I hear you, and I do hope it is the plate, however a bad sprag bearing and other components will also cause all kinds of crazy codes including all of the ones you listed, seen it myself. Given that all of this happened while under load........I have my fingers crossed for you. Keep us updated.

 

Bad news, that didn't fix it. I went by the dealer and talked to the service manager, told him the plug adapter was good on side of tranny and that I replaced the electric conductor plate today. He said he has had to replace valve bodies before from problems like this because of a speed sensor that is on the valve body. I think I remember reading about codes for a speed sensor problem though on here and that is not the codes I am getting though, so I really don't know. And then there is the transmission computer (tcu/tcm whatever you like to call it). I am going to go back by tomorrow to have them do diagnostics on the car and see what they say.

I tried looking for both a valve body and tcu trying to get an idea on pricing but I can't find either so far looking around on the internet. I have a bad feeling it will be expensive as hell from the dealer for either of these parts if they will even sell them to me. He told me they can't even do any work on the car after diagnosing it until they send the info to Mercedes and have them confirm what is wrong and this is even with vehicles out of warranty which makes no sense.

I had the Snap-On computer pull the codes again today and had the same "incorrect gear ratio" when doing a basic scan and then when doing a transmission scan the P2501 "negative gear compa/target not reached."

Oh and when I took the pan down earlier it was pretty clean in there no little parts or anything. Some damn electrical something is giving me a hard time.

 

Oh and I have read in the past that we have the same transmission as Dodge/Chrysler/Jeep which I am guessing is the SRT-8 tranny, so I was looking around. It sounds like those guys use somer mercedes parts such as the shift solenoids in theirs since they are a little better. I was looking at a performance valve body upgrade they have and it looks identical to ours except the two bottom right solenoids have blue tops instead of brown in my car so I am not sure if these brown ones are even better or not. I read some guys swapped out theirs for the blue top Mercedes ones we have but forget what color they said theirs were.

Performance one they use Click here

Either way, if it ends up being my valve body that is bad I am wondering if I could just buy a valve body from Dodge/Chrysler/Jeep for one of the SRT-8 vehicles and put that in since I am sure it would be cheaper and also available to buy if Mercedes won't sell me one.

 

Sorry it did not work out. FYI: There are no sensors or anything else electrical in the valve body. Everything is on the plate excluding the obvious solenoids. The valve body consist only passages, sleeves, ball bearings, seals, etc. It could be bad though. Best of luck.

 

Have any idea why the service manager would say there is a speed sensor that goes bad and you have to get a new valve body to fix it then? Where is the speed sensor? I read there is a speed sensor on that electric conductor board that I just replaced, not sure if this is true or not.

I am confused why the service manager would say the electric plate is a problem often and if it really does have the speed sensor built in to it why he would say the valve body has been replaced several times when the speed sensor was bad since it comes with the valve body, but in fact the speed sensor is on the plate (if this is true) so all that would need replacing would be that plate he says is a problem and I just changed out.

I hate electrical crap.

 

You have two speed sensors which are on top of the plate that you replaced, the two round cylinders that stick up into the holes that read the clutch drums. Those are the only speed sensors. Not all service managers know what they are talking about, yours perhaps just confused a combined plate/vb vs separate units. Look at your old plate and you will see what I am talking about.
Also, many items located inside the trans can go bad and produce the negative gear code, the mentioned sprag bearing being one and a snap ring that poped could be the other.

 

Back in J-ville yet? If so bring it buy (Brumos)and I promise we wont overcharge you for diag or repair.

 

I only remember one thing that plugged up in to a hole in the bottom side of transmission and looked for a pic online of a board. I put a red circle around the piece I am talking about that fit up in a hole but where is the 2nd one? And I assume that part is what you are talking about since it went up inside the tranny.




EDIT: I think I notice a little stub on the other side up close by the solenoids and didn't even realize it since I was worried about that longer piece going up in when I was lining it up.

