CharlestonN

Well, i parked my car yesterday to run into staples and grab some printer paper and when i got back to my car and threw it into reverse to back out of the parking space there was no response, reverse is now neutral . . .

I had to push the car out of the spot

Then today i went to pull the car out of my garage and reverse kicked in after a few second delay and 2 more times after that

So i took it to the guy that works on my car and he said i most likely need to have my tranny rebuilt

My car just tripped 181k Miles

I am looking into buying a 94 500e with 80k or under miles next and keeping my coupe for later restoration

Anyway, other than the reverse not working the car still runs beautifully ! but i need something with lower miles pretty soon and id like to stick with the 124 body style

Saijin_Naib

save your CE, thing is beautiful

ZedStyle

how much is he quoting to fix the car?

shdoug

This is becoming an epidemic! I don't understand why this seems to happen so suddenly. If the clutches are wearing out I'd think it would start slipping in reverse, not just failing to engage. And why reverse? It hardly ever gets used. Did you have any symptoms before?

mgw_300e

the reverse clutches alsowork with first gear.

myfirstbenz

true, but then again, these cars start in second gear

This is why I snagged the pedal assembly out of a manual 190D just incase.... if my tranny goes, it is getting a manual swap

Saijin_Naib

^ smart move man. How involved will that process be?

Chappy

181,000 miles is a lot of mileage out of the original transmission, assuming the car has never been abused and all the services were performed on time. Knock on wood, my CE has 219K and still purrs....

Bigpete123

Here's the deal with the buy vs. rebuild decision.

Nobody is going to pay fair market value for a car with a bad tranny. Undoubtedly, they will research the cost and reduce their offer by the same amount, unless they know how to do it themselves.

So whether or not to fix the tranny shouldn't affect your decision about selling. You will either eat the cost in the discounted selling price, or eat the cost when having it rebuilt.

Same decision point I had recently. My CE's tranny went at about 192k or so (I had the exact same symptoms). I decided to pay for the work and keep the car. I figured, if I'm paying for the repair, I might as well get to enjoy it for a while. Since, I have decided that I won't buy a new car unless this one gets totalled (or a diesel/electric plug-in hybrid car finally makes it to the market )

My vote is for your to have it fixed and keep the car.

myfirstbenz

eh, I did it on my w108 and it wasn't too bad. Swap out the pedals, shift linkage, driveline and flywheel.

These cars are made to be manual, literally, but they come alive when you can control the gears like that. Today's super-duper 7G trannies are amazing, but ours... less than perfect.

crr1612

is that cheaper than rebuilding the auto?

myfirstbenz

in my case it was. I found a 67 250s that had a 4spd and a blown engine, so I picked up the car for $500 and it had a rebuilt tranny, a new auto was going to be way more.

My real goal is to replace the engine and tranny in my car when the tranny goes, hopefully with an 320CDI motor and manual box from europe. Fingers crossed.

crr1612

how did the gear ratios differ from that of a newer 4 speed auto? you still hitting atleast 135 mph?

shdoug

Mine has always started in first, then it likes to get into second quickly if I don't hammer it. If Reverse goes, does First still work? I could probably live without reverse since I mainly just drive it to work. I would just have to find an incline to park on.

I've always been curious about how an auto tranny works. I know very little about it and that's why it confuses me about the sudden reluctance to engage. With a manual, you can tell for a long time when the clutch is wearing out. Why are there no symptoms with these?

mgw_300e

+1

myfirstbenz

well, my 108 had a 2nd gear start as well... so being able to use 1st gear was great, but on the top end the car was really really wound out. I got a hold of a 4.5 (V8) rear diff that had taller gears, this helped first gear last a little longer off the line, and it added about 15-20mph on the hwy for equal rpms

myfirstbenz

x100!

Keeping your car for a later restore is a waste of space and money. Just sink the money into your ride. How about doing the 4.2l m119 conversion with a new tranny?

crr1612

so now you could be pushing close to 160 mph at redline?

myfirstbenz

no, the fastest I ever had that car was 120+ with the auto, so I bet I could safely get to 125-130ish. I won't be doing that anytime soon. That car is pretty much parked until I finish school next year. It needs a second restoration after 4 years of high school and 4 years in college and 2 years of sitting in my folks driveway.

jgajito

Heheh I had a 190E, it did about 115mph...

FYI,
I had the tranny go out on my 190E, the common symptom for this was the centrifugal governor on the earlier E-Klass. There's a write up in here by Zookman... or maybe on Benzworld.org, anyways, my mechanic wasn't qualified to fix it, and I wasn't planning to keep the 190E anyways, I was due for a new ride.

Believe or not, I sold it based on the parts than what the car was worth.

Anyways, hope this helps, if you plan to keep the car, fix it.

CharlestonN

I am most definitely keeping the car regardless of anything else just because i love the body style and 95 hardtop E320 coupes are fairly rare especially in emerald green, reverse still works a bit but only has enough power to slide out of parking spots, i am going to have the tran rebuilt as soon as possible and the guy quoted me about 2200 bucks for a full rebuild because just fixing reverse would cost almost the same in labor, he said he will warranty it for 2 years and that it should last another 100k miles after the rebuild

Also keep in mind that this is an E320 not a CE so it has a more powerful dual overhead engine with more torque but i believe it shares the transmission as the CE so i would imagine it would go out sooner on a 320 with the higher torque being applied to it

The guy who owned the car before me is a good friend of mine and he has a habit of driving cars into the ground so i am surprised the car has lasted this long as it is

I am still looking to buy a 94 500 E though so if anyone finds one for sale lemme know

Saijin_Naib

We have one, my dad was toying with selling it, I am not sure if he still is going to or not...