Help Needed Mercedes Auto Gearbox (1 Viewer)

[david32]

Right hear goes i try and keep it short mew Mec/ motorhome with auto box i have been to three Mec/ dealers in 6 months with a intermittent fault in the auto box of this M/H but they cannot get the box to create the fault checked it for oil all ok . So they tell me i have to live with till it gets worse if it does and i cant live with it. So i thought i would write to Mec/ customer care no joy they say its me the way I'm driving they sent me back to the dealer the dealer says let go a run all ok dealer says sorry but all work,s ok. I have tried to get information out of the dealer and Mec/ about the makeup of this gear box but no one will tell me anything. ( THE FAULT ) say your driving along at 30MPH on a straight road and you come to a steep hill still at 30MPH as it starts to clime the hill it leaves it to
the very last Min to change just about to start to labour dealer says this is ok but sometimes it wont change at all and labours all the way up the hill and it wont let you trip it down a gear you have to stop and start of again that the only way it will sort itself out.
Also if you drive down the road and want to turn into a side road if that side road has a hill it will stay i gear and again labour all the way up the hill it does this sometimes at 40MPH above that all is ok. It is 6months old and it has dome this about 35 times you must stop it and start of again. So what i would like to know (1) a good Auto Gearbox company that someone could recommend as i an now going to go private. (2) Where can i fine out the makeup of this box and is it relays are does it have its own mapping are is it run from the E C U unit. I live in hope someone can help as i cant go on like this. Mec/315 cdi new 29/11/2009 2148cc.

 

[Braunston]

Hi, Does it have the tiptronic gearbox,(auto/Manual selection) just wondering if it does is the manual sector sitting in the auto position correctly, only it sounds like its having difficulty at times deciding if its auto or manual.

Just a thought, hope you get it sorted

 

[JeanLuc]

This is not what you want to hear, but if it is only six months old, I would not let anyone other than an authorised Mercedes Commercial dealer touch it. If there is a serious problem and perhaps the need for an exchange gearbox, I think you will make life much more difficult for yourself if a non-dealer has worked on it.

I would escalate the problem to M-B rather than keep swapping dealers.

Philip

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[takeaflight]

Hi I have had similar problems on my wifes old ML270 cdi which turned out to be a sensor on the air filter box (mass air filter sensor). Also on the motorhome I experienced a similar situation, which Merc Trucks Birmingham sorted. Turned out to be a dodgey connection on a cable, I don't know what the cable was, however it ran across the front of the engine bay at bumper height.

Try Here American Forum and really helpful http://sprinter-source.com/forum/

Also you say you have taken it to dealers, where they car or commercial ?

If car, in my experience they wont have a clue.

Roy

 

[david32]

No it is a fully auto Gearbox and they all where commercial Mec/dealers

 

[david32]

No it is a fully auto Gearbox and they where all commercial dealers

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[hilldweller]

No it is a fully auto Gearbox and they where all commercial dealers

I this illustrates that modern vehicles are now so over complex anyone who recognises a spanner has no chance of repairing them and those that can fix them are scarce as hen's teeth and cost as much as a lawyer. I've read threads of technicians being flown in from Germany and also news from the back door of big garages that admit on the quiet just going on a swap-fest at great expense to the owners trying to fix a problem they just do not understand and worse fix problems they know were designed in and should be under warranty.

 

[Peter JohnsCross MH]

Dont take it outside the Mercedes umbrella, it will nullify your warranty.

Peter

 

[dazzer]

Is there a place where this always happens? You say it does it going up hills, is there a perticular hill that gives you problems? If so take the Merc mechanic to this hill and show him the problem first hand.

It is very difficult trying to fault find when no fault can be made to show itself. Do you have a camcorder that you can take with you on your travels that you can switch on when driving to show the rpm and speed etc?

This might give the tech guys something to aim at if you cant make it give a problem with them inside the vehicle.

Make sure the date and time stamp is turned on when recording and make sure you record it every single time it happens.:thumb:

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[wireman]

I this illustrates that modern vehicles are now so over complex anyone who recognises a spanner has no chance of repairing them and those that can fix them are scarce as hen's teeth and cost as much as a lawyer. I've read threads of technicians being flown in from Germany and also news from the back door of big garages that admit on the quiet just going on a swap-fest at great expense to the owners trying to fix a problem they just do not understand and worse fix problems they know were designed in and should be under warranty.

for instance...(although not a merc dealer) our sprinter stopped, just like that....got it recovered foc to the garage. I asked "can you fix it?" Oh yes...10 days later I got it back with a bill for over £600. They had swapped an injector they thought was faulty, they swapped the seals in the fuel pump that we had done 6 months previous, they had done everthing they could think of and failed so called in a mechanic who had the Merc Star software (which I had to pay for) who plugged it in and said 'low fuel pressure; faulty sensor'. Replaced that and it made no difference, so they decided it was the connector of the ECU as it was a bit grubby, cleaned it up made no difference...eventually they metered the wires and found the place where it had rubbed through (wire from sensor to ECU) stripped it back, soldered it together and it lived this is a known fault BTW (we found out afterwards).


So £600+ to solder a wire back together....

 

[thefman]

Mercedes are absolute nails

ask anyone whose had a relatively new one they are crap

my business partner had an s600 4 years old cost 93k new 43k on the clock.

nothing but trouble 7k of repairs in 12 months so it had to go.

the mechanic at merc said all the faults were not uncommon

 

[dazzer]

We had 3 Merc Sprinters (2006 models bought new) for work.:Sad:

Biggest bag of sh*t we ever bought, as soon as the warranty ran out (and i do mean on the day they ran out!!!!) we chopped em in for 3 Ivecos :thumb: best thing we ever did.

