hello all - I'm actually trying to help my friend who's got a 2000 e430 that is having shifting problems - specifically car suddenly would not shift into R or P from Drive unless both the Emergency Brake and the brakes are pressed in some kind of sequence (i forget exactly).

He took the car to an independent (well-reviewed FWIW) shop in Berkeley and they said needs a new shifter module - my research here seems to back that up.
I'm fairly mechanically savvy - and worked briefly as a mechanic in a friend's shop many years ago - not rebuild your transmission savvy but can diagnose fairly well when given time to research.

Anyway - the shop was being cagey about providing him with the error codes and want him to approve work over the phone without sending him a work order. I told him not to do it and requested that they give him the error codes they found since he was paying them for the diagnostic anyway (~$170).

He texted me a list of more than 40 codes they read to him over the phone, I was immediately suspicious and googled the 8th in the list B1010 and got "cam timing problem". Well that sounds like bull**** to me…
Other codes they 'reported':
B1736 and C1200 - both CATALYTIC CONVERTER codes
P1875 - another camshaft timing code
P1999 - "oil or coolant leaking from their normally closed-loop systems, or it may indicate dangerous exhaust gases"

Ok - I'll stop there.
Now admittedly I have little experience with MB's and usually work on older stuff and during my brief career didn't particularly use code readers a lot (long time ago and we worked on a lot of Amercian classic stuff) - so perhaps this isn't nefarious and a single electronic problem can cause cascading codes. I don't know but I don't like it.

I told him to take the car out of the shop immediately and after looking at the excellent illustrations, descriptions and tutorials here on the procedure for replacing the shifter console I told him we can just do it ourselves...

Thoughts? Advice?

Oh and btw - I did of course do a google search around the question 'is it normal for my car to receive [40/multiple/numerous] error codes" but signal to noise ratio was too high for anything pertinent.
Sure would appreciate any advice!

Cheers,
Bennett


Thoughts?

 

Thanks for responding Plutoe - although I have to admit that I don't know what you mean by "In any event that does not solve the problem but simply confuses the unknowing that does not know his or her car."
I agree with you about finding a good local indie shop... Although I was planning on doing the console replacement for him myself and seeing if that solves the shifting problem.

One new piece of information - when my buddy went to the shop told him they decided the problem is NOT in the shifter console as they originally claimed - but is the conductor plate... However upon reading up on the symptoms it does not seem likely.
Not too eager to crawl around under the car and do work on the transmission etc - getting old and don't seem to like it anymore ;-)

 

are you suggesting I post this over at Benzworld.org?

 

Tens of codes is kind of normal if you haven't car scanned for years.
Each time the car has a hiccup- it will memorize code. Lot of codes might be triggered when PO run the battery low 10 years ago.
So proper procedure is to clear the codes and recheck them after some driving. When they come back, then worry.
You can buy good scanner for about $150 this way you will not have to worry about solicitors with XDOS/DAS.

 

ah - good to know - thanks kajtek1

 

It's "the other" site for a reason. I got banned from there years ago.

 

At least you don't have the sick withdraws Plutoe does.
All commercial forums have their agendas and depend on moderators your opinions will cross with them sooner or later.
Here moderation is non-existent, what works both ways.

 

Yes, but if you get out of line enough expect a PM from an admin or mod. I know from experience.

This site is pretty hands off when it comes to mods interfering with posts other than possibly locking them.

 

heck, I'm a mod on one of the MB forums and even got my pee-pee slapped
for stepping out of line by an Administrator. I've also had my posts deleted
without explanation. No time outs, yet. It's cool, I have my motorcycle forums which I visit a lot

 

edited

 

From what I know Raymond - you are mature member, when my impression is that moderators on this forum are Playstation kids, who do a lot to ..... not do much.
I got suspended for reporting out of control replies. Such reports made the kids working and they did not like it