(i copy and pasted this from my original thread. I tried to contact a mod to update my thread title but no luck)

I cant believe its been so long since I've posted on here and I apologise for that. I hope everyone is in good heath and staying safe during these difficult times we are all living through!
Well since my last post about my S350...things did not turn out so good
For the last 5 months or about my car has just been sitting and I haven't been able to drive it.

Last year in late December as I was driving back home and between a gear shift I felt a small thump and I got the red lettered warning 'drive to workshop - do not change gears' message which only lasted for about 5 seconds on the display.
The next day when trying to drive it again this time I got the same message pop up briefly from a split second soon as i hit the P (park) button on the gearstick. My next door neighbor had a scan OBD tool so he offered to scan it for me and there was a whole heap of various fault codes. He recommended i do a transmission oil & filter change to start off with.
Went ahead and gave that a go...and did it a little wrong I think (the drain procedure part) as when the car started to warm up excess fluid kept draining out of the overfill hole. I unscrewed the bolt underneath a second time again while the car was still warm and running to let the excess fluid drain until it trickled out.
Now I got it to stop leaking trans fluid but the problem it had still was when driving and say your around at 50-60km speed and you let go of the accelerator pedal to coast a little down the road and then go to re-accelerate with the gas pedal it will 70% of the time feel like a kick/bang in the transmission. Best way to describe it is like your being nudged by another vehicle behind you (contact) with that same warning msg appearing briefly sometimes.

I decided to take back the vehicle to the dealer I bought it from as it had extended warranty. The car sat there for about 2 weeks almost and never moved from the position it was parked in and I got the call that it was 'fixed'. Its still at random doing the thud feel when trying to re-accelerate but the difference now is I've never seen the warning message ever pop up again and scanning it with the OBD tool shows ZERO transmission faults codes.
I am really at lost what has happened. Did the dealer/repair centre just program it to stop displaying the message? Can that even be done or am I just being paranoid?

In the meantime that my S Class was sitting in the backyard all through these months we have received some really bad heavy downfall rain where I live in Australia and that resulted in water entering the trunk from one of those plastic trim pieces that sits around the boot opening and the worst...the water drain box that's in the engine bay on the passenger side (must have been blocked before) overfilled with water and a lot bypassed into the passengers footwall area. Carpet and cabin filters got soaked real bad.

Due to my own personal ongoing health issues, the world pandemic and the vehicle issues I only really got to drive it for about maybe close to 2 months only

I was wondering to ask is there that transmission adaptation reset procedure for the W221? Could it help in any way with my transmission issue/s? Ive watched some videos on YouTube but there seems to be different ways and I have no clue which would be the correct for the W221 body?
Im pretty sure also my neighbor kept a copy of the transmission fault codes that he scanned for me. I should be able to get a copy emailed but would anyone on here please be able to work out what the fault codes could mean or to were my problem maybe from?

Thanks in advance and any help or info would be greatly appreciated.

 

Problem is still ongoing and due to the heavy COVID lockdown restrictions i haven't been able to sort anything out with my S Class.
A month or so ago that i started to just drive it around the block to help charge up the battery the 'drive to workshop' msg appeared once again and this time that i scanned with my OBD tool there's a whole heap of fault codes recorded mainly in the transmission section. About 14 or so codes i think.
Problem is i cant work out specifically which one is the fault to at least get a clue to which part is failing.

If i was to copy and paste the results on here would anyone be kind enough please to be able to tell me roughly what the problem might be?