Would never EVER buy a Merc again, they are unreliable, over priced, overly complex with useless dealers and rubbish resale value.

The biggest problems we had was the computers going tits up, on a very regular basis oh:

I recon that for the 3 years we had them all 3 of them were on the road at the same time for about 12 months, the rest of the time one or more was either in the garage being repaired or waiting for parts to be repaired or parked on the side of the road awaiting recovery

Never again!!!!

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[dave newell]

Mercs are no more complex than most other makes, all of them now use fly by wire throttles on diesel engines, electronically managed auto transmissions (even the full slushbox type are electronically managed), CanBus digital communications throughout the vehicle etc, etc.

Trying to diagnose a fault that will not show itself when under investigation is very difficult, if not impossible unless it is a known issue. Whatever you do decide to do DO NOT go outside of the MB netwrok or you will give up your warranty on just about everything to do with the vehicle.

The suggestion to video the fault is a good one, alternatively give the vehicle to a dealership for several days and ask them to do an extensive roadtest every day until it shows up.

Is there nothing you can do to get it to change down? For example what happens if you floor the throttle? does the normal kickdown work? Is it perhaps that you're driving it too gently and backing off the throttle when presented with a hill? Please don't be offended by the suggestion that it is your driving causing the issue, many modern vehicles have been designed in such a way as to force us to adjust our driving styles.

D.

 

[david32]

There is a hill not to far from where i live a good straight road and a long steep hill all in a 30 zone ok instate of going up it at 30 i could go up it at 35 and if i was to take every hill at 35 it may not labour at all. But 2 things at the top of this there is a speed trap sometimes after all it is a 30 mph zone next what happens when i want to turn left into a side road and there is a steep hill just as i turn i cant turn left at 35 just to get up a hill at low speed. And i have tryed everything it as if the gear box locks in the high gear and wont come out of it till you slow down and stop and start of again or keep going till it gets to the top and then it,s sort itself out. This is why i need to know if the auto box has it,s own mapping or is it controlled by the E C U or is it all cable,s and relays but no one in
Mercedes will give me that answer So as it getting on worse it nay be a fault that could go on for years and if the auto box is controlled by relays and cables i might better moving it on i just thought the first time that it happened the dealer would just re map it
but all he said was there a lot more than that to do but would not tell me any more and
do i have to trip down the box at every hill i see if i am driving at 30 or 40 i was told
by the dealer on the box is meant to all the work. This is Mercedes latest and new es Auto Box again it was the dealer told me that it was the one before that gave all the trouble . If its just remapping then i can take it to a Auto Box repairer and get it remapped but the dealer say,s he needs to know the fault first before he can start so i dont know what to do next . At the end of the day i may just have to sell it but i know one thing i will never have a Auto Gearbox again as long as i live i think it all rely,s and cables and they dont know where to start kooking .

 

[iceni]

Hi
A freind of mine had a similar problem to this with his Le voyager on a 2008 merc auto. I will tell you what caused it but first sI will tell you how he was treated

After it failed on a sunday. he rang merc up at 10am the next day (monday) only to be told that he was 10 hrs out of warranty as his 2 yr warranty had expired at midnight on the sunday. They wouldnt consider the fact that it actually failed within warranty but when pushed they agreed that they would do it but he would have to pay for any parts.

They then connect the laptop to it and are given a list of fault codes. Unfortunately there is only one bloke in the north of england who know what these codes mean but they send him an email and tell me mate he has to wait for the reply. A week later he gets the news that the codes related to a temperature sensor in the gearbox. They then drain the gearbox and find in their opinion that the gearbox didnt have enough oil in it. "well is there a leak" my mate asks. "No theres no signs of a leak".."so this suggests that there wasnt enough oil in the first place" says my mate. "well we cant say that...all we can say is theres not enough oil in now"

So they have to do 2 x oil changes and each time run the van for 100 miles to flush out the
debris and sludge etc and do a final top up of oil. Cost £400 for the oil !!!!

He get the van back and within 100 miles its filed again.
Back to the dealer. Another 6 days to wait for the tosser with the codes to tell the dealer that the temp sensor has gone faulty. So a week later gets the van back.

It fails again after 50 miles so its back top the dealer again.

This time they piddle about for 2 weeks waiting for this fool who know the codes, My mate and his missus are getting more upset at this and near to tears as theres no forseeable outcome. In the end he ends up ringing mercedes in germany and having a go at the head office and explains the situation. They are completely the opposite to us in the UK

Please leave it with us sir and we will call you back tomorrow. Good as their work he gets a call back saying "your van will be ready for collection tomorrow sir and we have contacted the dealer in UK directly and told him the faults and what he needs to do.

Apparently the geabox torque transudcer has burnt out which then disconnects the drive from the gearbox to the engine and so the van would lose power especially when going up hills when the oil would be starved. they fitted a new transducer and the problem has disappeared. This was done with no further charge luckily but it still leaves a bitter taste to be told your 10 hrs out of warranty.

So the lesson is dont give them any excuse to wriggle out of things. Always use a proper dealer for servicing and they wont have any excuse.

Luckily this had a good outcome in the end but with a 100,000 euro van it leaves you thinking doesnt it?

Phill

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[wireman]

Not much help I know but I had a similar problem in an old Subaru auto but only when towing (when I was a tugger) In normal use the box was fine but when towing it would often refuse to change down going uphill even though the engine was onviously struggling. You could floor the throttle as much as you like, lift off to make it struggle even more but it refused to change. Like you the only way to do anything was to stop and start again and it would happily sort itself out from theron in until next time. The only thing that remained the same was it would happen going uphill when towing. I eventually put it down to the box being so much under pressure that it couldn't release or change down and got itself stuck. I got round it by making sure that before I went up a steepish hil I made the box change down first and never had any trouble after that.