Hopefully my transmission isn't completely shot, but here is what has happened.

2010 e63. no mods other than resonator delete and ROW airboxes. 142,000 miles.

About a week ago i was turning into a parking lot, and the car completely came out of gear. It was like i had slid it into neutral. No strange noises of any sort, just came out of gear. It went back in after coasting to a stop, and i haven't has issues with it for about a week, or 300-400 miles give or take.

So last night, i was rolling along in comfort at about 45, when i simultaneously got a "DISTRONIC plus inoperative" message along with the transmission slipping back of out gear while cruising. Coasted to a stop, switched from drive to park then back to drive, all was fine.

Got another 2 miles or so down the road, it did it again. This time i had to stop and turn the car completely off to get it to catch. It's like its revving up but not engaging fully every time. One time it even was moving a little but you could definitely tell the transmission was not fully working.

After turning the car back on, i had more warning messages (blind spot inoperative, PRE-SAFE functions limited), along with a check engine light. i figured i would try in manual mode, but that was even worse. Upon lightly downshifting from 3rd to 2nd, the car bucked pretty hard and came back out of gear. But yet again, i coasted to a stop, turned the car off, turned it back on, and it shifted all the way to 7th perfectly all the way until i got home (wasn't but about 1 mile away)

Fast forward to this morning, and the car wont even start or turn over. Just clicking. I replaced my battery (original mercedes) about a year and a half ago, along with my voltage regulator (also original mercedes). Battery was at 11.8V when i tried to start it. It normally hovers around here after the car has been sitting, and i have NEVER had trouble starting it until now. Makes me think its something electrical.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. My closest dealership is 2 hours away, and my preffered dealership is nearly 5 hours away. So trying to get some ideas before i have the car towed.

I have two other cars to drive, one being a 1983 300d that doesn't run at the moment

And also an extreme beater car: 2001 Saturn L300.

Going to get the Saturn registered today so i can drive it, so im not in an extreme bind but i would like to get this thing on the road ASAP.

Again any help is greatly appreciated

 

Hmmm, 11.8 is where my battery tends to be nowadays, but then i do long discharge cycles now as i only really drive it on the weekends and it spends large periods on the driveway.

Your best bet would be to get a Mercedes STAR computer hooked up and i'll bet the picture gets a whole lot clearer after that

 

Trying to get a way to read the codes now.

But strangely enough... I charged the battery, put the car in Dyno mode, took it out of Dyno mode, shut the car off and then cranked it back up and.... All fault lights gone. Car is shifting fine. Acting like it never happened.

What goes? Should I try a new battery ?

 

A fully charged lead acid battery has about 12.8 volts. At 11.8 volts the battery is about 80% discharged. Should never see that state of discharge in a properly running car.

How are you measuring the voltage? Above numbers are what a multimeter would show at the battery terminals. If you are using a display on the dash, then a drop of a few tenths would be typical. But regardless 11.8 is low.

If the battery is more than ~4 years old I would replace it on speculation. But also check tightness of battery connections, corrosion, and condition of alternater and voltage regulator.

 

ill never understand this car.

when i got the car the voltage regulator went bad. i replaced it, and it began charging correctly, but i guess from the voltage regulator being bad, it destroyed the battery. SO i bought a brand new battery from the dealer.

It has ALWAYS sat at 11.7-12v when the car was off. measured off of the dash. Has been like this for the past year and a half, or 40,000 miles, however you want to look at it. I even thought how it was acting was strange, i ran it by multiple dealerships and others, everybody said that was "perfectly normal" on these cars. I have not once had an issue starting the car since i replaced the battery. Started strong every single time. But i also think the battery at the 11's when sitting overnight is low. Even if the car sits for 3 days, it still is hovering around the 11.5-11.9 range. Im still getting the same readings as always, but no crank sometimes since this trans issue began.

This morning it cranked fine, but engine light is back, "blind spot inoperative" is back, and the car is back to not going into gear. My "comfort/sport/sport+/M/RS" knob wont even light up, neither will the corresponding notification for the trans mode on the dash.

Last night i drove the car around, it drove great, did a few pulls in manual, shifted strong as always. Went around 10 miles, then brought it home and like i said, upon cranking this morning, its back to not working.

 

While that's correct, those state of charge charts refer to a battery that is at a no load state and sitting there for a few hours at 70 degrees. A battery connected to a car is not at a no load state. On my car, I've had the battery voltage as low as 11.2 and the car started fine, but that was in the winter when the temperature was probably in the 20-30 degree range. If you have the voltage display on the dash, it should go up to over 14 volts once you're driving. At idle it may also be low, in the 12 volt range. A bad voltage regulator can easily fry a battery, basically it gets overcharged and one of the cells can short out which damages the battery.

Go back to the original attempt and try to see if there are any stored MB codes. You'll probably have to pay a little more to get a code reader that can do MB specific codes. MB specific code readers range from $50-$150 and there's probably about a half dozen of them out there. Weird transmission problems like this usually means it's something electrical and not a bad transmission.

 

With that mileage, you may several issues going on. Is the alternator original? How are the brushes (if this car has them)?

These symptoms are similar to what happened to me on my 300CE years ago.

Best of luck!

 

Hey Dinman, any progress?

 

Dropped the car off Saturday in Texas, waiting to hear what the issue is. They have a few ideas but nothing 100% I don't think.

 

Good luck man

 

dealer claims that the Distronic cruise control module has gone bad and caused this. P/n 2129003100. Part is like ~$400 dealer wants $1416 for everything