I was on the highway in my E500 using the transmission in "manual" mode. I proceeded to downshift to third to accelerate hard. When the tach approached approx 5800 I went to bang it into fourth but inadvertently pushed the gear shift into neutral. When I brought the gear shifter back down to the drive position the transmission STAYED in neutral even with the shifter in the drive position. I put on my hazard blinkers and coasted over to the breakdown lane. Once stopped, with the car running, I pushed the gear shift lever up to park and then back down to the drive position and the transmission returned to normal operation. I can't even begin to explain why the transmission did not reengage since I've done this (put in neutral) before on purpose when in automatic mode and wanted to listen for engine noises.

 

Seems as though it should go back into drive under normal conditions, however under a malfunction it might be bad to re-engage the drivetrain and induce an unintentional rear-wheel lockup (or severe braking effect).

It IS an electronic shifter (there is no mechanical connection between the transmission and lever itself). Perhaps it is programmed this way intentionally?

Anybody have comments on how likely it is to inadvertantly select neutral while driving? Sounds like a possible problem if you can't re-engage without stopping.

 

Something else to watch for is leaning against the gearshift in manual for longer than intended - I thought one tap = one gear - but it turns out that if you keep the gearleaver over against the "-" to downshift for a little longer then it keeps going and selects 3rd, 2nd etc.

 

I believe the duration of the shift-lever-movement is tied to 'best gear' selection, not 'continuous downshift/upshift'

I recall reading in a document (manual online?) that if you tap the lever you get +1 or -1 gear, depending on direction of the tap.

if you *hold* the lever for 2 seconds to the minus-side, you get 'best acceleration for this current road-speed' gear, meaning if you're heading up a hill at 50mph in 4th and it decides it needs 2nd to keep that speed, it will drop down to 2nd.

on the 'up' side, I forget what 2 seconds to the 'up' side does.

-james

 

I had a different incident with my transmission yesterday with my E500. I was at a red light, i proceeded to accelerate on green but when I accelerated the i got a jerk and the transmission came out of gear automatically and the engine rpm just reved high. The traction control did not kick in and I was not manually shifting any gears. I was just accelerating from a red light, my hand was not even on the shifter. I tried to accelerate several times but the car would not go. I turned on my hazards and as the car slowed down to about 5-10 mph, the transmission automatically engaged again by itself. I had no idea what the hell happened... It felt like as I was accelerating, the clutch disengaged and I was just in neutral. during the incident, I checked to see what the computer console was reading and it showed "D" as normal driving... Anyone out have this experience....

 

Couple of times at low speed, the car would not respond to giving it more gas. (could have been uphill). Will need to pay more attention. Anyone with similar experience?

 

I experienced the transmission malfunction in my 2003 E-500 for the very first time this weekend -- it happened while I merging onto I-495 from a relatively short on-ramp. The moment I stepped on the accelerator to merge, the transmission seemed to slip into neutral as my tach shot up, but my velocity remained constant. Not very inspiring. I shifted the gear selector into neutral and back into drive, but nothing worked -- had to slam on the brakes and coast onto the side of the road. The driver in the car behind me flipped out (understandably) and proceeded to honk his horn as if he was a NY hack. My transmission only re-engaged after I turned off the vehicle and re-started it.

This is very disappointing and disconcerting. The transmission problem, together with all the wierd noises my car makes (not to mention that my suspension seems to raise and lower itself for no apparent reason), is making me regret trading in my '99 528i (which, IMHO, was the best car I've ever owned - never had a problem).

 

I tach did not shoot up. There was just no response to depressing the gas pedal. But I don't think the car slowed either. But it seemed to get out of it while still moving in traffic without having to stop or touch the shift lever at all.

 

I may be important that anyone who has experienced this report it to MB. Reporting it to a service advisor at a dealer is no doubt a dead end. Maybe an email on MBUSA would at least get it on record. If there is a problem the only way MB will know if they get a string of serious reports.

Anyone from MB reading this forum should at least enter it into the MB database.

 

I've experienced this a number of times here in New England this winter. The Manual says that the engine needs to get up to operating temperature (whatever that is) before the transmission will function normally; i e, if the engine is cold such as when first started in the morning, it will 'crawl' regardless of how much gas you give it. I've learned to let the engine warm up for a minute or two before engaging the transmission.

Having said all the above however, it is not the same thing as the transmission disengaging while tying to merge into freeway traffic. I haven't experienced this in my E320.

 

I remember a while back people on the ML board talking about throttle hesitation from a cold start. Since it is throttle-by-wire, on cold starts, when the catalytic converters do not perform optimally, the throttle computer intrudes to reduce emissions. Unfortunately, I forget the logic on how this reduces emissions, but I remember this as the explanation.

I experienced this when my parents still owned our 1998 ML320. On cold days, there would be a 1 or 2 second delay between pressing the gas and actually moving, especially when on a hill, right after starting the car.

Weird, I posted the same thing on the W202 C-Class board today.

 

Wow, you got it into neutral? Is it that easy to do? Seems difficult to pull that off (push sideways, not up). BTW, the tranny should upshift at the redline, thus removing the need to upshift manually into fourth. I think that is correct...mine at least does it.

