Hello All,

I read through most of the threads regarding the shifter module and have a couple of questions for those who are familiar.

FYI, it's a 00 S430

About a week ago my shifter decides to stay in park and after trolling around this site I find out that it could either be my brake switch or the little black tab that's part of the lock mechanism in the module itself. Since I could hear the lock mechanism disengages every time I stepped on the brake I assumed it wasn't the brake switch.

So long story short, I yank out the shifter and find the little black tab had broken inside and quickly remove it. I realize I'm not all that comfortable with the fact that shifter can easily be placed into park or reverse with the slight of hand and quickly order a used shifter assembly that I find off another forum site. The numbers match my stock shifter assembly so I assumed that it was compatible with my car.

The piece arrives today and I replace my current shifter with the "new" one. Right away I notice that the brake switch not disengaging the lock mechanism and the shifter not functioning like normal only to assume that it may need to be reprogrammed? After coming to that conclusion, I place my "old" shifter back in and find out the car is not recognizing the "old" shifter either and it's not going out of 2nd or 3rd gear when I'm on the road. Possibly limp mode? But there are no malfunction indications.

So am I right to assume I need the new shifter assembly reprogrammed through MB? And what could cause the car not to recognize my old shifter?

Thanks guys.

 

Hello im also having same problem for my 2001 s500.
were you able to find out what the problem was?

 

was the battery disconnected during this procedure? sometimes if the battery is still connected and you disconnect the shifter, it goes into "safe mode" and wont go out of safe mode even if the new one or old one is reconnected.

But, officially you are suppose to have it reprogrammed when the shifter is replaced or the car will go into safe mode. Most of the time though, if the battery is disconnected, some say about 10-15 min to be sure, then take it apart and then replace the old one, there is no issues. But when you place a new one in and the car reads it, it goes into "take in for reprogram" mode and might not clear even if old one is put back in.

It's one of those things where it was built so you have to take it to someone with STARdiagnostic equipment but some have found ways around it and hope they chime in soon.

Hey, some people at the dealership is trying to get that new CL65 and cant do it if they forget to steal.