A couple nights ago, I was backing down my driveway. Shifted in reverse, the dashboard said it was in R, but it was really in neutral - engine just revved, and the driveway is sloped enough that it rolled partway into the street. Tried shifting into Drive, dashboard said 'D', but it was still in neutral. Going back and forth between R and D did nothing. Shut the car off, restarted, and it worked normally again. The dealer has ordered a new electronic shifter, it will be covered under warranty. This is my first warranty repair, a CPO '15 GLK 350. They gave me a '16 E350 for a loaner, which is a nice car.

 

My 2014 glk250 did a similar thing. I stopped at a store on the way home from work and when I came back I started it as normal, but when I put it in reverse it just revved. I tried other gears and none of them worked. I shut it down and restarted it and all was normal. It only happened that one time so I didnt't take it in. I traded that car a couple months later because the dealer couldn't seem to fix the CEL, but that is another story.

 

It seems most of the time when you have an electronic systems issue restarting will correct the problem. I've had issues with the distronic system where all advanced features shut down(adaptive cruise control, active lane assist, etc.). A restart normally will clear the event messages and resets the functions.

 

I got the car back. The dealer said the computer did not show any codes, but went ahead and replaced the electronic shifter. He said that they were concerned that even though there were no codes, it may be a sign of eventual failure. A chevy dealer would have just said - no problem found, go away. The repair order states that they tested the gear selector with actual values in the steering column module and found that at times the values did not match. So I guess there actually was a problem.