 

Nope I am not home. I am in Gainesville at the moment and was supposed to be arriving in the Keys today. Trying to get this sorted out now so I can finally make the trip down to the Keys.

Assume since you are mentioning this you are a tech or service adviser at Brumos? I have honestly never brough a car to the dealer outside of warranty since I am very hands on and mechanically inclined and they don't call the dealer the stealer for nothing haha. I really don't know that much about auto transmissions though (have only owned manuals) so this is kinda kicking my butt at the moment, so that is why I am breaking down and going to the dealer tomorrow here to see what they have to say.

Out of curiousity do you have any idea what a valve body or tcu costs if one of these is deamed the problem? Still don't see how it could be the valve body though with it being a "mechanical" type item and how the car seems to have electrical type problems with it getting stuck in gear until you clear the codes then it works again briefly before getting stuck in one gear but if you don't clear the codes then you restart it and it is still stuck in 3rd.

 

Viewing the pic above at 10-11 position, notice the plastic black oval piece with two round cylinders on it, left is all black, right is silver on top, those are your speed sensors.

Looking at this thread https://mbworld.org/forums/w211-amg/...uild-pics.html you will see pics of clutch drums with square perforations around the circumference. That is what the sensors read through the holes in the case that divide the top and bottom of the transmission.

 

Ahh, ok. Guess that thing I circled is just a line up pin.

 

Can you borrow a TCM from someone? Just in case.....

 

My car was shifting rough from first to second, the dealer found no error codes... They swapped in a control unit from another E55 and the car started shifting perfectly. They replaced part number 035-545-39-32
This is just a shot in the dark, but I thought I would throw it out there. Good luck

 

I don't know anyone to borrow one from so no. And I was wondering if they were interchangable or not so I guess the tcu/tcm can just be swapped from any of these E55 or SL55s or maybe even more models?

Well mine shifts normal 1, 2, 3 after codes are cleared then stops in 3rd, I have then slowed down and started over again shifting up the gears until 3rd and then it eventually gets stuck in 3rd and stays that way until cleared again.

With both of you mentioning swapping the transmission computer from another car that is good to know, if I can manage to find one if that is the problem.

 

If your interested in rebuilding your VB let me know I can send over the instructions, many seals/orings, ball bearings, little screens, etc. That is all the VB is after all. But my bet is internal trans slippage or other issue. Swap a ECU first and report back. Your best bet beyond swapping the WCU is to have a competent mechanic connect a STAR to it, this way they can compare the readings between the two sensors to see what is really going on and this would give a good direction as to which way to go.

 

Just got back from the dealer, they pulled the same code P2503 that I had pulled with the Snap-On tool.

They said I need a new valve body and that the computer said there were two different valve bodies available which they have to contact Mercedes on Monday to determine which one the car needs. Also one of the valve bodies requires a new transmission computer so depending on which one they say that could also need replaced.

Now to me that sounds crazy because like you said all the valve body is, is a bunch of passages and bearings and stuff like that, so why in the world would a different computer be needed? And to go further why the heck would Mercedes have two different valve bodies listed for the car?

The estimates were like $1450 if I needed just the valve body (this included fluids, filter, etc and labor). Labor was listed at 5.5 hours which 1 hour of that would be deducted since I just paid for 1 hour diagnostics at $120/hr so that price would be more like $1330. If I needed the other valve body with computer also it was another $900 putting it at like $2300 (minus the 1 hour labor already paid).

The tech came out and I was talking to him saying how it had me lost that it would lock in 3rd gear but immediately work 1-3 if codes were reset so it didn't make sense to me how it was something mechanical like the valve body. His explanation was there are all the small passages and a certain pressure has to be met to shift the gears so when it doesn't get the pressure then the computer locks it up.

I am still curious about these other valve bodies from one of the Dodge/Chrysler/Jeep SRT-8 vehicles since it should be the same thing (minus the solenoids being different) from them using the same transmission as us with just the differences in clutch material and us having higher pressure solenoids but I did more searching though and the guy who builds the performance ones for those guys said this:

I just think it would be better to have one of those upgraded ones if it would work but I don't want to spend $600 on a performance valve body listed for one of those SRT-8 vehicles and then it not work for some reason.

