Hi

I own a 1999 e320 sedan, 120,000 miles. Ran fine up until about 2 months ago when the gears would slip occasionally. Brought it in to a mercedes repair shop in town that specializes in foreign cars and they recommended changing the transmission fluid. Did that at a cost of $300. Helped at first but a couple weeks later it happened again. Then about 3 weeks ago first thing in the morning I when I took it out it wouldn't go past first gear. Drove it to a gas station, and left it running a few minutes. Turned it off and on again and then its fine. Ran fine the rest of the day. That has happened twice, once when backing up it revved high and had to let it sit for a while, and the other same with first. Both times it was fine again after several minutes and didnt occur the rest of the day, always happens first thing in the morning. Also it does slip more often, i.e. Ill be accelerating and it will change gears a little rough and go back down a gear then back up.

I had to replace the ignition module about a month ago at a mercedes dealer (yikes that was expensive) and asked them to take a look at it and they told me it was fine, couldn't see anything wrong with it.

Any ideas? I don't know if its electrical, or the transmission or what, but I am running out of ideas and getting worried about my poor car.

Thanks

Bill

 

Most likely you will need a conductor plate...it's above the valve body .. conductor plate has the speed sensors in it and are known to go bad.about 250 bucks and few hours labor plus about 4 qrts trans fluid.

 

Is it something I can postpone for a few weeks without harming the car further. I've been driving with it for a few months, but it just got worse recently with the issue of not giving power when cold until it sits for a few minutes.

 

Okay, another question, it actually has been doing "okay", but yesterday driving after a day of no issues I got it into my head maybe it miraculously fixed itself, yes I know this was dumb. I had tried to recreate the jerkiness and slipping and nothing. So I floored it for 3 seconds. Let off gas, and it shifted down pretty hard, then when I pushed the gas it just revved, I was going about 45 mph at the time and lost all acceleration. got into a turn lane and came to a stop, and it started back up fine from there. Does this help with a diagnosis at all or not?

I'm guessing it is that plate you're talking about or the transmission unit thing under the transmission, just postponing taking it in right now for a week.