 

Shifting into neutral wasn't a problem (just pushed the gear level up) -- the problem was getting the transmission to re-engage into drive while I was coasting. Should I not be able to shift into neutral from the Drive position? Not sure that I understand your comment.

 

mb-in-dc

I know exactly what you are talking about. The transmission would not engage when I was trying to merging on to on coming traffic from route 7 towards Tysons Corner. I stepped on the gas also and it would not engage. This is not about shifting the gears manually, the transmission just decided to automatically disengage during a merge onto a 50+ mph hour lane. I almost got hit in the rear by a dump truck due to the fact that my car would not accelerate. It would just rev the engine!

 

Especially when I have an E500 on order. Are there any Technical Service Bulletins out regarding the W211 transmission? Perhaps, covering the "programming" of the tranny. I understand that the computer will learn the way you drive and develop a shift pattern based on your driving input.

However, auto-shifting into neutral while merging on the interstate is ridiculous and flat out dangerous!

Those of you taking your E's in for servicing and evaluation... please keep us posted on this matter.

Thanks!

 

For the two incidentes, it wasnt right after start up but maybe 1 or 2 miles after. And the engine temperature gauge display was within the bar graph. I'll have to pay more attention but I hope it dosent happen again.

 

I was responding to ajoe's original post where he shifted in to neutral by accident. I find that nearly impossible to do.

 

Info - I found out that if the computer thinks there is braking input and accelerator input at the same time, then the accelerator input is ignored. It may be a glitch, since the car did not slow down no braking action was attempted by the computer (correctly) (means no depression of the brake pedal), but no gas change (trottle change) was provided to the engine either (incorrectly)...

 

I've found that the transmission on my E320 (870 miles) is very "glitchy" also. For example, if I have to slow down in order to get onto a ramp or something, I'll hit the brake, slow the car down, then when I hit the accelerator again the transmission engages hard, or there will be a lag and a lurch before it engages. Sometimes as I'm coasting or slowing down (ie towards a red light) the transmission will shift hard for no reason. Also, going up the hill into where I live, causes the transmission to kick down a gear. Instead of a smooth downshift, it will come out of gear, there will be a 1-2 second pause where the car lurches forward a little and the lower gear engages very roughly. This happens a lot more when the car isn't fully up to temperature, but regardless, it still happens. I had an E500 for the weekend while the dealer prepped my E320, and I noticed that since it has gobs of torque, the transmission has to downshift a lot less. Have any other E320 owners experienced similar symptoms??

 

E320, 1700 miles, nothing unusual on mine. Until the engine is warm, there is a higher rpm shift (about 3000), but that's been a part of emissions management for years on most cars.

 

Just to clarify. I shifted into neutral by making the mistake of pushing up rather than to the right. I was trying to shift very rapidly and because of old habits (non MB) jammed it into neutral. What was disturbing was the fact that when put back into drive the transmission did not reengage. The car was definitely warmed up.

 

To follow-up on AJOE's post, my transmission was in Drive at the time I was trying to merge. In other words, I wasn't using the steptronic feature at the time. Since my last posting, I've visited my MB dealer to have the transmission checked out. As I suspected, my service advisor informed me that his techs were not able to find any "fault codes" stored in the car's computer. Someone road-tested the car for 70 miles (had it overnight -- makes me think someone drove it home for the evening, but that's another discussion) and was unable to "replicate" the problem. At the end of the day, I was told that there's nothing wrong with the car. Guess I was just imagining it all? Or so the dealer would like me to believe.

On a separate topic, have any other E-500 owners experienced diesel-like noises whenever you accelerate from a standing position? For some reason, my car's engine sounds pretty unrefined when I accelerate (sounds like an early eighties 300D). At first I thought that MB had modified the engine for the E-class, but I was recently told that my car's V-8 is the same exact engine used in the S-500. I've been in my brother-in-law's S-500, and his engine sounds quite smooth. I'd be curious to hear whether any other owners have the same engine sound effects.

 

I took delivery of an E500 3 weeks ago and have noticed the same "diesel" noise on acceleration. I wonder if it is the same as the "ticking" sound that many have posted here in the past. The "ticking sound", according to several members of this forum, is due to engine mounts. I shall be taking the car to the dealer and have them look at it.

 

I have not notice these kinds of noises when accelerating. The only thing i hear is a wonderful exhaust note of the V8. "Sounds" like you should have it checked out.

 

Hi,

This thread was discussed awhile back, seems like no one have this problem again, or we just get used to it? I just experience the transmission slipped into netural by itself while accelerating 3 times in the past 2 months. The first time happened to me was 2 months ago. I was accelerating from a red light normally and when the car reached about 30-40mph, the gear just slipped into netural by itself with the rpm shoot right to 5000 + rmp and the car starts decelerating with no power. It was a dangerous situation as the cars following behind rushed towards my rear and have no idea why I am slowing down. My both hands were on the steering wheel and the shifter still on "D" and the dash clearly display "D". The car acts normal again as I slow to a near stop and the gear just reengaged itself. I explained the problem to the dealer service advisor and of course the result was "can not replicate the problem, so no problem found."

In the last 2 week, the problem re-occur twice. I am really worry.
Anyone has this problem again?