 

NEVER turn off the car when you see this message !

it is a component failure of the ISM (intelligent shift module) - they usually fail once - hence never turn off the car or as it says shift gears !!!
ALWAYS drive without stopping on to a ramp at the garage that's going to do the repair

its designed to die (so a perfectly normal failure) and it will just lock out, usually leaving it in park with the car wherever the key was taken out or the car stalled. Thus leaving the car wherever it is unmovable and unable to be pushed to the side of the road / away from a petrol pump etc. Or indeed able to be picked up and taken to a garage without huge extra cost (like struggling to jack up and unbolting the propshaft to enable transit to a dealership)

all the other confetti of errors are NORMAL on a w221, if its not been used a low battery will put a message in most modules, replace the ISM clear the codes go from there..... serious level of water in the inner rear wings will do enough damage ona high spec one to write off thee car

 

Thank you so much for the reply @BOTUS

I've never switched the car off when this message has popped up on the dash until I've arrived back at home but overall since December of last year i think its displayed that message about 5/6 times now.

Is the ISM that control module that sits on the side of the transmission externally or am i thinking of something else? If so can that be just changed and codes cleared or does it need to programed with a laptop/scan device to work on the vehicle once the new ISM part is on?

WOW sounds like a massive headache if it dies completely. That's the main reason why i haven't hardly used the car at all since December. Might have done since then only 60km all up only.

That i have not been driving it i have although been starting it up and letting it run for at least 30 mins every 3 weeks or so. So far i don't think the battery has gone week??
When you say inner rear wings are you referring to those plastic molding trims with the 5 holes/plastic pivots that run along the side of the rear trunk? I have had water leakage in the drivers side (right hand drive) since the day i picked up the vehicle. I've replaced the trim and the pivots with a brand new set from Mercedes and although it did stop 95% of the water entering if it rains heavily outside some will still enter. I think there is only one control module box I've seen down there on the side when I've removed the side carpet to drain the water out. Mine being a S350 is not a highly spec model and i think the only extras ordered from the standard features was front heat/cooled seats that's it.

Went back to the photos i took of the Autel OBD scan results. Do any of these codes confirm the ISM is indeed the main culprit for my problems?
Thanks in advance again

ISM: 2 Faults
1919 Stored
CAN controller: CAN bus OFF

Event 1936 Stored
No CAN message was received from control unit Y3/8n4 (Fully integrated transmission control (VGS control unit)

ETC Electronic transmission control: 9 Faults
C002 Stored
CAN controller: CAN bus OFF

Event C121 Stored
No CAN message was received from control unit N47-5 (ESP control unit)

Event C100 Stored

Event D13A Stored
No CAN message was received from control unit N80 (SCM [MRM] control unit)

Event C103 Stored
No CAN message was received from control unit B1 5/5 (Electronic selector lever module (ESM [EWM])

Event C126 Stored
No CAN message was received from control unit N80 (Steering column module)

Event C141 Stored
No CAN message was received from control unit N93 (Central gateway control unit)

Event C164 Stored
No CAN message was received from control unit N22/1 (AAC [KLA] control unit)

Event D10B Stored
No CAN message was received from control unit Engine management

ME 9.7-Motor electronics 9.7: 2 Faults
Event 1405 Stored
No CAN message was received from control unit Transmission (U0101)

Event 1433 Stored
No CAN message was received from control unit N1 5/5 (Electronic selector lever module (ESM [EWM]) or A 80

The next 4 Faults i did not take the picture under which category they were in nor can i remember sorry:
Event 6107 Stored
No CAN message was received from control unit Engine control module or A80 (Intelligent servo module for DIRECT SELECT)

Event 6203 Stored
One or more of the signals transmitted by control unit Engine control module or A80 (Intelligent servo module for DIRECT SELECT) via the CAN bus are implausible

Event 6205 Stored & Current
One or more of the signals transmitted by control unit Engine control module or N1 5/3 (ETC [EGS] control unit) via the CAN bus are implausible

Event 6106 Stored & Current
No CAN message was received from control unit Engine control module or N1 5/3 (ETC [EGS] control unit)

 

some very common issues on mercs.

