midget fidger

on the highway the car wants to stay in 3rd gear but sometimes when you stomp on the gas and release it'll upshift to 4th. if you accelerate faster than a granny in the lower gears, it might slip and go into some type of neutral with the engine still responding to the gas. i was driving with it on the highway and it just randomly cut out - the engine was still idling but when i stepped on the gas, nothing happened.

mechanic says the transmission is gone and that + broken AC is around $3000.

the exterior isn't all that great - left back door was hit and a horrible repair job was done plus the MB star cap from one of the rear rims is out. plastic handle broke off of parking break release and the radio/speakers might be dead (need to take to dealer to get code). 130,000 miles - carmax offered $4,800 for it.

any advice/suggestions on what i should do? has anyone experienced these transmissions problems or had a transmission replaced?

thanks
- jeff

ghost

Why dont you take it to a trusty worthy professional transmission place. They are experts on figuring out exactly what is going on. They can run a scanner and find out what error codes they get, could be simple as a cellnoid...etc....

I am not sure what year your car is, but $4800 is a horrible price. Estimate what kind of money you need to get it decent, not perfect specifically.

Look up kelly blue book value, private party, u should get at least something close to that. Its always better to sell it privately then to a dealer. If the price fixing relative to the overall value is good, then do that.

Have more than one opinion on the mechanical fix.

good luck

dlafever

WAIT! I had the exact same problem with my 1987 300E and fixed by changing the tranny fluid and filter, twice in three months. It has been shifting great for over two years now! Seems the previous owner did not like to do much more maintenance than take it to the car wash (as evidenced by the paint worn off of the roof). The first time I changed the filter and fluid I noticed that the old filter element was brown, it is supposed to be light yellow when new and orangish when coated with the red tranny fluid.

It was fine for two and a half months, then started the "where's my tranny" routine again. I bought another filter and more fluid, changed them again. I noticed this time that the filter was less brown than before, but still brown. This is the friction material from the clutch packs, part of normal wear. Since then it has been running great, nice firm shifts, no hunting, no slipping.

Talking it over with my MB buds, the tranny was fluid starved because the filter was plugged with crud. This past summer I pulled the engine/tranny to rebuild the engine. In the process I put a new tranny filter in, the old one this time was clean.

As for the A/C, what do they think is wrong? I am licensed for automotive A/C repair (computer weenie by trade).

-D

Good luck Jeff!

Dual 5Ls

The slipping could also be caused by bad valve bodies in the transmission, and that can be repaired cheaper than the cost of a whole new transmission. See about removing that part of the tranny and having that either replaced or serviced by a good tranny shop. I would guess you can get that done in the 3 digit range. My 928 has the same auto box that our mercedes do, and its a problem there after some miles, as well as that stupid front pump leaking at the O ring.

midget fidger

sorry, computer wasnt working right past week. thanks a lot, i'll check around and post back later

- jeff