JDBKLYN89

had the wonderful experience yesterday afternoon of having my transmission lever BREAKING OFF IN MY HAND. Happened in my local gym parking lot leaving the car completely disabled, no way to manually override tranny into neutral, no way to push. Completely blocked off access to the gym parking lot and trapped several people in their parking spots on a busy friday night for well over an hour! One of the most humiliating experiences of my life. This was the final straw for me, will be letting owner of dealership know that I do not intend to take the car back when it is fixed. Something like a broken cup holder is all fine and good, I understand, but when a major piece of equipment breaks from normal use at 7k miles, putting my safety at risk I have an issue.

Tomspo04

Crazy...very strange malfunction. I mean you only place a very light amount of pressure on the lever to engage drive or reverse, right?

K-A

WOW. Never considered that happening. Did you yank it extra hard or something? Even if, this is one of the inherent sacrifices of a thin/stalk type of shifter as opposed to a central gear shifter which can withstand tons more force.

Even so, sounds like you may be working too hard at the gym dude! Seems like good results.

hyperion667

that sux, must have been all pumped up from the gym? (jk)

good luck with it

Arrie

It broke the metal part inside the switch. This takes a lot more than normal force for it to happen.

Interesting though - what would happen if for some odd reason this stalk would break off at 70 mph on a hwy?

JDBKLYN89

That's my concern too, what would have happened had this happen at a high speed of far away from home, would have been a more dangerous situation rather than just an extremely humiliating one. Can't believe that Benz gives no way for a manual "limp mode" to be able to push the car in situations like this.

JDBKLYN89

Yeah, never crossed my mind that this could even happen. It was quite shocking to say the least. I'm thinking there may be some flaw in the design of this style of shifter and that might be one of the reasons that it has been changed to the "uglier" design for 2014. The fact is simple a major piece of equipment should in no way or shape fail under the amount of pressure generated from one human hand.

Tjdehya

Dude, Lay off the steroids! I am sorry but it takes considerable force to break that thing off.
Next time calm down read the manual to find out what to do... and if all else fails PICK UP THE PHONE and call the lifetime roadside assistance.

JDBKLYN89

This was before the gym! Never made it in haha. Nor did about a dozen other people who I was blocking!

JDBKLYN89

Hey dude, lay off if you aren't gonna add something productive. Steroid comments aren't ignorant or anything right? It obviously does not take a considerate about of force as mine broke off in my hand yesterday with a regular amount of force being applied. This is what my issue is. And there is NO WAY to manually push the car, they had to take a wheel off, install some sort of spacer and then tow with a chain.

K-A

Ouch. That must have been embarrassing indeed. I can only imagine the snarky comments made by those blocked by the "expensive Mercedes who's shifter broke". This is when you allow the guy in the Honda behind you to really give himself a nice pat on the back.

JDBKLYN89

Haha yeah definitely wasn't the most well liked guy there last night, but thank god didn't get cursed out too badly. Like I said at this point, after this I just think my time with this car is finished. I am willing to upgrade to a CLS550 if my guy just takes it back now with a little less than a year left. Hoping they will consider how unhappy I am and that we have had 12+ cars from them. Will see how it goes Monday.

T.H.Carrera

benz currently has 5 payment waiver accelerator program until the end of the month.

MBIAN

A problem after working out with very heavy weights can be that you body is in a very high state of intensity and applies excessive force in another area.
I would like to think that MB shall send this part to their materials department to help them understand what sort of force would have been applied for the part to fail.
Only you know how you operated the stalk and whether or not it was reasonable or not.

hyperion667

the cls has the same shifter I think eh? on the 'tree'....
that was one thing I was baffled by; never having had a nice car, I didn't know about the shifter on the wheel spot, always thought that was odd.....and now I constantly reach for it while in my cls because I don't drive it much.......but I was lucky enough to have earned myself a nail in my right rear tire today.....there goes 500 bux........

pinipig523

HOw would the stalk break at 70mph on the hwy? For what reason would you have to be manipulating the stalk while driving?

JDBKLYN89

Yeah, problem with that was this was before the gym, so no weight lifting occurred. The other problem is that this is our 7th Mercedes with this exact same shifter. Never had one issue, not one. I think that if had a habit of "applying excessive force" I would have had an issue on one of the 6 other cars. I know the exact amount of pressure / speed required to switch gears. This was a freak thing that I never expected would ever happen.

JDBKLYN89

Sorry to hear that hype! Always wonder how fckin nails always end up in the street! Yeah I don't think it's so much the 'tree' design as I've had numerous other benzes with this exact design since 07' never had a single issue before. There had to be some issue with this specific car that the piece gave out after a year of ownership. Willing to play the odds and bet that won't have this issue in another car so I am willing to try again with another.

Arrie

How about an angry wife or girlfriend trying to hit you with a purse and misses and hits the stalk instead. Or your drunk buddy you are hauling around just grappling it and braking it off. Would these qualify for an odd reason?

Tjdehya

Wow the Steroid comment was a joke but judging from you reaction it sounds like I was right... "Roid Rage" much?

That shifter can be operated with your pinky, you obviously used more that a single finger to rip that thing off... Roids perhaps?!?
I suggested that next time you call road side assistance but judging from your irate response to a little humor about steroids you may need to seek another professional about your obvious issue.

YYZ-E55

Exactly. And even if it did happen, at worst the car would go into neutral (assuming the stalk was bumped up and broke off) since the computer prevents engaging park or reverse at speed.

T.H.Carrera

Are you related to K-A in any way and about to jump to BMW F10 by any chance ?
































J/K

JDBKLYN89

Dude, take a chill pill. Nobody was irate here, I just don't see the humor in somebody bringing up drugs when I'm discussing my vehicle, thank you. Maybe it's me but I don't find drugs a funny issue. Obviously I called roadside assistance and my service manager the second it happened , in fact because we are such good customers the service manager himself came to hook it up to the service vehicle to be towed.

hyperion667

what a boner TJ is.........you just ignore his attempt to insult; then try to mask it as 'humor'......but any one can see through that sh it.......

if you have gotten that many cars from MB, they should really do the right thing and help you 'out' of the car, especially if you want into a ANOTHER new car

GabrielNov

I must admit I dislike the level by the steering wheel...I need a shifter!