busheleague

All of a sudden my wagon has stopped working. When I move from Park to Reverse or Drive all I hear is a whining noise with zero movement. I dont feel the slightest of vibrations indicating that the car has entered into gear. Not even limp mode oh my. When I move back to P the box makes a sort of clicking/tapping noise, almost as if its coming to settle on the park lock?? couldnt find any similar threads so here I am.

Transmission was rebuilt by indie shop around 60,000 KM ago so I really thought this car was a safe bet when I bought it. Currently has 240k

So far I have:

Removed and cleaned TCU with contact cleaner, it was pretty well soaked in ATF.

Replaced connector plug ( thank you mbworld forums!)

I feel that the next step would be replacing the conductor plate alongside an ATF oil and filter change. Wanted to see if by the symptoms described above meant the tranny is toast, got an indie transmission guy to take a look and he seems to think so. Don't fancy spending 3k though :/

Thanks in advance!

Plutoe

Sounds like a bad torque converter-----donate the car as the torque converter is worth more than the car, but before you do anything, visit a responsible shop for a proper diagnosis.

kajtek1

Can't see it from here, but my crystal ball points to flex disk or CV joint.

busheleague

Thanks for the tips. I suspected the torque converter from the start as it usually shows itself with whining.

For good measure I decided to drop the valve body and check the solenoids. Got audible clicking and correct impedence from all. One thing I noticed when removing the transmission sump is that it was loose. Yes loose. The bolts could almost be untreaded by hand.
As a result there was a notable amount of crud in the pan and throughout the valve body. I disassembled the lot for cleaning.

Researching a little more it appears as though torque converters can be easily damaged with foreign contaminents, fins etc can break off/become distorted. This might make sense with the clicking noise I'm hearing? Safe to assume that with how much grime there was in the valve body that the torque converter will have suffered. I have sourced a torque converter from a crashed E320 for cheap, Is there any good threads detailing a torque converter replacment/transmission removal?

kajtek1

There ate tons and tons of info about 5G on benzworld
And no Plutoe's comments.