MNR

put into drive this morning and felt like it was only stuck in 1st. wouldnt go any faster than 20mph. also, no display in the instrument cluster as to which gear im in D, 1-5, R nothing. lastly drove back home and tried to put into park and would only go into neutral, couldnt put it into reverse or park. had to turn the car off then it went into park.

any clue as to wtf is going on? thanks

UPDATE: went out to check on the kick down button under accelerator and that wasnt it. now i have problems with my key fobs. usually it autostarts just by turning the key briefly. now i have to hold the key in the on position for at least 2 seconds and then it only starts half the time. have to jerk around with either key until one starts it. then my driver window would not go up all the way. it would get close to the top then automatically roll back down to about halfway open. took about 10 tries for it to go back up all the way.

HAS to be electrical gremlins but there are no CEL's on? can there be codes to display without throwing a CEL? only put a thousand miles on this since i bought it with only 100k on the odo so not to happy atm.

IanB

I have a '99, so pre-facelift, but I had similar symptoms which I diagnosed to be a faulty gear selector switch. If I started in "S" it wouldn't shift out of 1st, if I started in "W" it would start in 2nd and wouldn't shift up from there. I have no display on the dash for what gear I'm in, so I had to have the lights on to see that the switch wasn't registering the shifter position.

On the pre-facelift cars you can replace just the switch from the shifter assembly, I'm not sure about the post-facelift cars.

MNR

i just found this other dude who had the exact same issue and it was a bad esm. i assume both of these (shifter assy & esm) are under the center console? any idea how to get that off?

http://www.benzworld.org/forums/w210...t-out-2nd.html

is a gear selector switch something minor versus the entire shift assembly (what i gather online the esm is the entire gear shift assembly under the center console?) or am i wrong?

IanB

Pre-facelift has a different shifter, no manual mode, shift selector switch is replaceable on it's own.

Post-facelift, I've no experience with, but I THINK if you've had a similar failure you're stuck replacing the entire shifter assembly. I'm not sure what part the "ESM" refers to, possibly the shifter assembly?

MNR

the more i research this the more likely it is the entire shift mechanism (esm) and whats worth noting is the s/w switch has never worked since ive owned it so that should indicated this pos was on its way out. what i cant figure out is wtf is the deal with all of the electric gremlins which came out today??? replacement part is 600 to 800. not a fan but at least i can do the switch out myself. heres a vid on the r/r if anyone is interested.

desired_speeds

mine had the same symptoms when the shifter was bad. I purchased a used unit from ebay and swapped the electrical board only.

NAFT1

I had problems with mine soon after I bought it- the previous owner had spilled a soft drink in the shifter. I was able to open it, clean it with contact clear and it's worked fine for 30,000 miles. You can also get a used one for $100-200. I saw a lot at that price when I was contemplating replacing mine.

MNR

well finally was able to swap in a unit with an 09 build date unit (not model year) and it works perfect. $240 total, NICE. the only issue i ran into was the 3 allen head bolts that actually hold the shifter in are secured with loctite and my harry homeowner allen wrenches just baaarrreeellyyy got them out without stripping them. about an hour total so not too bad.

rludlam1

Anyone have check engine light on and was stuck in park before this stuff happened?

vvrjrlaw

Scan the vehicle. You want answers that's the only way to get them.