03 E500 transmission problem help please!
 

Hey guys,

I need help again for my brother's E500. The car has now 120k on it. The problem is when i am going slow, like crusing, then on a up hill very slight uphill i give it gas just a bit and you feel a little rumble and shaking then once it gets the speed it goes away. This can happen at any speed. 20mph, 40mph, 50-60-70-80. There is no lights on the dash. Also it looks like it is like slipping or something cause when I press the gas a bit the revs go up about 2 clicks (400 rpms then it shakes a bit) then it goes back down while accelarating like normal.

What do you guys think it can be? Can it be just an tranny oil change to make it better? can it be the driveshaft u joint that goes to the back of the car or the front one where the shaft goes in.

I dont know if the radiator is that bad one that the dealer had to be replaced under the recall. I looked under the car and it was not the one. And i havent lost any coolant since i have owned the car for years.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. thanks guys!

More than likely you have antifreeze leaking into the transmission through the radiator. The integrated oil cooler is known to leak, allowing coolant to mix with the trans fluid and will cause a "humming" or "droning" noise at times coming from the torque converter. The dealership can perform a glycol content test and anything more than 100ppm is excessive. There is a DTB for this, applies up to both c class and e class up to production around august 2004 equipped with Valeo brand radiators. You need to have it tested and the repairs will be in the thousands no matter what. It will need the radiator and flush, possibly torque converter, and I have seen a few bad enough that they need the trans but they will start with the first option.

03 e500
 

Yes I know that the warantee is 50K or 5 years, but I was just told that a new rebuilt tranny and new radiator which they already replace is now going to cost 9200 dollars to fix.
The car only has 44K miles on it, is there any leverage with Mercedes to absorb some of the cost?
Since they replaced the radiator already I assume that the tranny is not going to get any worse at this point, it is driveable just shifts harder than usual.
Any recommendations or suggestions.
I just wasn't prepared to spend 9K to fix a 5 year old Mercedes.....

Took the car to the dealer and they told me the Valve Gear needs to be changed. does anyone know how hard it is to change that? the part was expensive but the labor hours the dealer was going to charge is 4 including the tranny oil change as well. so 3 hrs labor doesnt look like a tough job.

ever fixed?
 

Have you ever gotten this problem fixed? what exactly was it? I think my car does the same thing.