You seldom see on the w221, but ignition switch failure is normal on high mile Mercedes, (in fact very common on most vehicles, cars and bikes where the ring antenna gives up) and the key's immobiliser chip stops communicating with car and it won't get permission to start (I think that's the ESW)

Gearbox speed sensor Y3/8n4 dies in the circuit board inside the gearbox (the speed sensor can be swapped - look on youtube some Indian guy doing it in a shed) however there is a less common fault that can't be repaired and as the thing gets over 10 years both will get you, I think safer to swap the whole electroplate …. big money and as designed as a theft dependant part (you can only code it to the car's immobiliser and get the car to shift out of P using online dealer connection to Gemany to programme it) they won't sell to you and you can't programme it. (there are ways to hack it with special software but will be harder to find someone trustworthy to do this and may cost the same as a dealer). There are various different version of the electroplate so always swap with the right same bit.

ISM is a common failure on the w221

I don't think damp in the boot will have much to do with the engine / gearbox fun. If you pull out the side trims in the boot you'll find two buckets (one either side) with, on the left the radio tuner / amp other receiver stuff TV DAB Sirus

https://nemigaparts.com/cat_spares/e...71/63v/54/077/

can faults (central network) could be damp and might be exacerbated by corrosion on the terminal block in various places (although that was a nightmare on the earlier w220 and I don't think problematic on the 221) Most likely just a load of trash from a low battery. One you have a view of the fun, just wipe it out anything important will come back to nag you. It doesn't do any harm, if the faults real it will pop back... on these ones a general clear out of trash messages every 6 months is a normal thing to do

 

Cheers thanks again @BOTUS for your reply.

So that main code i got the Y3/8n4 is the speed sensor ok.
Yeah doesnt look like ill be able to attempt the repair my self nor do i have any coding software either.
Mercedes Benz here in Australia is not even interested to take a look at the care and all the other smaller mechanical shops here in Victoria under the Covid laws cant even attempt to repair it.
Far out

ISM failure been common is not a great thing to hear also
My S Class has 129,000 km on the odometer.

Thank you for the link also ill have a look at it.

 

speed sensor can throw the fun on and off for years..... with little real impact. When its gone it will hold gears and rev when it shouldn't. Last time I was talking to a reputable independent his view of most gear change / electrical issues in side the box (torque converter lock up clutch playing up - another very common failure) is related to all the swarf and black filth trans fluid shorting stuff out and or ripping o rings to death.

These really are shocking gearboxes made by animals with no idea.... Originally they were supposed to be filled for life. Very shortly after they reneged and went to 37k one of change..... and with so much metal filings falling off inside that went to every 37k mile change. Pre 2007 it should be red fluid. When I first had mine done at 42k miles I said to the guy do you think it needs doing? his words were YES is will be disgusting black filth. It was and stuffed full of metal debris !!!! Having spent 10 years on the spanners on RR and Jags many, many years back I had never seen fluid that's so disgusting....

checking with a dealer re some fluids for trans fluid and antifreeze,

Anitfreeze MB325 is blue and as LostKiwi mentions goes in the earlier stuff (2006 to 2013 I guess) dealers words were "pink stuff only went in Merc's from 2014"

So I then asked what my earlier 7G box should take and it is a different fluid to the later cars, he confirmed its different, but said merc don't state what the difference is, so I looked up the difference between the Fuchs versions

The early 7G boxes takes 236.14 - fuchs version = TITAN ATF 4134

Ultra High Performance ATF, specially developed to optimize shifting performance of Mercedes-Benz automatic transmissions. Product dyeing: red.

The later 7G boxes take 236.15 - fuchs version = TITAN ATF 7134 FE

Premium Performance ATF with reduced viscosity, especially developed to further optimize fuel-economy and gearbox efficiency of latest generation Mercedes-Benz 7-speed automatic transmissions. Not downwards compatible with previous MB-ATF-Specifications. Product dyeing: blue.


