E320 Estate Auto Gerabox problem

[Chris Shaw]

I live in Kenya and the agents here are dodgy. I need help badly! I have a 1999 E320 Estate with an automatic 5 speed gearbox (before tiptronic). When the car is cold and drive is selected it jerks into gear (after a couple of seconds not immediately), and then sticks in gear.....I think 2nd. It is possible to change gear by selecting neutral as you are moving and then reengaging drive, but I dont like doing this. It goes on behaving like this for at least 20 minutes until the engine is totally warmed up and then suddenly it will start to work properly and then no more problems. The gearbox has just been removed and totally rebuilt....at huge expense with all sorts of new parts including the electric kit, and the clutch disks, and initially for a few days it seemed as if the agents had cured the problem. But it has now returned and we are back at square one. The car has plenty of power and the air mass sensor is OK. I am sure it is a gearbox fault rather than engine. Can anyone help?

 

[luders79]

Hello,

I'm not really a gearbox person but have you double checked the oil level? I know you said it just been rebuilt but it could have started leaking if a seal has been caught slightly. Delays until wram are quite often fluid related as it does expand quite a bit when hot. Hence the driving o.k when warm the level just reaches to good enough level.

Hope this is of help

Luders

 

[Chris Shaw]

Thanks for this. I did actually check for leaks but it seems OK. It does seem to be temperature related...today the car sat in the sun before I used it and it was perfect!! Perhaps the weather was warm enough to preheat the fluid? Interesting. I wonder if there is an electronic temperature sensor somewhere that is faulty.