Hi! I've had lot's of random stuff happening to my Merc the last weeks and months, and I think it's about time to get one of those code readers, and I've been trying for a while now to figure out what I need and what might be wrong.

My car is a 2000 model registred in 1999, but from what I've read it goes as a 2000mod.

The thing is that the yellow "check engine light" came on quite a while ago, and at first it would only drive in limp mode. Everything happened after a 4 hour drive when I was to accellerate quite vigourously out of a toll booth, when it suddenly lost all power and I had to stop it. The yellow light came on (don't remember if it was blinking or a solid yellow). I stopped the car, the engine and everything and was able to drive it normally for a while. I became a bit brave, gave it some throttle, and when the kickdown initiated it died on me and I had to limp all the way to a gas station where i bought some injector cleaner which i poured into the tank. This kinda worked, have no problem with the car going into limp mode now, but if i accelerate a bit too hard, it wil act very randomly. Hard to explain, but the gearing will act all strange and the rpm goes nuts.

I tried to overtake somebody today, and when i pulled out, pushed the throttle down, it accelerated for a short distance, hard to explain all that happend since I was listening to really loud music, but I didn't get the speed i was aiming at, and the gearing was acting up. It worked fine afterwards, as long as i only pushed the accelerator half way down, it is when i initiate kickdown that the problems occur. When the rpm was going nuts i tried to shift manually, but it did not seem to work all that well... Will test it a bit more tomorrow, it was during rush hour, so didn't want to annoy people more then i had to :P

I spilled some coffee into the center console quite a while ago, but nothing happend after that, these problems emerged months later.

Another thing, the manual dsg shifting never really worked, it will change gears, but usually, if i am not very careful, it will shift it self back into drive, running through all the gears in the display.

A more recent problem is that the shifter now is stuck in park, and the only way to get it to change into d is to put a pen into the hole beside the shifter... After doing that a couple of times it now sometimes goes into drive without using the pen... I've checked the break light, and that works fine, so might it be some kind of delayed after effect from the spilled coffee? It has been quite cold in Norway, and the car has been standing... (-30 centigrades and been standing for up to 15-20 days without being started or driven...)

After reading a bit I've come to so many conclusions that I've capitulated and gone for the option of buying a code reader, services on Mercedes are a killer here in Norway :P

Lots of problems weird and weirdly formulated problems here, but any help would be appriciated

 

if you pop the cover to the center console shift area, you'll see that directly below is the
electronic switches...as well as the transmission control module. once liquid has permeated
this area, the worse case scenario is $1000 in damage. this is a big weak spot in the MB
console design since many drivers either use a cup holder near the console, or may rest
a cup of <something> in this region. it's unfortunate that liquid spill can cause such damage.

if you go to benzworld.org or mbworld.org - into the w210 sections, you will see tons of
tips and suggestions dealing with the famed liquid spill.

i got off cheap last year, on a 2000 E320 USA model. much fan blowing, hair dryer, wiping
over a period of 48 hrs saved my module. car exhibited very similar ailments you described
even the 'stuck in Park', limp mode.....and my dash warning lights and shift display were
crazy for two days.

good luck....you'll really need it here if you're to avoid high cost of replacing the module.