I was driving my 2005 E500. All the lights on the dash flashed on and car slowed to a complete stop (never turned off.) I turned the car completely off and then I started it again. no problem there. The "Check Engine" light came on and stayed on. Car will switch gears like normal when the brake is depressed, however it will not move when it is in drive or reverse. The car will just roll as if it is in neutral. Had the car towed to my home. I have read several posts but couldn't find anything more recent than 2011 or anything that had an actual resolution. Trying to determine what the issue may be as I can not drive it anywhere to have them read the check engine codes.

 

if you can get a hold of an OBDII reader so at least you can read the codes, (a good thing to have in handy for under 20 bucks btw) otherwise have it towed to the nearest dealership or indi.

you may have a better response on the 211 section.

 

Sounds like "Limp Mode" search it and that will be a good start. Good Luck.

 

Thank you for the feedback I posted here in W212 in error. I ordered an OBDII reader so I may be "dead in the water until then."


@JAHQUAN3_I thought that if the car was in "LIMP Mode" it would drive but not switch gears and you would be limited to driving at about 30mph. Mine will not drive at all in forward or reverse.

 

thats what i was thinking about the limp mode too but we'll never know for sure until you can get the codes or somebody checks it. goodluck mate! hope you can fix your car soon.

 

To my knowledge yes the cars I've read about all still do move not sure how fast exactly. Just a suggestion since there maybe varying degrees of it. I hope you find out what is happening and keep us posted.

 

That is not how limp mode works. That is another mode that does not sound good. Stop mode. Something sounds broken in the transmission and I wish you well in sorting it out without breaking the bank.

 

This sounds like a $3000 to $6000 dollar failure. Welcome to Mercedes. FWIW, I just bought an immaculate 20-year old Japanese sports car with 42K miles for the price of a Mercedes transmission.

I recommend you invest in towing insurance for $6 to $12 per year. That will get it to the dealer. Getting it back is on you.

What occurred is not "limp" mode. It is either a mechanical failure or the TCU crapped out. For cost versus benefit, I'd pray it was the TCU; much cheaper than a transmission. The stock transmission has a rugged "fail-safe" mode; your car did not fall into that mode; that implies serious problems; torque converter, final drive, driveshaft failure (that one should be obvious), electronic control (i.e. TCU) failure, possible broken harness (unlikely but in the realm of probability). This one you need to spend the money on professional (not to be confused with cheap garage) diagnostics. Serious work, serious money, serious effort. Potentially major work.

Let us know what the end answer/result is to resolve this.

 

Does not sound like an issue with CEL but to read the CEL codes go get a cheap OBD II scanner. Usually CEL indicates emission control system issues and none of these should render the car useless but who knows?


A simple thing to do is to check that both CV joints are in place and not broken. I don't think your car has a differential lock so loss of one of the CV joints (drive shaft) would cause a dead stop.