Productname
Mercedes-Benz Genuine ATF MB 236.14
MB 236.14 ATF NAG2VSport A 001 989 68 03-
MB 236.14 Genuine ATF A 000 989 68 05-
Aral Getriebeöl ATF M14
arexons ATF 236.14
ATF 6140
ATF 7-Speed
ATF 722.9R
ATF M14
Fuchs TITAN ATF 4134
IPIRANGA ATF 236.14
LETOF ATF 134
LIQUI MOLY TOP TEC ATF 1600
LIQUIMATIC DX14
LUKOIL ATF SYNTH M 14
MATIC 14
Mobil ATF 134
MOTUL ATF 236.14
Neste ATF M14
OEM AMB7
PENTOSIN ATF 134
Q8 AUTO 25
RAVENOL ATF M 9-Serie
Shell ATF134
Shell SPIRAX S6 ATF 134M
Sinopec Greatwall ATF-B14
Tim Eckart ATF 7 Performance 236.14
Total Fluidmatic 7S
Valvoline ATF Pro 236.14
ZIC ATF 914


Productname
Mercedes-Benz Genuine ATF FE MB 236.15-
MB 236.15 Genuine ATF FE A 000 989 69 05-
ATF 7150
ATF 722.9G
ATF 7GT-Speed
ATF M15
Fuchs TITAN ATF 7134 FE
LETOF ATF 134FE
LUKOIL ATF SYNTH M 15
MATIC 15
Mobil ATF 134 FE
MOTUL ATF 236.15
Neste ATF M15
OEM AMB7N
PENTOSIN ATF 134 FE
Q8 Auto M 15
RAVENOL ATF M 9-FE Serie
Shell ATF 134FE
Shell Spirax S6 ATF 134ME
Sinopec Greatwall ATF-B15
Valvoline ATF Pro 236.15
ZIC ATF 915


Productname
Mercedes-Benz Genuine ATF FE MB 236.17-
MB 236.17 Genuine ATF FE A 000 989 59 04-
RAVENOL ATF M 9-G Serie
Shell D971
Shell Spirax S6 ATF D 971
Sinopec Greatwall ATF-B.17

link to a company that states what's what
https://www.fuchs.com/de/en/product...ive-lubricants/automatic-transmission-fluids/

 

I honestly had no idea there were different variants of the 7G transmission...i thought they were all the same.
A few years back when i owned a BMW 750Li when it reach around the 90,000 km mark the ZF trans started to play up in that too.
Every time you would bring the car to a complete stop at the lights for example it would bang as it was downshifting and eventually started to go into limp mode.
It was time to get rid of the car so once a did a few years later i said ill give Benz a shot this time....and what would you know i get another transmission problem :/

 

(late 80's early 90's), in the early days of nikasil coating on the bores of an alloy block the sulphur took the coating off the BM V8s and in the 80's a new box auto box couldn't cope. BM use to do a sneaky engine / gearbox transplant during minor servicing and never told the owners

these days it software and trans fluid changes that are key....

on my 335d they did an update that opened up the clutches when it deemed the torque pushed through was enough for the drive train to cope with. Utter madness, I sold the car thinking the box was starting to play up. I think it could make 520 nm as std and they dropped it to let go at 485nm.... when all the boys tuning do the exact opposite and wind it up so they can push the 730nm the engine can reliably make all day long thought the box without slippage !!!!

I didn't know but on proper cars you can buy a phone app and tweak the gearbox the way you like it !!! https://www.xhpflashtool.com/ I guess the kids driving BM are more IT literate too... they have hacked the M diff software so you can electronically tune the limited slip diff, and the home user can flash the alpina gearbox change points to their own car to make it work far better than the idiot manu did

 

Ohh wow yeah i had no idea at all that was happening with BM's back in the 80's/90's.

Thats what has always worried me too when it came to software updates on modern cars...instead of fixing issues it ends up causing more or new problems :?

