m10279

Thanks for the advice. I'm resigned now to going under the car to remove the pin - and to put it back.
Trolley jack and ramps on order....
I notice you ramped up both front and back of the car on one side, rather than just the front wheels. On reflection, did you find that option gave you the most room to work?

boerge

Yes, I jacked the whole front from under the engine, there was a spot there. Then as it was as high as I could there, I jacked the rear passenger side quite high using the factory jack. Then put something under rear wheel for support, and again placed the factory jack on the front passenger side. You need the car to go fairly high in order to be able to do the work needed.

m10279

Many thanks boerge, that's very useful information!
Regards

Burdenl

Yup had that problem as well, it’s a silly little plastic part but a pain to get at, I had mine replaced by a mechanic friend but if your stuck and need to move it. Hit the gear selector hard on the head with a rubber hammer it generally will pop into gear after that, but be careful

m10279

I thought I’d share my experience of dealing with the dreaded ‘stuck in Park’ problem that I experienced with my R230 SL350.

When I started to find it hard sometimes to get the gear selector out of Park I started to do some research on the net and found out about this (yet another) “feature” built into the R230 (and other Mercs too).

In a lot of respects, to be honest, I was relieved that it appeared to be a DIY job that I could do – rather than having to get a “professional” to do the work. Or worse to have to get a dealer to do it at exorbitant cost!! And it wasn’t a gearbox issue, just a broken piece of plastic in the selector box.

Anyway, I trawled a lot of forums and owners’ clubs at length for information – and generally found it all a bit patchy, with conflicting views and one liners, although generally positive. It could be done.

So I decided to go ahead.

And a nightmare it was, too!

Having now completed the job successfully, I thought I’d share my thoughts on how to approach this work. I hope it will save someone a lot of hassle and heartache, because it would have helped me if I’d known at the start what I’m going to share now.

The most important decision to make IMHO is to determine whether you have to do the job from the inside the car or from underneath it…? That is the question. A lot of posts regarding the R230 say the job can’t be done from the inside. That is wrong. It can be done. I’ve done it. I had to do it from the inside because I couldn’t do it from underneath. Why?

Well remember, my car was stuck in Park. In my garage. Tight against one wall. Removing the panels either side of the centre console was easy but a bit scary for the first time (OMG why am I pulling apart this expensive car??!!). Removing the 3 allen bolts (hex key bolts) from each side was also no problem, and the centre console came away quite easily. Getting the various plugs and cables off is also OK – albeit you can’t always tell how to get them off. Some twist; some pull; some have a U bracket that needs to be moved through 90 degrees to disengage (and of course, you don’t want to damage them). The good thing is they are all different so only fit in one place!

I manged to get the gear lever into Neutral so I could remove the centre console. Then you remove 2 screws that hold the top rear of the Electronic Selector Module (ESM) into a plastic bracket that bridges across the centre console (remember this bracket, it’s important later…). Now you have to remove the 3 allen bolts that hold the ESM in place.

Problem 1 . The rear bolts can’t be accessed because of the plastic bracket mentioned above.

Problem 2. The front allen bolt is obscured by a sprung pin that projects from the bottom of the ESM

Problem 3. It appears all 3 bolts are secured with Loctite!

To solve Problem 1, I had to drill ¾” holes through the plastic bracket with a flat bit so I could get straight on to the allen bolts. To solve Problem 2, I needed a long thin hex bit. For Problem 3 I needed to use an impact driver with extensions. (and be really careful here because you do not want to strip one of these bolts!)

Having done this, the ESM is loose but still attached to the gearbox shift rod head via the stud pin in the intermediate lever at the bottom of the ESM. At this point I was probably 4 hours in feeling good.

Next you have to disengage the ESM from the gearbox shift rod. First you have to disengage the retaining clip which, with the bushing, holds the shift rod on the ESM stud pin. I could do this, no problem, from inside the car with a long flat-head screwdriver.

Problem 4. Disengaging the shift rod from the ESM stud pin proved impossible from inside the car. This was probably because, in trying to manoeuvre the ESM around, I accidentally knocked the gear selector back into ParK! And I could not get it out. L When the selector is in Park, the angle of the intermediate lever to the rod head is such that the coupling won’t disengage. This is because the rod head is like an uneven fork and it wraps around the intermediate lever making removal impossible. It will only come out when presented at the correct angle and at this point, after trying for hours over several days, I couldn’t do that.

So having found that I couldn’t remove the ESM from inside the car, I went to plan B. Get to it from underneath. That meant I had to buy ramps and a trolley jack. Why ramps? Because I didn’t fancy trying to balance a 1.75 tonne car on the four by 2” rubber cones that serve for the R230’s jacking points. That just did not feel like a very safe bet to me, so I wasn’t going to do it..

If you are also in this position here’s a couple of tips that may help you and save time. You’re best to get a high-lift trolley jack that will lift up to 550mm (that’s 21.5”). At this height you should be able to slide a car ramp under the front tyres. Otherwise you’ll have to mess around trying to raise your trolley jack off the ground. Why do this? Because the car’s stuck in Park!! So you can’t drive it up on ramps! (Oh and if you can drive on to ramps you need to get ones that allow you to drive the R230 up on them without fouling the from bumper (fender) and skirts. Ramps from my youth (although much sturdier, they have too steep a ramp angle and will damage the car at the very least). There is also a front centre jacking point under the engine. This is a hard rubber pad about 4”x2” that stick out below the under trays. A problem you’ll find with the high-lift is it may not fit under the car when fully depressed! So check the clearance. To get around this, having seen the suggestion on several forums, I purchased some 225mm x 19mm high tensile 8.8 grade steel bolts. These fit perfectly in the tyre jack points provided by Mercedes (under the plastic clip outs in the sills) and protrude from the car, which enabled me to raise the car incrementally on concrete building blocks, rather than all in one go. Whatever you decide do , stay safe!

