Rovel

I had a very odd transmission issue today in my 2007 E63. After 30 min highway driving at 70-75 mph I took the exit and came to the stop sign. I felt that the car was very sluggish and the transmission was stuck in the 7th gear. In said 7 on the IC screen. I switched the car from Sport into Manual and now it said 7 in the center of the screen but M6 down below right above the odometer. Further switches between C-S-M and paddle shifting didn't do anything. Continued showing 7. Luckily the car would still move forward slowly. I parked the car, turned it off and back on 2 mins later. Everything is back to normal and the car shifts just fine.

Has anyone had this or similar issue? A lot of people complain about their tranny getting stuck in lowest gear but not highest. The car has 63K miles on it and the tranny service has been done at 40K miles in 2015. Was it just a glitch or is something about to break down?

Plutoe

The only way to definitely find out is to a short test with DAS and review the module log. All else is a FUYAA.

Yuille36

I haven't experience this personally, but like Plutoe stated the only true way to determined what happened, is to diagnose your issue using Star Diagnostic and read the codes from your transmission and ECU.

1970gsx

Most likely the conductor plate in the tranny. I just did mine a few weeks ago. Easy job and about $125 bucks I think for the part.

tw2

On the E63 the conductor plate is part of the TCU and is a much more expensive affair with coding requirements.

1970gsx

Didn't realize we were talking about an E63, my bad.

Rovel

This happened again except the tranny got stuck in the 3rd gear in city driving. Happened as I changed from C to S mode. What is weird is that the tranny doesn't show signs of a conductor plate going bad: no jerkiness, no limp mode, no errors. It just gets stuck in the car and even if you stop with your foot on brakes it will continue showing the gear it is stuck in. Turning the car off and then on immediately resolves the issue. I will check with the ODB scanner, but will also get it diagnosed somewhere with professional tools. If it turns out to be the conductor plate, and as it can't be replaced separately from the valve body, does anyone have any recommendations? Perhaps there are refurbished ones or restoration companies out there? Or is the MB dealer my only choice?

This company claims they fix conductor plates? https://circuitboardmedics.com/merce...odule-repairs/ Is it possible on E63 7-speed tranny?

Rovel

Does anyone know whether the conductor plate or the speed sensor could be replaced without replacing the valve body on 2007 E63? Some say you can, others say it is a gotta be replaced together. FCP sells speed sensor for 722.9 transmissions. I am confused

Yuille36

Out of curiosity when was the last time that your transmission fluid and filter was changed? I'm wondering if that has anything to do with it, being stuck in gear.
I know that transmission works off of pressure, could a port be blocked thereby not allowing it to shift?

Rovel

Hi Yuille,

Transmission service had been done in 2015 at 40k mile. The car has 65 or so currently. One member of the forum just took my VIN and told me that I could replace the conductor plate independently of the valve body. If the issue comes back I might do that. Although can’t do myself because of the coding issue. Driving the car in C mode since then and behaves OK for now.

Yuille36

That is definitely good news. I personally am a stickler on performing all the services at the proper intervals, and thus far avoided any issues.
Fingers crossed !!

Rovel

The car got scanned yesterday. It is definitely a conductor plate issue. The error was related to turbine speed and VGS defective - something like that. Good news is that I don't have VGS-1 and conductor plate can be replaced separately. Now I am torn between paying $1200 for a new plate or $400 for repair from circuitboardmedics. Have anyone repaired conductor plates before? is the repair going to last?

Rovel

My transmission acted up really badly yesterday and went into limp mode. I couldn't even start the car or put it in neutral. I towed it to a repair facility. I just got a call from the repair facility specializing in German cars. They say that the control module in valve body has failed. According to them the valve body on W211 E63s has control module in it and I will need a new valve body and conductor plate. Does it sound legit? Could control unit fail? Any thoughts?

tw2

Yes, everything they mention is a somewhat common scenario.

socoetimba

Did you get the problem fix?

Rovel

I am getting it fixed still. My mechanic told me that my valve body was defective and replacing the conductor plate won’t help. Now MB won’t sell valve body to any mechanic or shop. Luckily this place specializes in German cars and somehow can buy it from the dealer. They ordered the part for me. It’s been 2 weeks and still hasn’t arrived. It comes from Germany. It may take another week or two

socoetimba

It sucks. I hope you can get it all solved!
Please post the outcome!

Rovel

I took the car to another shop. The quote I had from the first shop was 2500 USD parts plus labor. They asked a MB dealer to order the part. After about a month MB dealer got back to us saying that something went wrong and no parts were actually ordered. They also said that the part itself will cost 2000 USD. So the total for parts and labor now become almost 3K. It was too expensive for me. I took the car to another MB specializing repair facility. The quote I got from them is 2300 parts plus labor for remanufactured (by MB itself) valve body and conductor plate as a single unit. The job comes with 3 year warranty. I was told that there was only one left on entire internet at MB dealer in California. So hope they ordered it before it was gone.

Ironically they also found a code for a bad crankshaft position sensor. They want 300 USD for labor and parts. That part is super cheap from what I see. But does anyone know where it is located on m156 engine? Is there enough room to replace the sensor?

Rovel

I ended up taking the car to another place where they were able to order me a re-manufactured conductor plate and valve body (a single Unit). They said it was remanufactured by MB and gave me 3 year warranty. They strongly recommended against replacing just the control unit or getting the speed sensor fixed, as in their experience the issue comes back if the whole thing is not replaced. It cost me 2300 USD parts and labor.

socoetimba

I'm glad everything worked out. How is the car running after it?

machoman47

Hi Rovel, hope you are still on this Forum, I have had exact same thing happened to me this past weekend, i was at the cars & Coffee and on the way back leaving a stop light, i noticed the pick to be very sluggish, i knew somehting was up and check the gear view in dash and it was stuck on 7th gear, for the next red ligth as well. pulled to the gas station turned the car off and turned back on , it started to work perfectly as it never happened. what did you do to rectify the problem?

Thanks

Rovel

Unfortunately I had to spend $2500, LOL. I explain more here