[rpribilski]

1994 E320 Sedan. 144500 miles. Car runs well overall. When car is cold in cold weather months, if I drive just a mile and try to park, I have to leave it in neutral and the gear lever will not go into Park or Reverse. Today I had to wait 15 minutes until the engine was near 80 C as I forgot and parked in a spot where I could not drive forward. Once the car or transy warms up, after a few tries, it works and all is fine for the rest of the day. Is this a linkage problem? Seemed to happen after I changed the gear lever out to a zebrano wood one in March 2010. Only happens in the cold weather.

 

[sbaert]

What is the service history on your trans???

 

[rpribilski]

previous owner had full service and overhaul for $2000 before I bought car at around 80,000 miles. I had fluid changed and filter when I bought. Overall Ok but slips on first upshift. Put in some additive but did not help that much. mainly when transy cold still.

 

[sbaert]

Using additives is like playing russian roulette. I would never, ever use a additive of any kind. You are merely masking the problem . . . until it gets worse.

What kind of ATF is in there right now??? Your issues sound fluid related.

 

[rpribilski]

gotcha! fluid is Royal Purple synthetic my mechanic uses/said was the correct specs. Fluid level is a tad high as it find it so difficult to get it at the correct level on the temp. level stick. When it's at the level exactly the transy seems to balk on a turn from a low speed to acceleration. Crunch feeling

 

[Jayare]

The Royal Purple Synthetic isn't doing you any favors. The transmission wasn't ever spec'd to run syn fluids. You want standard issue Dex III.

 

[LTYLER]

I don't think these trans are to run on Synthetic fluids. As i recall only regular ATF should be used.

Sure the overfill isn't helping either.

I would drain it and do a trans service with the correct fluids and go from there

 

[R.P. McMurphy]

...while we're on this topic of trans fluid and fluid levels can anyone confirm the COLD pre start correct fluid level? ive seen mb applications that say "10mm below full line" would be the same as full line when hot. can this be applied in a w124? its real hard (maybe just for me) to see the fluid on the stick.

 

[rpribilski]

thanks for responses. I agree reading the stick is difficult. you have to wipe it clean a few times and remove it very slowly, then you can get an accurate reading. I wear long heat resistant gloves to help not worrying about getting burned.

 

[R.P. McMurphy]

...I added too much fluid to mine when I tried to bring it up just a little. small amount of fluid went a long way to top it off. when I saw it overfull I bought a simple suction pump at harbor freight and pumped out the access. funny thing was when the pump stopped pumping fluid the dipstick was also on the money when I checked it. again I was a little surprised at how liitle fluid was representative of being over full.

 

[rpribilski]

I took some fluid out so we shall see. R. Purple tech got back to me and said the Max Syth. ATF fluid is 100% spec to 236.10 MB fluid. They saw no issues even though car 1994. I read why the overfill is so bad as well. So we shall see.