 

I hope that does it for you. I would rebuild it myself, but since your away from home, options are limited. They do not wear out, just the o-rings and seals need replacing + a thorough cleaning.

 

Blue tops are better. 722 has pulse code modulated valves and the blue tops (used in the SLR 722's and later e55's) have larger ports. MOPAR folks also refit them to their 722's.

I would be cautious with using a valve body for a MOPAR 722. The PN for an E55 valve body is 211 270 01 06 and the PN for an 211 E500 is 140 270 04 06. Either way they are only sold as refurbished units. Through cleaning and new seals is about all that can be done with the exception of the electronically controlled components which are easily replaced.

Also, AMG includes their "Speed Shift" which is certainly in the TCU firmware, but there are are beefed-up internal components in the gearbox and there may very well be an AMG modified valve body, but I do not think anybody knows for sure. This was a $100,000+ car that MB wanted to make a statement with and they built it with many, many unique items only found in this car. Only use original components or after market products that have a proven track record. Beware, it will only cost you more if you try to cheap-out.

 

I have since talked to Bill from Paramount Performance. He told me the valve body was different in the 722.6 Mercedes transmission but he does the rebuild performance upgrades on them too and it comes with a 1 year warranty no matter how much power you run with it. I already took it back out of the car and have it boxed up to ship out tomorrow.

Can't wait to get it back in and see how it works, supposed to be firmer quicker shifts so I am pumped to see the difference.

 

You hooked up with the right guy. I don't think anyone knows more about the 722's then Bill. He was a design engineer on the 722.

 

BUMP, how did you fix this. Mine just did the same thing to me today randomly driving and it is down for the count.

 

Had lots of shavings in the system clogging up the valve body that were mostly gold in color, assume it was clutch material that had broken down. Took valve body out and then split it open and took it all apart cleaning out with brake cleaner (all the passages). And changed the 4 quarts of fluid that get drained when you do it. It worked briefly then clogged up again, so ended up doing a full system flush of tranny fluid then got valve body cleaned real good again and it worked right ever since.

Get all up in these pieces in the ends.

 

I just had the dealer do the transmission fluid change 2 weeks ago. Could they have fouled up my transmission?

Never had issues before

 

Well I will say I am pretty sure that a fluid change only consists of draining what is in the pan (right around 4 quarts) and then changing the filter. There is like 7 quarts in the system when you account for the lines, trans cooler and the torque converter which holds a couple, so not all the fluid was changed most likely (unless you got a flush).

When you said yours did the same, what did it do? It got stuck in 3rd? Will the car reset if you turn it off and go through all the gears or any gears or is it just always in 3rd (or 2nd) now right from the get go?

With all this being said, I have also heard you shouldn't do tranny flushes because it could stir up shavings that have settled in the trans cooler, etc and then make their way in to the valve body. When I had mine done it was different though since I didn't have the valve body in place through the flushing and after since my valve body was getting changed.

I originally took the valve body out like 3 times cleaning it and it kept messing up after a short drive when it got clogged again even though I was changing the 4 quarts to new fluid every time when I drained it to remove the valve body. I finally said screw it and brought it to the dealer for them to do a full system flush and put another valve body in and I had mine rebuilt to the modded Paramount Performance one. I was out of town during all this ordeal so just wanted to be able to drive back home so did this then about a week later took out the valve body I bought from the dealer with about 100 miles on it and installed my modded valve body. It was pretty crazy too, I had to pay like $40 or $50 for a core fee to get my own valve body back from the dealer when they installed a different one.

 

If a trans flush messes up a trans, guess what, your already on borrowed time. This transmission is exceptional with filtering and draining debris. This is some ridiculous rumor some yahoo in a barn thought up and tossed on the internet and now folks run with it. There is nothing to it. Drain away. Our transmission is not all that complicated.