Hello, first time poster here, I have due to the death of my father sort of inherated his 2000 c230 Kompressor sport pkg.. The car is in excellent shape and has 54k miles. I have driven it from time to time in the past and have always thought what a solid car this is. The car has been in my posession for about two months now and I have probably put about 1000 miles on her. This morning since it was going to be sunny here in Seattle, finally! I thought I would drive to work in it. Well, I turned the key to start it and it starts but I notice that almost all ths dash warning lights are on and the auto trans is stuck in Park. I also notice that when I turn on the parking lights most of the warning lights go out with the exception of the EPS/ABS and the CEL, the trans still will not budge out of Park? Oh and when the headlights turned on the tach moves like it should. What crazy gremlin do I have? Any tips on what to do for this first time Mercedes owner.

 

it must be wondering why it becomes sunny in seattle.

when you turn off and restart the engine, everything was fine? seems to have a voltage drop.

can you drive it to a workshop and have them scan the fault codes?

just insert a pen on the shift lever gate so you can shift it to drive.

 

Sleepwalker, Well it's raining this morning but the car is still not shifting out of park, after I got home last night I messed around with it and in reading the owners manual I discovered that you could manually get the car out of park as you described and was able to do so. Can I do this while the car is running? I measured accross the battery with a volt meter as well and measured 12.3v with the car off and 13.8v with the car started. The car does start but it takes longer and you have to hold the key in the starting position for more than the normal quick twist, and the CEL light is still on.

 

i think the voltage for the w202 is 14.1 i could be wrong.

ESP/ABS lights come on for a number of reasons some could be voltage drop but your voltage is not under 10v.

Try turning the wheel all the way to the right then to the left.

 

yes and with the engine running too. if you shift in D or R while the engine is off, you may not be able to start it because it's a safety measure.

 

Thanks, So I used a pen to bypass the lockout and was able to get the car out of the garage and actually drive around the block. The car must be in limp mode as I only have second gear. I will have to get to a shop and see whats going on here.