So with the car’s front wheels on ramps (I had the ramps facing the wrong way – otherwise they interfered with using the side jacking points) and the wheels chocked and the trolley jack backing up in the front centre and concrete blocks next the ramps (in case they failed) and axle stands all round to backup my backups, I finally felt it was safe enough to get under the car. PLEASE STAY SAFE.

It was the first time under this car - a 2003 SL350 – and it looked pretty good, I have to say. Anyway, to access the gearbox linkage you have to remove the central undertray – half a dozen or so hex bolts which came away easily. (Sorry – I can’t remember all the sizes). You then have to remove a heavyish bracket, held on by 4 hex bolts on to which the rear of the undertray you just removed, is fixed. These are a little awkward to get at, but not tight. From there you can see the ESM and gear shift rod coupling and get a long flat-head screwdriver on it to prise/ease them apart. I didn’t need to remove any of the silver heat shields that help insulate against the heat from the twin exhaust pipes to do this.

Problem 5. If the ESM selector isn’t in the Drive position, you can’t disengage the coupling. Yep, after all that effort and time and cost to get all the equipment needed to safely support the car so I could get underneath and pop that coupling in 5 minutes – or so I had read – guess what? You can’t do it if the selector is stuck in Park!!! I know, I know…. And I couldn’t believe it either! I tried for ages to prise apart the coupling, but there was not enough room for them to come apart. The angle of the two pieces of rod and metal in relation to each other – and that fork bit on the rod head – mean you can’t separate the ESM from the gear shift rod – IF THE SELECTOR IS IN PARK. You will have guessed that I was seriously pissed off by now. The car was in bits, not driveable and stuck in my garage. WTF to do next…? Despair….

I spent lots more time on the net, scouring forums and then came across a photo from a Scandinavian owner (I think) who had done the same job. This showed the rod head and ESM stud pin uncoupled, but more importantly, the rod head was inside the car. (Incidentally, I’m using the names that Mercedes call these parts in their workshop manual). Inside the car.

This got me thinking. Although the rod head wouldn’t move much laterally, it obviously moved more in an up and down direction – otherwise it couldn’t be pictured on the inside of the car. How could I get the rod head and ESM to move up? I couldn’t . Because it was restricted and constrained by the plastic bridge bracket on the centre console. The one I had to drill holes in to access the two rear bolts holding in the ESM.

Taking that bracket out is a long job I think and will mean damaging some of the covering on the sides of the centre console. Thinking about it, my guess is that during manufacture, the ESM went in first and the centre console followed after with the rest of the dashboard etc. But the quick and easy solution is to saw through the plastic bracket to allow as much room as possible to manoeuvre the ESM unit. That took less than 5 minutes. Then I could manoeuvre the ESM unit and raise it. And guess what?

THE ESM UNIT UNCOUPLED IN LESS THAN TWO MINUTES - IT JUST SLID OUT.

An hour later, I had gotten the ESM apart (drilling out 2 rivets) and had extracted the broken plastic rogue part and replaced it with an aluminium one (from ebay). I tested that the ESM operated correctly, then I re-greased and remade the coupling from inside the car – simple, didn’t even need pliers. Bolted the ESM in place , fixed the sawn out bracket back to the top of the ESM and glued it back in place. Replaced all the electrical leads on the centre console, replaced the undertray, un-ramped the car, started it and reversed from my garage and tested all the electrics, the roof, the climate control, the works.

Job done! Well nearly…. Because the key wouldn’t come out of the ignition!! It turned out that I hadn’t properly connected a cable (with a white plug sleeve) that plugs into the front bottom right of the ESM. Ironically, this cable is activated when the gear selector is in Park – and it releases the key in the ignition.! You live and learn!

So – what’s the moral of this long tale?

1. If the selector is stuck in Park you won’t get the ESM out from under the car - that's my experience

2. If the selector is stuck in Park you will get the ESM out from inside the car if you saw out the black plastic bridge bracket that fixes to the top rear of the ESM. I would say it’s best to do this from the outset as it makes it easier to access the two rear ESM bolts that fix to the floor pan.

I hope documenting this saga helps some other fellow owners avoid the pitfalls and frustration that I experienced. In hindsight, if you make the right approach to this project, it’s not a difficult task.

I feel confident that if I had to do it again, I could do it in half-a-day. (that’s man-time, of course! LOL). Let’s hope it doesn’t need to happen… :-)

Teabag

I have just had the shifter stuck in park, and you cannot remove center console without moving the stick to drive position first. After many hrs research and contacting Merc technician, and first trying to release stuck shifter by turing key on, foot on brake. If you can feel the solenoid click with a finger on the shifter stick, you know the solenoid is activating. Remove gear know and tap the head of the shifter stick with a hammer or shake it violently from side to side to help the lever lock release. If this does not work (as mine did not) you will have to use a 5/16" drill to drill a small hole down through the slot in the shifter body central to the shifter solenoid you can then use a small slim electrical screw driver to assist the plastic actuating lever forward to release the shifter lock. This was completed in 15 mins work and saves you $1200 dealer fee and a tow charge. My car was stuck for 2 days in a public car park before I worked out how to do this kick end around to get the shifter back into drive so I could go back home to work on the car shifter problem

MR.AMG.

Hi guys does anyone know if the rod link is the same for all r230 sl's? mine broke off my sl55 i bought one with matching part numbers off i think a sl350 or 500 but the length was different 😒 if they are all the same maybe i can drill out the 1 way bolt and re adjust it if it's possible