Rumbling car and not responsive to gas pedal in reverse and drive(cold weather?)
Thread Starter
Newbie
Joined: Jan 2022
Posts: 1
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E430 2001 (W210)
Rumbling car and not responsive to gas pedal in reverse and drive(cold weather?)
Hello all,
I drive an 2001 E430 4matic handed down to me from my dad a couple years back. I love the car and it’s served him and I very well for 2 decades now.
The temperatures where I live are around 5-10 F and as a result I’ve been having some issues I didn’t have in the warmer weather. Last winter if I didn’t allow the car to run for around 30-60 seconds in park before switching to reverse the engine would shut off completely upon switching to reverse.
This winter, after starting my car recently and allowing it to stay in park for 30-60 seconds switching to reverse the engine will shut off. So naturally thought I should run the car longer to warm it.
I allowed it to stay in park for nearly 15 minutes with the engine temperature reaching 60 C, then switched it to reverse and the car did not shut off however it had a low erratic rumbling and did not move the normal distance it does when I press the gas pedal. I then switched to neutral and the engine sound was relatively normal and then when switching to drive it did not respond to the gas pedal much at all and did not move much. Worrying I would damage it I shut it off and decided not to drive it.
I also faced this same issue a week ago where it took 5 minutes of running the car on park for the engine to finally run without the odd rumbling and non-responsiveness to the gas pedal.
For reference I have driven this car on multiple 650 mile trips in the pat as well as two weeks ago in slightly warmer weather (~30-40 C) without issue. Please let me know what this issue could be caused by. Thank you all so much for you advice and thoughts.
I drive an 2001 E430 4matic handed down to me from my dad a couple years back. I love the car and it’s served him and I very well for 2 decades now.
The temperatures where I live are around 5-10 F and as a result I’ve been having some issues I didn’t have in the warmer weather. Last winter if I didn’t allow the car to run for around 30-60 seconds in park before switching to reverse the engine would shut off completely upon switching to reverse.
This winter, after starting my car recently and allowing it to stay in park for 30-60 seconds switching to reverse the engine will shut off. So naturally thought I should run the car longer to warm it.
I allowed it to stay in park for nearly 15 minutes with the engine temperature reaching 60 C, then switched it to reverse and the car did not shut off however it had a low erratic rumbling and did not move the normal distance it does when I press the gas pedal. I then switched to neutral and the engine sound was relatively normal and then when switching to drive it did not respond to the gas pedal much at all and did not move much. Worrying I would damage it I shut it off and decided not to drive it.
I also faced this same issue a week ago where it took 5 minutes of running the car on park for the engine to finally run without the odd rumbling and non-responsiveness to the gas pedal.
For reference I have driven this car on multiple 650 mile trips in the pat as well as two weeks ago in slightly warmer weather (~30-40 C) without issue. Please let me know what this issue could be caused by. Thank you all so much for you advice and thoughts.
Junior Member
Joined: Dec 2020
Posts: 53
Likes: 10
E320 4matic
Ok, I'll take a shot at possible diagnoses:
• your transmission's torque converter is locking up intermittently during cold weather, causing stalls
• your 4matic transfer case or rear diff is extremely low on oil (or both are)
• your fuel pump could be failing or your fuel filter clogged
• gas pedal is TBW (throttle by wire), a short in the circuit could possibly cause stalling and non-responsiveness
Have you read any codes with a diagnostic scanner? That should reveal the true cause(s).
Let us know.
• your transmission's torque converter is locking up intermittently during cold weather, causing stalls
• your 4matic transfer case or rear diff is extremely low on oil (or both are)
• your fuel pump could be failing or your fuel filter clogged
• gas pedal is TBW (throttle by wire), a short in the circuit could possibly cause stalling and non-responsiveness
Have you read any codes with a diagnostic scanner? That should reveal the true cause(s).
Let us know.
