BF3PDZ

Hey guys, i picked up my e350 on 20th April, and it has done 685km so far. I was hoping the car will be at least trouble free for the 1st 3 months of ownership. Today while driving through my suburb at around 50km/h ish, the engine suddenly became very noisy, but it wasn't vibrating harshly. The car slowed to around 35km/h and it was struggling to maintain at that speed. So i rev the engine to over 4000rpm however i was still going at below 40km/h. I looked at centre display on the speedo and none of the warning lights or display showed up. I did notice that on the screen where it shows which gear u are in, instead of the normal "D" it was showing "1". I haven't touch the gear**** or move it into tiptronic mode. It felt like the gearbox wont' shift up.I pulled over and restarted the car. After that the car was fine. I rang up the dealer and they told me to bring the car in next week to see if anything is wrong. I dont' think they can replicate the problem though since it is similar to computers. once it froze u restart it and then it works for a while until the next disaster strikes randomly.
I have 2 questions for u guys :

1) Is it ok to rev pass the 4000rpm during break in period?
2) I am guessing this problem has something to with the glitch in the gearbox software, what are your thoughts?

If i am correct, this gearbox was introduced at the end of 2003, so MB has more than 1 year to solve these bugs, and they stiill haven't bothered or managed to do that. Very disappointing.

CE750

Reving above 3000 during break-in while not advised (you're asked to avoid it).. is not going to make a difference that quickly. This is more likely to show itself at 150,000 miles.. also you're aloud to do it quite a few times I'm sure before any damage is done, look at all the idiot test drives that salesmen do with cars that only have 5-20 miles on the odo. This is why I test drove one car, and bough another with only 5 miles on the odo.

That said, I've reved my diesel to 4000+ a good 4-5 times since new and I only have 800 miles on it.. red line is 4600, so that's like you doing 5000.... and I'm sure no harm was done.

You have other issues... take it in for a proper diagnostics.

CASL55

How did you do that without downshifting? When you say "rev the engine", what do you mean? This is a auto transmission car, so to rev the engine in the usual sense of the phrase, without affecting vehicle speed, you have to shift the transmission to N, and press down on the accelerator.

Or were you just driving along, and with no action on your part, found the engine at high rpms and the gear selector in 1? In that case it's a case of "unintended shifting". You could have tapped the shift lever to the left 4 times without noticing it, or held it to the left for a second or so, or it could have been an electronic failure, and the transmission thought you tapped the lever.

Jim

Gregs210

Hey, Jim. I think what happened is that he simply accelerated, not realizing it was in 1st until he saw the revs, then the shift indicator. Also, he would have had to hit it more times than four, probably, because the RWD 350 has the 7-speed auto.

I for one don't think any of us are goofy enough we'd hit the shifter that many times without noticing (else we'd all be driving Kias ). There's any number of things that may have triggered the situation, it almost sounds like "limp mode". Hopefully when they have it in they'll be able to download the trouble codes from the computer and see what it was (rather than having to try and replicate it, that's one positive aspect of computers!). It seems highly unlikely that it's a mechanical problem with the transmission, maybe just a sensor that went out of range for a millisecond.

As far as pushing it up to 4K, unless you make a regular habit of that during break-in, it shouldn't have any effect on the engine.

Take care and enjoy the ride,
Greg

CASL55

Caught me there; both my MBs have the five speed.

Jim

BF3PDZ

The gearshift was untouched, and it was left in "D" for all the time. I didn't shift it into tiptronic mode at all. I was just driving along at a steady 50km/h and i wasn't trying to accelerate when the car suddenly slowed down. It was struggling to maintain speed, so i press the accelerator and i saw the rev rising pass the 4000rpm mark, but the car wasnt' accelerating at all.

LAZARU5

If the car was in "D", but in 2nd gear, shortly after starting to move forward for example, it would only take one inadvertent "tap" to put the car into 1st. I think it would stay in 1st until you tapped back up to "D". Another possibility would have been to accidentally tap into 1st while idling in "D" at a stop light. It may be several hundred feet before you realized that you were actually in 1st gear.

I would predict that the dealer will not be able to duplicate this when taken in for service.

ogostus

I had a similar experience with my E500 4matic after less than 700 miles. It went into the limp mode, stuck in 1st gear, with high revs but no shift in gear with attempted acceleration. The only difference with what you describe was that the Check Engine light came on. It happened late at night so I simply limped home and parked. The next morning, it was changing gears again, though the Check Engine light remained on, and I was able to drive "normally" to the dealer.

I was told something went wrong with the gear electronics, which were replaced and I have now had 1,500 trouble-free miles. I have gradually regained confidence in the car though, at the time, I was so upset that I considered selling it and taking the depreciation bath. Fortunately, commonsense prevailed and I am having the time of my life now.

Hope you are able to solve this problem soon.

E350AMG808

I have a similar problem. How much did it cost you? And exactly what was replaced?