 

UK annual survey (this is this year's results) seems one premium german brand made a step change the other stayed where it always was

 

WOW Mercedes has dropped or is at that kind of low number....
i wouldn't not have expected that unless i saw that number ranking.
Doesn't give you much confidence does it

 

not dropped all the expensive stuff aside from Toyota sits in the bottom 20... the odd thing is BMW's transformation - not sure how they managed it. All German stuff it designed to die in 5 years these days - lease it or cry

 

I posted this in one at the weekend

I've been ranting for last few years about designed to fail....

with improvements in materials, design and lubrication things could easily do 30 years.... but the car manufacturer won't be in business, so the accountants got involved with crooked engineers and they have spent the last 20 years understanding exactly how to design stuff to die. It seems Mercedes with the w220 era were almost there... but so far ahead of the game it damaged their reputation as their failing stood out. Instead of reversing out, they just spend the savings on a longer term marketing objective, whilst the rest caught up... and then as the banks and other financial thieves seem to be winning and no one minds, the car manufacturers went the same route at a vastly increased pace.

in todays world lease it for 3 years then throw in a skip, its got 5 years max if it comes out of Germany....

affordable to keep on the road goes roughly like this from design date, not when sold
1990 to 2000 rust and lack of maintenance wins (how many can you find?)
2000 to 2005 with maint should get 20 years (so long at its not from Stuttgart)
2007 to 2011 10 - 15 years
2012 to 2015 8 years
2019 5 years

 

maybe part of the picture on all where most don't get where I'm coming from is wages....

You may not have noticed, because Australia did what one might expect and over the last 25 years wages moved with inflation, then you dug out 500 years of mineral wealth and GAVE it to china for (effectively) 10 cents. creating an economic boom for 15 years and you've all been riding a gravy train of wealth explosion the rest of the world (outside of banking ) doesn't get.

Western economies have over last 200 years doubled every 20 years with carefully choreographed inflation. In the old days pay went alongside.... so every 20 years even with no career progression your pay should double every 20 years just to stand still

In the whole of Europe "normal people" those on less then 70k US$ a year haven't had a pay rise worth noticing for 20 years.... so everything had to come down in price, except cars have been adding toys, so each one had double the components, and they've added expensive safety aids.... so the quality had to drop 4 fold to get us there.... We can't "afford" to pay 100k for a ford focus, that should last 25 years, we pay 25k without realising its cost effective life span is now only 5 years - we haven't woken up to the change yet..... (because your governments have been aiding and abetting with tech companies to make your life too busy with utter rubbish. We must preoccupy the "slaves" so they don't revolt).

 

Very wise words and thoughts indeed @BOTUS
Does seem that way as cars are going the newer they are the quicker they seem to fail.
Its very sad how its become

Ive got the Australian built Holden's my personal collection of vehicles ranging between 7-30 years old models and all off have been hassle free cars to own pretty much. Over the decades minor wear n tear components which are cheap and easy to fix by your self.
I retired them all off the road once they hit the 10 year old mark and obviously once Holden shut down fully under the orders from GM i rarely use them any longer. Just trying to keep them in mint condition.
Hence why slowly i tried to find my next brand to shift too and primary i prefer limo sized sedans...always have.
Tried my luck with the BMW E66 model and that turned into a massive disaster.
Two years ago purchased the MB A207 convertible that so ar has been ok and hasn't given any dramas but it hardly gets used. Ive only done 2,000km in total since the purchase.
The S 350 though i bought to be used daily and only managed to do around 4,000km before the transmission problem began.
The thing is this S Class for the first time in many years it was the car i found that i could seat comfortably in the drivers seat for hours and not feel lower back/knee pain.

I honestly do not know what to do now with my current situation??
1.Try to get it repaired?
2.Trade it in for a newer W221 model maybe 2011/diesel version?
3.Trade it and move to another brand ?

 

Its a shame Holden closed down, the workers with the unions on a roll (only focusing in the Oz economy) didn't see the trends. Same year Toyota, Ford and GM pulled manufacturing in your country. Very sad state of affairs... but it too is part of the accountancy lease it idea.

