SL/R129: Transmission problems
I have few questions if anyone is willing to answer them for me. I just bought a 98 SL500 and I'm having problems with the transmission. I was driving my car the other day and noticed it down shifted by itself. When I stopped at light and started again it would not shift out of first gear. I turned the vehicle off and restarted and it was fine until today it did almost the same thing but instead of not shifting it would shift very late and no lights came on. I've been a GM technician for 16 years and could tell you anything you want to know about GM car but when it come to the MB I'm a little lost. Does anyone know of a common problem with them?
I have one more quick question about coil spring shims. How do you know what size shim you have. I noticed in the front there were 3 notches on the shim and 2 on the rear. Does that mean anything?
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Mark
The transmission was introduced in 1996 and had a major upgrade in 99/2000 and it's now used in the R230 SL. So, it you have this transmission, it falls into the same period as mine. It failed big time requiring a complete transmission rebuild. One of the parts which fails is a bearing for the input shaft which is just a bronze bushing which disintegrates leaving the shaft to move around and cause mayhem. This has now been replaced by a roller bearing.
Now, I won't say that your gearbox has the same problem as mine, but you need to know that the gearbox in this time window gives problems and was upgraded by Mercedes, presumably to fix them. So, don't ignore any transmission problems, they could indicate more trouble to come. It may be your transmission ECU just needs to be reset (you could try disconnecting the battery, leave for 15 minutes, reconnect, restart and turn the wheel lock to lock to reset the ESP).
I am in the process of replacing with a rebult trans.
Rocco
Wow what a mess - I did hear that mercedes changed that problem bearing in later trans. wonder if there is any way to get them to help pay for my problem. only 80K miles on the "never change the fluid" trans.
RRV
The same happened with my SL600 except the greater torque made it happen sooner.



