Finally experienced "stuck in park"
Thread Starter
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Junior Member
Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 16
From: Walnut Creek, CA
Finally experienced "stuck in park"
After reading many posts about the notorius "stuck in park" I knew it was only a matter of time before my 2000 S430 with 140,000 miles would experience it because it has, in the 36,000 miles I have put on it, experience all the common problems I read on this site.
So I kept the rubber hammer in my trunk and dang if I didn't need it not two weeks after getting new upper control arms, new front airmatics, balll jonts, stabilizer joints, etc. My very honest, but not cheap, mechanic said he just replaces the shift unit because he cannot legally disable the brake/park feature. Cost...about $1,200 plus or minus...usually plus.
Rubber hammer (bang down firmly while pulling back) worked a few times then I got the guts to follow all of the posts, utube videos, and even paid $38 for the pages from the mercedes repair manual, and do disable the thing myself.
Nothing scarier then tearing out your interior, then yanking out your shift lever...but if you follow the steps laid out in the utube video it really is not too difficult. Even tearing apart the shift unit is straightforward and just make sure you keep the screws organized and dont mess with the "electronic shifter module", a black plastic box which I believe reads which gear the shift lever is in, and make sure you dont have any left over screws!
Lo and behold the little cheap broken plastic part fell out just as everyone described. Removed the other half of the broken piece and reassembled it all in exact reverse order. No damage to interior, no resetting codes or programming, only have to be careful about using parking brake all the time. Very, very rewarding to fix it yourself and not have to pay the big repair bill.
So I kept the rubber hammer in my trunk and dang if I didn't need it not two weeks after getting new upper control arms, new front airmatics, balll jonts, stabilizer joints, etc. My very honest, but not cheap, mechanic said he just replaces the shift unit because he cannot legally disable the brake/park feature. Cost...about $1,200 plus or minus...usually plus.
Rubber hammer (bang down firmly while pulling back) worked a few times then I got the guts to follow all of the posts, utube videos, and even paid $38 for the pages from the mercedes repair manual, and do disable the thing myself.
Nothing scarier then tearing out your interior, then yanking out your shift lever...but if you follow the steps laid out in the utube video it really is not too difficult. Even tearing apart the shift unit is straightforward and just make sure you keep the screws organized and dont mess with the "electronic shifter module", a black plastic box which I believe reads which gear the shift lever is in, and make sure you dont have any left over screws!
Lo and behold the little cheap broken plastic part fell out just as everyone described. Removed the other half of the broken piece and reassembled it all in exact reverse order. No damage to interior, no resetting codes or programming, only have to be careful about using parking brake all the time. Very, very rewarding to fix it yourself and not have to pay the big repair bill.
Thread Starter
|
Junior Member
Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 16
From: Walnut Creek, CA
Finally experienced "stuck in park"
BTW, attached are the pages from mercedes manual showing most of the key steps removing shift unit. I found these moderately helpful but the utube video below was the most useful...watch it frame by frame before doing the work.
The utube video is at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsxUFVtdPHk
If this link doesnt work just search for "S 430 Mercedes Shifter Removal"
The utube video is at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsxUFVtdPHk
If this link doesnt work just search for "S 430 Mercedes Shifter Removal"
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