Gear not shifting

[kaiserh]

Sorry to open another thread

I just took my 1997 c280 auto trans -to pick up an oilpan gasket,store is only 2 miles away,everything was fine on the way to the store,but on the way back my check engine light went for the first time since I have the car (2years),and I put the car on D as always but gear wont change ,stayed on very first,RPM went all the way high. stopped the car but it did the same thing,now I am parked at work and do not know what to do.
I checked 32 pages of the forum to find a thread similar to this problem,but did not find any .

can someone help me please,I don't even know if I should drive it home (4 miles).

need help

[junklar]

Looks like your transmission is gone.. try putting the gear into 2 or 3 instead of D

[jnolte]

yeah your tranns went out, tow it

[mis-u-jerr]

You may not be totally screwed but it is not looking good... Not coming out of 1st at all? Any grindy noises? I am seriously no mechanic but the guy I talked to for my situation said that you have to drop the pan to see if there are any chunks in there. If so, yer screwed...

[kaiserh]

thanks for the replies,I am not ready to accept that the transmission is gone,there were no indication whatsoever,always been a smooth ride.out of nowhere this happens,only thing I think I did out of the ordinary was to make a sharp U turn.but I have done it many times in the past.

I drove it back to my house but before that I disconnected the battery for 90 mins , at first check engine was gone then it came back again,but the gear shifting stayed the same.I also tried on 1st/2nd/3rd ,no change.

I have quite a few independent Mercedes repair services within 5 miles,including a stealership,
1 of them sound good,they also work on beemers and Porsche and is less than 2 miles away.I will call all of them tomorrow . and see who I like.
I hit 82k today.I want to do 182k with this car.

and also there is no grinding noise,no any other noise besides the engin on 1st gear noise.

any other ideas are welcome.specially anyone from San Diego area.

thanks a lot

[Proven Guilty]

question: were you buying the oil pan gasket for your W202? if so, why is it needed?

if you're leaking oil, and may have been the result of low clearance scrape / bent oil pan, there's two vaccuum lines that tie into the transmission to allow shifting, and perhaps those are loose, broken, or disconnected as a result of whatever caused your oil leak.

just a suggestion of something to check!

[JRE320]

You're pretty much screwed. You need a new tranny... :( :(
C280 97 is notorious for that. :(

[Denlasoul]

Any CEL codes?

[kaiserh]

I got code P0715
it is for "input turbine speed sensor circuit malfunction"
I took it to a repair shop,and they will look at it and let me know tomorrow. $88 dollars charge.I am keeping my fingers crossed.

[kaiserh]

Originally posted by Proven Guilty
question: were you buying the oil pan gasket for your W202? if so, why is it needed?

if you're leaking oil, and may have been the result of low clearance scrape / bent oil pan, there's two vaccuum lines that tie into the transmission to allow shifting, and perhaps those are loose, broken, or disconnected as a result of whatever caused your oil leak.

just a suggestion of something to check!

I was told by a mechanic who changed oil last time,so I was getting ready to have it changed while I do oil change and now this happened.

[Denlasoul]

Originally posted by kaiserh
I got code P0715
it is for "input turbine speed sensor circuit malfunction"
Thread of my experience with that CEL (http://www.club202.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=13212&highlight=Turbine+sensor+malfunction)

[kaiserh]

Thanks

[kaiserh]

I got a call from the repair shop,good news is my tranny is fine :cool:

I will need to replace the "conductor plate" ,which has gone bad,they will flush the trans fluid, all parts and labor for $700 bucks.I am not sure how much the part costs but he will call me back.I am not sure if this is reasonable or not,but if this fixes the problem,I will be happy with spending 700 bucks.

I also asked him to replace the oil pan gasket,he say that will be another $500 ,mostly labor,since it is a 5 hour job.I told him to hold on to that,I can get that done for much less somewhere else.

I will update later on.

thanks everyone for their replies,it helped a lot.

[DirectLA]

Hello, sorry I am replying late to this thread but it seems there are always members ready to be doom sayers. I have found that while any car can have engine, tranny problems, etc., it is usually prudent to have a qualified technician look at the car (as you wisely did) before assuming the worse. Mercedes has a variety of highly technical sensors that can go bad, "limp home" functions for transmissions so that they aren't damaged if there's a problem, and the like. Point being, these cars are engineered to a high standard and the apparent diagnosis may not always be an accurate one.

My own car had it's CEL light come on while driving around town recently, instantly began running very rough and it kept cutting out and wanting to die altogether, but it turned out there was a simple misfire and after the plugs were changed, the car runs as she was intended.

[kaiserh]

thanks for the nice post

I got the car back,altogether I was charged 960.00,it included oil change,trans oil change,all filters,conductor plate and all

also stated that the oil pan gasket was not leaking,but the head gasket is leaking oil,I will get a second opinion on it,
all brakes need to be replaced as well.

head gasket leaking approx 1425.00 and breaks 500.00.

car is running as smooth as it ever was

[kaiserh]

went to a different mechanic,I was told head gasket is fine,it is leaking from front engine cover and valve cover gasket,got it fixed
under $250.and the leaking is gone,car is running fine.I guess it all depends who you go to.