Push up the price the retail buyer pays till they can't afford it, then make the lease deal look very attractive…. convert buying habits... and suddenly you know exactly when you need to make what model for whom.... allowing them to optimise the utilisation at the cheap factories ….. leave a bit for growth / mistakes, then close the expensive sites and sack them....

don't worry about jobs, society the planet, ship everything to china, where they steal all our innovation / technology / ideas, all for the grand profit of 20cents today (send fraudulent payment to incompetent corp monster CEO/shareholders) … Just wait 5 years until china decide x y z countries aren't on their approved list for food. It ought to kick off but they are thinking bigger further than our muppets, time stock pile tins of food or starve ?

Buy up classic Japanese stuff.... better still just enjoy it whilst still allowed outside the house... you never know they might invent a worldwide pandemic and convince us we need to stay locked in our hamster cages paying taxes...

 

All very very good points indeed @BOTUS your right....
Its sad how things have turned out in the world indeed

 

Mercedes has appallingly low reliability. Unfortunately.

 

This is spot on @BOTUS

 

Makes you think perhaps Mercedes should consider changing their slogan of 'Nothing but the best' to something else perhaps???
LOL

 

I used to buy BMWs with this specific issue, usually cost me around $100 to fix. After that they last at least 3 years before any other tranny problems pop up. I got the cars pretty cheap, since the stealership quotes $6k for repairs sometimes.
The secret is a $30 set of rubber seals between the valve body and the tranny case, they can shrink and allow pressure to bleed off at the wrong time causing "slip-n-slam" or jerk really hard like you mentioned. Also, the ZF trannys work fine on any green-label fluid, check the specs on your sticker and you'll find the same on a bottle of Valvoline MaxLife for a fraction of the cost of BMW certified fluids. Or you can buy the generic brand from a tranny parts shop, I've had equal performance. What matters is the specs, not the brand.

If anyone has these issues, order these parts:

1) kit of rubber tubes and rectangular seals for the valve body
2) pan & filter (its built in one unit)
3) fluid
4) wire harness connector / socket at the back (they can leak later).

There are plenty of videos on these procedures. Before you take the pan off, try to remove the fill plug on the side of the tranny. If you can't get it off or it strips, you should know before you have your fluid out and can't refill it. It is possible to pump fluid in through the cooler hoses, but you'll need to know exactly how much it needs. The fluid level is actually checked by heating up the tranny and letting it run out the drain hole until its just a trickle, don't ask me what in the world they were thinking when they decided we don't need dipsticks. Get it hot and spray it with blaster every day until it comes loose.

BMWs biggest problem for U.S. cars is heat. You can't drive around in American weather and use the recommended service intervals, if you do that your gaskets and seals will turn into cookies and just crumble. Ive seen so many 335i's with leaking valve covers and when you question the owner - "Yeah I have it serviced regularly just like they required, I dont know why it leaks so bad..."

Unfortunately, its not true. 15k oil changes will destroy your main seals and there is no such thing as 'lifetime' tranny or gear fluid. If you service your tranny every 50k you will never have bad seals, 4k oil changes and you'll never have an oil leak. Also, if you have a German car with over 100k on it, its time to start adding a quart of Lucas Oil Stop Leak at every oil change, especially if you see any seepage around the gaskets. If there is no oil leaking or slightly seeping out, just add it twice a year. This product will keep the seals conditioned by causing them to swell to the original specs. I've actually fixed front & real main seal leaks in my BMWs with this product, and never had to change them. New owner gets schooled on how to treat the car or its not my problem. Ive owned tons of BMWs, a few Mercedes, Volvos and an Audi, and this is my rule of thumb. They were all designed in a very cold climate.

Some of these manufacturers actually cheat the system by increasing their fluid change intervals, this gives them a lower carbon footprint for the EPA when its imported. Imagine how much extra they make on all the cars they export. Techs from the dealerships taught me this.