hugho

I am a competent DIY mechanic with lots of MB experience with the 3 that I own. Recently I noted a rattling sound coming from the shifter area . The car has 260K miles and has the original tranny but otherwise runs fine. I change ATF every 40K miles and the pan is clean. What might cause this? trannys are just a mix of gears and clutches. what could rattle?

nelbur

The plastic bushings on the shift linkage can break and fall out, at least on newer models. I am not sure of your model.

John CC

Is the shift linkage tight? Failed bushings in Mercedes shift linkages are not unheard of...

hugho

Thank you Boys. I will crawl under her or get her on a lift ASAP.

hugho

thanks again John and Nelbur. Indeed both of the shifter bushings were toast. Pressing in new bushings was exceedingly hard even with my homemade rig so I spent the big bucks and got the tool from Kurt in Bellingham which made it child's play. Fixed the issue. Yea!

John CC

It's not just the newer models. It's common in the W126, and the for car in my avatar the 1-2 gate is against the driver's knee and the 3-4 gate is against the passenger's knee. Pretty low on the list right now, though...