rivcal4life

I admit, My transmission hasnt been picture perfect since I got the car, and it has been getting mildly worse over the past week. I havnt driven her since saturday, but today when I went to pick up a friend for lunch, second gear just wouldnt kick in. The needle just bounced off redline for a second until I let off and let it go into 3rd.

I was just getting around to selling it to buy a newer one too.

Any suggestions?

shadowgriffen

What exactly do you mean by it hasn't been "picture perfect" since you got it? Does it shift too quickly? Too rough? Have you tried adjusting the bowden cable?

you state "second gear wouldnt kick in", does this mean your car is starts in first gear all-of-a-sudden?

A stuck or "stacked" gear could very well be valve body related, perhaps there is a slight accumulation of gunk in one of the oil channels due to service neglect.

Also, have you had any trans service? I.e fluid flush/filter? Is your trans leaking? how many miles?

BenzBro

If my memory serves me correctly, i had that problem back when i had my '86 190e. i think it may have been not wanting to go into 3rd though. Unfortunately, i don't remember what the problem was or how it was fixed.

Jon, do you remember? (my1stbenz)

Chappy

How many miles on your car?....could be ready for a rebuild.

jeffreyli86

Hey there mate,
I thought it was normal for these gearbox and engines to seep a bit of oil?
My engine, gearbox and steering box/column all leak a small amount of oil (nothing to worry about, can't even see the difference on the dip stick)..
I've replaced the parts to fix the oil leak but it stops for a while and comes back..
I've heard that all these cars leak a small amount of oil and it's normal??

I'm now very worried

shadowgriffen

I wouldn't call it normal, I would call it "common".

It's very common for the (engine) headgasket to go bad on these cars, timing chain cover as well. These faults would make you car look as if it's hit it's menstrual cycle, not a pretty sight.

Transmission wise - I would be worried if you have to top off every week, that would spell trouble for certain!

Cheers,
Henry

rivcal4life

The tranny used to be fine, however the rear end would sometimes grind. Its pretty hard to explain. When I would punch the gas, there would be a slight noise and rubbing coming from the rear gear box. The best way i could put it, would be to say that it felt as if maybe 1 tooth was missing from the rear diff.

Then a couple months ago, no matter how hard i tried, I couldnt get the car to go down into first gear. It started working randomly one evening about 6 weeks ago. Maybe more.

Now It goes down into first, but when it hits around 4000, it just begins to rev as if it shifted into second, but there is no gear there. I let off, it falls into third, and everythings fine from there on up.

I dont know when the last tranny service was, and I just rolled over 110k last week.

now...how much is a service gonna run me?

battlecat714

oohh this sounds like what happened to my e320. I would be driving normally on the freeway then then when I'd slow down, it'd slip gears and redlined everytime I tried to push the gas. I had to get the whole tranny re-done. I know a guy that works on MB trans for cheap over in garden grove. let me know if you need his number.

jeffreyli86

Cheers for the reply.
One good thing about my slow M111 engine is that I don't think it has the head gasket thing..
I see that the oil seeps through on the sump gasket as well as the gearbox gasket, rather than the top bit... Also, I never need to top up anything on my car, so I guess the leakage is minimal? I just find it kind of worrying because for some reason I equate a leak with a problem...
What do I have to do to stop the sump and tranny leaking?
I change the filter and seals on the tranny everytime I do an oil change. As regards the sump, I've had that addressed once, because last time it leaked hugely... But now it's really just the stain on the sump that tells me it's seeping a bit... Do I have to get the seals redone again?

Sorry for being a *** again hahaha.
Jeff

jgajito

What my mechanic told me, was I had (190E) a problem with the centrifugal governor. Does the W124's have it? I'm assuming on older models, I'm not familiar with the larger engines on the W124. But I guess there was also the same problem with the '93 190E 2.6 16V Sportline (same engine as the 300E M103 and from what I've read, the same transmission was interchangeable).

Can anyone confirm this?

jgajito

UPDATE:
Ok, here's what I found on Benzworld.org, thanks to Zookman.

http://www.benzworld.org/forums/w201...rive-gear.html

rivcal4life

thanks for the info.

not sure if this applies to a 300e, but ill take a look under the car tomorrow.

any one else have any ideas?

rivcal4life

bump?

Untertürkheim

These transmissions are supposed to be serviced (complete fluid drain and filter replacement) every 30k miles. IF you follow that rule (and use M1 ATF) your transmission should last forever. If you've ruined your transmission because of poor or no maintainance, you have nobody to blame but yourself.

rivcal4life

dang...harsh?

come on...how many of us have had our cars since mile 1?

I just bought this vehicle in october, @ 99,700 miles. The seller had records for all 30, 60, 90, services, so I assumed transmission work was included in this. The car had rear end damage before, but was fixed almost perfectly. This may or may not have an impact on the way it drives today.

I have plenty of people to blame other than myself, and therefor, I will.

shdoug

I thought he meant that the owner who neglects the transmission service has no else to blame, not you specifically. Most people probably don't service their tranny every 30K and that may be why I read so much about tranny problems with these cars.

Chappy

Look for a quality shop that can offer a rebuilt transmission with a parts and labor warranty. Unless you are a serious DIYer you could be in for a very costly repair. Good luck.

shadowgriffen

No one will touch my cars trans! Not mercedes, not anyone! They tell me that if the trans has passed 200K, then I might as well not mess with it and be happy it still works!

damn it!