S500 - Transmission problem
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w221 S500
S500 - Transmission problem
Hello there,
I hope this message finds you well. My name is Luke, and I hail from the beautiful city of Hamburg, Germany. Firstly, I wanted to express my gratitude for maintaining such a wonderful forum. Your assistance means a lot to me, and I'm hopeful that you can lend me a hand with my current predicament.
I've been encountering some issues with my workshop lately, particularly regarding the progress of my Mercedes Benz S500. It seems to be facing a perplexing problem, and I was wondering if anyone here might have encountered something similar before.
Here's a rundown of the situation:
Vehicle:
Thank you very much for your time and assistance!
I hope this message finds you well. My name is Luke, and I hail from the beautiful city of Hamburg, Germany. Firstly, I wanted to express my gratitude for maintaining such a wonderful forum. Your assistance means a lot to me, and I'm hopeful that you can lend me a hand with my current predicament.
I've been encountering some issues with my workshop lately, particularly regarding the progress of my Mercedes Benz S500. It seems to be facing a perplexing problem, and I was wondering if anyone here might have encountered something similar before.
Here's a rundown of the situation:
Vehicle:
- Mercedes Benz S500
- First registration: 06/27/2007
- VIN: WDD2210711A156023
- Mileage: 267,000 km
- While driving, I suddenly received an error message indicating tire pressure, ESP, and ABS errors in the combination instrument. Consequently, the vehicle went into transmission limp mode, only driving in 4th gear.
- Upon restarting, the error message disappeared, and the vehicle shifted into D and R but failed to drive.
- Subsequent restarts yielded brief periods of normal driving before reverting to 4th gear only.
- Now, the vehicle only shifts into 1st and reverse gears, accompanied by a very hard jolt and the aforementioned error message.
- The vehicle is only capable of shifting into 1st and reverse gears, with a noticeable jolt, along with the persistent error message.
- ENGINE CONTROL UNIT (Motronic ME 9.7):
- 1425 Vehicle speed signal implausible
- TRANSMISSION CONTROL (7-Speed Automatic Transmission VGSNAG 2.1):
- D409 Communication with <Brake System> faulty
- 0721 Output speed/wheel speed comparison not OK
- D40B Communication with <Brake System>
- DRIVER ASSISTANCE SYSTEMS Central Control Unit 2.3:
- 7473 CAN signal from transmission control: gear ratio - CAN signal faulty
- 7474 CAN signal from transmission control: target gear - CAN signal faulty
- Several other CAN communication issues and disturbances
Thank you very much for your time and assistance!
MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: Aug 2014
Posts: 5,322
Likes: 1,678
S500
all the issues you have are NORMAL, part of a joyful experience of having the Merc 7g box
inside the gearbox is a box of electronics with two budget chips that are "the speed sensors" AKA, they take vehicle / shaft speed info and help its ant brain work out when to change gear... One chip fails all the time and can be replaced by an expert, the other is far less troublesome but can die. I am unaware of people repairing both chips. The box of tricks playing up is often called the "electroplate" in the end it helps 6 solenoids to shift clutches about to make up the 7 gears.
unfortunately its a sump off the gearbox and $1000 for the part - so expect 1200 at best to get a new one with new fluid (or maybe 800 all done "repairing" the old one)... some experts think dirty oil cause more issues - so if money is tight you could swap out the oil and keep going. Mine has thrown teddies and done odd stuff for the entire 9.5 years I have had the car - change fluid twice and currently behaving. Alongside dirty oil I find short drives seems to make thing worse...
a key on off cycle will normally clear it all - its a temporary moment when speed signals go walkabout and the car throws its teddies
inside the gearbox is a box of electronics with two budget chips that are "the speed sensors" AKA, they take vehicle / shaft speed info and help its ant brain work out when to change gear... One chip fails all the time and can be replaced by an expert, the other is far less troublesome but can die. I am unaware of people repairing both chips. The box of tricks playing up is often called the "electroplate" in the end it helps 6 solenoids to shift clutches about to make up the 7 gears.
unfortunately its a sump off the gearbox and $1000 for the part - so expect 1200 at best to get a new one with new fluid (or maybe 800 all done "repairing" the old one)... some experts think dirty oil cause more issues - so if money is tight you could swap out the oil and keep going. Mine has thrown teddies and done odd stuff for the entire 9.5 years I have had the car - change fluid twice and currently behaving. Alongside dirty oil I find short drives seems to make thing worse...
a key on off cycle will normally clear it all - its a temporary moment when speed signals go walkabout and the car throws its teddies
MBWorld Fanatic!
Joined: Aug 2014
Posts: 5,322
Likes: 1,678
S500
new, a merc dealer is not allowed to sell you the part - they could at $500 (but under silly pretend anti vehicle theft rules they invented - part of in-house costly protectionism lies) - the part is electronically coded to each individual vehicle, needing dealer tools to load info to the new part - that's a main reason people like the bad repair option (as they circumnavigates the anti theft reset element)
a Merc dealer I expect will cost $2500 drive in drive out - but a good indy should do the same job for $1500 - in the bad old days the part was $1500 on its own - they die so much retail should be under $1000 now
a Merc dealer I expect will cost $2500 drive in drive out - but a good indy should do the same job for $1500 - in the bad old days the part was $1500 on its own - they die so much retail should be under $1000 now
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Joined: May 2002
Posts: 540
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From: Suburban Washington DC
1995 S280 5-speed
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Joined: Oct 2010
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From: Southern US
2010 E550, 273 Engine: 2012 S550, 278 Engine
An easy “try” to fix.
I had problems with the Central Gateway that connects all modules together. Found out that it has unsoldered connector pins to the harness.
It worked with different errors after I disconnected/reconnected it a couple times before I opened it and saw the unsoldered pins.
Fix was to first buy a good soldering kit from Amazon and then solder them damn pins. No more mystery errors.
CGW (or ZGW) in my 2012 model is located in the driver’s end of the dash together with the AUX battery holder.
It was easy to take out of bracket and disconnect/reconnect. If you do this connection test and your errors change you have bad connections between the pins and board inside the ZGW.
I had problems with the Central Gateway that connects all modules together. Found out that it has unsoldered connector pins to the harness.
It worked with different errors after I disconnected/reconnected it a couple times before I opened it and saw the unsoldered pins.
Fix was to first buy a good soldering kit from Amazon and then solder them damn pins. No more mystery errors.
CGW (or ZGW) in my 2012 model is located in the driver’s end of the dash together with the AUX battery holder.
It was easy to take out of bracket and disconnect/reconnect. If you do this connection test and your errors change you have bad connections between the pins and board inside the ZGW.
