lock was inactive all the time. The transmission shifts smoothly otherwise. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

Problem #2
A more "reasonable" issue is a severe battery drain problem. About 9 - 10 A while off enough to drain the battery in about 4 hours. I tried the pulling every fuse method to no avail. The battery is the right size and less than a year old but I'll be replacing it soon to see if it changes anything. While in the trunk messing around I hear an electric fan running constantly that ceases when the AGW fuse is pulled. I left it out to see if it would change anything but it did not. The only other thing I can think of is the SCM but I thought I'd come here first before wasting more of my time. Also I notice the gauge cluster says please don't forget your key for long after the car is closed and the key is out of range so possibly this could be part of the problem. I'm not sure exactly what to do now so any help on this would also be very appreciated.

I planned to be enjoying the car by now so again anything that could allow that would be great. I am willing to try just about anything but if some more information would be useful I'll be glad to provide you with any detail.

Thanks

konigstiger

I recommend having someone pull fault codes using MB DAS (diagnostics) this should identify malfunctioning module causing battery drain, and gear shift malfunction - internal solenoid could be malfunctioning.

Noah McGhee

Thank you for the response,
The part number you gave me is for the whole shifter assembly, correct? Is that something that would have to be specifically programmed to my car if bought new?

Also the car is currently at an independent shop for an alignment I can see if they can pull codes while it’s there. If it was a module would that also have to programmed?

Thanks