Broken Mercedes C class

[adrian jaye]

G/Fs C200 sport (w reg)

She spilt water down the gear shift on Saturday. (of course she did'nt tell me at the time, jus said car would not start)

symptoms:

1> Reverse lights on
2> Car stuck in P
3> Car starts but wont shift outta gear

I turn up. And again she dont tell me anything "OBVIOUS", need to look for this plunger to change manually out of P. no joy... THEN she says about the water. AAAAAARRGGH she rang the car dealer she bought the car from earlier and told him this, and he said this would not effect the gears,, Stupid t**T so that why she said she didn't tell me about it!

So get AA out.

AA opened up panels and used a small sucking air house and cloths.
Still could not get out of (p). BTW, she has a dual switch which controls the type of gear change. and a load of electronics in there

Then he found the plunger and we managed to get car out of park but car would not drive just revved also REV did not work.

SO towed home. Got home and we tried again. This time although we could not car out of park the car would drive and reverse. BUT you need car in P to remove key, so he jerry rigged a pice of wire to pull the plunger up.

Next day left it to dry out and these are the symptoms

1> Car will get out of park
2> can shift down to D, but wont shift back up to P without being switched off
3> when driving, car wont shift out of First gear, and the manul selection of gears does not work
4> Reverse lights do not work

So any hints on what this might be and what it likly to cost.

Thing is there is a bloody cup holder right next to gear shift, and theres no place to really cover the slot in case of accidents, I would have thought with MB's that there would be some internal cover to help stop water getting in. but hey

thankxs all

[john70t]

You could call the dealership and see what a gear selector mechanism costs.
It may be as simple as removing a couple things (seats and cover) and installing a new one, or as difficult as dropping the trans and using specialized tools/jigs.

BMW is notorious for NOT allowing the public acess to parts manuals/etc., and Mercedes may be the same.
Had a friend who's auto top wouldn't close and there were 7 body computers dedicated to such, but it turned out to be the switch.

[adrian jaye]

wow..... 7 !!!!!!!!!!!

ok thanikxs bud

appreciated

I think its the/an ECU

[john70t]

Foot in mouth, your probably right(o.k. I'm a mechanic, not a good mechanic)

[ruf-porsche]

AH the joy of a morning cup of Starbuck while cruising in one Merecedes.
PRICELESS

[84porsche]

Heard a similiar story from my mechanic who has a BMW/Benz Shop. Probably not a cheap fix but I would consider finding a buddy with an OBDII scanner and see if the car is giving any codes as to what might have failed.

[nota]

I would try unpluging all the wire clips down there
drying out any water [hair dryer may help]
and spraying the connections with a WD-40 type cleaner
before replacing any parts
then try the scanner for codes