I bought my 97 e420 with 140k about 6 month ago.
After 6k of riding, transmission finally died on me.
I got stuck at a red light and I heard a loud metal clunking noise from under the car.
Engine seems to be revving up just fine.
But the car does not move in any gears, except when it is in neutral. When in neutral, if you push the car, it'd coast on its own. (That's how I got home... I push for 3 blocks or so)
I got home and checked online to do some reseach. To my surprise, I wasn't alone in this mess. It seems like from TCU not liking liquid to a general transmission failure... it's a common occurance.
So, I am left with few options.
1. Sell the car as is... and never look back.
How much could I get for a car like this anyhow?
2. Take it to the dealer and rack up 4-6k?
3. "try" to rebuild the transmission myself. I am somewhat handy when it comes to cars. But rebuilding tranny would be my first.
What would you do in my situation?
Any recommendations on a repair shop near San Jose, CA?
Any recommendations on a shop where I can get a rebuilt transmission or a new one?
If you guys could point me in any direction, I'd greatly appreciate it.
I would find a good independent MBZ repair shop close by that has references. If you have to rebuild the entire trans you may want to walk away. Hell, it could be just your driveshaft/ hee hee.
I've never purchased from them before because I've never had an engine or trans failure with my two Mercedes over the years, but they have a 2 year warranty on the trans plus they've been in business for 28 years. Give 'em a holler.
When I had a clutch failure on my '02 BMW 330Ci I actually just brought it to my local AAMCO here in FL. They replaced the clutch, pressure plate, throwout bearing, etc with genuine Luk parts, dropped it off in the morning, they had it ready in the early afternoon. It was like $800 that was like Thanksgiving time last year. It came with a nationwide warranty plus it didn't cost an arm and a leg like the dealer would've charged me. You might want to check out AAMCO. I remember back in the 80s I had a Shelby Charger 2.2 turbo lose a clutch and the AAMCO in NJ did a clutch job on it and they did a good job back then too. You might want to visit your local AAMCO, they're pretty good and they aren't expensive.
Hope something works out for you.
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Sorry to hear of your woes...can you respond to ProV's inquiries? It's really rare for these to let go without any prior symptoms.
At any rate, I had really good luck with B&B for a regular service; they impressed me in lots of ways. However, they only have two locations, both are a ways north of you in Daly City and San Bruno. You could always call them [(650) 994-5484, (650) 952-7167] and relay your symptoms, then ask for a rough estimate to rebuild.
I have rebuilt a couple of transmissions in my time, and I have to be honest here: even with that experience behind me I wouldn't even attempt rebuilding the benz one.
Since you say you have good mechanical skills, you can save yourself some money by doing the transmission R&R work yourself. You can then take it in to have it rebuilt. It may turn out to be something simple, if not you could always buy a rebuilt and then swap it out yourself.
Good luck and let us all know...
Greg
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When you learn from the mistakes of others, that's wisdom.
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Thanx for all your help guys.
I only owned the car for about 6 months or so...
During this time, 2 of 8 coil packs went bad, so I had to change those.
But on a regular days, it did not have any prior symptoms that would lead me to believe that transmission was at the end of life. No slipping, no grinding.
I haven't changed the transmission fluid yet. But I wonder if that would've prevented my situation.
Looking at this diagram... it makes me think twice about rebuilding transmission myself.
I haven't gotten under the car yet, to take a closer look. I'm wondering if my drive shaft has broken off as well.
What is the car worth with in its current state?
Thanks for all your references, I'll give them a call and see what they say.
If you've only owned it 6 months, whatever you paid for it is probably a decent estimate of it's value, less whatever the transmission work costs. Unless the rest of the car is a heap, you're better off fixing it; check into the rebuilt trannys.
I doubt it's your driveshaft or you wouldn't have had to put it in neutral; it would have rolled in any gear.
Just a thought, but give B&B a call, tell them your symptoms. It may be something they're familiar with and they may be able to give you a harder estimate. If yours has suffered serious internal damage (loud noises are never good, it means hard parts are going to have to be replaced which are not part of a rebuild kit) it may be cheaper to just buy a rebuilt, swap it out yourself and then send the dead unit back as your core.
I doubt it's your driveshaft or you wouldn't have had to put it in neutral; it would have rolled in any gear.
Weird thing is... while it would not move in any gears, when i put it in neutral, the car moved as if it was in 5th gear. When I gave a hard push... it would coast on it's own, and maintain speed.
And yes, I have to agree with you in that I'll have to swap with a rebuilt or a new tranny. I looked into rebuilding kits... and it doesn't seem to include any gears.
Thanks for your input gregs210. I'll give B&B a call and see what they say.
Weird thing is... while it would not move in any gears, when i put it in neutral, the car moved as if it was in 5th gear. When I gave a hard push... it would coast on it's own, and maintain speed.
And yes, I have to agree with you in that I'll have to swap with a rebuilt or a new tranny. I looked into rebuilding kits... and it doesn't seem to include any gears.
Thanks for your input gregs210. I'll give B&B a call and see what they say.
I'll keep you all posted on my progress.
Even when the tranny is fine it will typically behave that way from a neutral push. The ATF across the clutch packs and other surfaces creates stiction; once you break that loose it will then turn freely.
If you can get it at a good price I really like the idea of a rebuilt, because you're saving money with your own labor, and basically it's a pretty simple (though physically demanding) task and it just requires basic tools.
My reference to the hard parts wasn't terribly clear, what I meant is that shops charge more or less a base rate for a "simple" rebuild, and if you need hard parts that is added onto the cost. Thus you end up paying the shop more to rebuild your tranny than if you'd simply bought a rebuilt one and done the swap yourself.
my uncle just got his transmission rebuilt on a S350 TurboDiesel and he paid like 2400 i think or something like that...but when he brought it to the dealer they asked around 5 or 6 thousand i think with labor and all that crap... if you can find a good local shop just rebuild the transmission if u feel like dropping over 2 grand... and its not guranteed that it will work the same way it used to...cause my uncle has been having problems and what not...so if u can just sell the car and get what you can cause honeslty its not worth investing to much money and having headaches..
It seems like from TCU not liking liquid to a general transmission failure... it's a common occurance.
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