Mercedes A140, Slow Pickup In First, Id Wants £1200?

[Snoop789]

Hi Everyone,

I am wondering if anyone could offer me any advice at all, I have a A140 automatic, Its pick ups slow in first gear and very slowly on a steep hill. On a level road releasing the brake it will move forward itself. Other gears to work fine. I went to a ID, this is what he told me.

950 + Vat thats a special offer from me to you. You need your gearbox cleaned/sorted out.

So i asked him if the the Ecu was screwed and did it need a new hence £1200? he turns round and goes the ECU is in the gearbox is that correct? The car has only done 55k on the clock too..
I am in birmingham if anyone can reccommend any good ID.

Thanks

 

[jberks]

You say in 1st. Is it definately in 1st? If so, and if its not revving (slipping clutch style) I can't see what the gearbox has to do with it. DOes it change up and down ok?

Your description is more like low engine power which would imply the MAF sensor though remote diagnostics like this are notoriously unreliable and he does have the car.

I'd say you need more descriptin than "You need your gearbox cleaned/sorted out. " as this is utterly meaningless. Normally auto gearboxes issues are to lock themselves in one gear and don't change up or down, don't engage any gear or slip. No power in 1st isn't in any gearbox repertoir that I know of, so it just sounds plain wrong to me. A second opinion may be a good idea...

 

[Snoop789]

Thanks for your quick reply,its defo ONLY the first gear i am 110% sure, sometimes the car is rolling slowly after stopping at lights and it picks up the 2nd gear straight away no problems.
Well if i'm on a level road and press down on the accelerator slowly the car does not seem to rev and picks up the gear.
If i put my foot down it ends up with high revs and the car really not moving much. The problem is on steep round-abouts, the car is slow to engage from first, sometimes high revs but soon as it’s in second it shoots off. It picks up speed very quickly tested on dual carriageway 70-80 no problems.
The other gears are perfectly fine even in kick down mode changing from a high to low gear no problems.

I have shown into to another ID a local, he recommended that I just change the transmission fluid and the filter to start off with and see what happens. If that doesn’t sort the problem out just leave it. I can’t afford £1000 to change the gear box I only bought the car for £1600 and my insurance is quite high too.

 

[Snoop789]

Well I got the transmission oil changed made no difference argh. Ive tested the battery voltage it came up as 12.46 I was told that was okay. Is there anything else can be done, I do need some feedback please. Mayb I could disconnect the battery? would that reset the computer?

 

[jibcl500]

Hi Everyone,

I am wondering if anyone could offer me any advice at all, I have a A140 automatic, Its pick ups slow in first gear and very slowly on a steep hill. On a level road releasing the brake it will move forward itself. Other gears to work fine. I went to a ID, this is what he told me.

950 + Vat thats a special offer from me to you. You need your gearbox cleaned/sorted out.

So i asked him if the the Ecu was screwed and did it need a new hence £1200? he turns round and goes the ECU is in the gearbox is that correct? The car has only done 55k on the clock too..
I am in birmingham if anyone can reccommend any good ID.

Thanks

Its not 1st gear its 2nd, I assume you have F displayed on the dash? whats your mileage 55,000 ?
Gearbox needs to come apart and several new parts fitted, also needs some time on diags, Shifter valve needs to be replaced and ECU possibly needs a repair and if it cant be repaired the a new ECU, adly the gearbox ECU is coded to the chassis of the car so you will have to buy one from mercedes £960 +vat.
Hope this helps.

jib

 

[power-steering]

Hi Everyone,

I am wondering if anyone could offer me any advice at all, I have a A140 automatic, Its pick ups slow in first gear and very slowly on a steep hill. On a level road releasing the brake it will move forward itself. Other gears to work fine. I went to a ID, this is what he told me.

950 + Vat thats a special offer from me to you. You need your gearbox cleaned/sorted out.

So i asked him if the the Ecu was screwed and did it need a new hence £1200? he turns round and goes the ECU is in the gearbox is that correct? The car has only done 55k on the clock too..
I am in birmingham if anyone can reccommend any good ID.

Thanks

If it was a gearbox fault.. a simple "cleaned/sorted out" would do absolutely nothing. For a problem like you're describing it doesn't really sound like gearbox fault. As everyone else has stated, it definitely sounds more like the MAF unit.

On a manual car they can be repaired, we do them all day long but on the automatics unfortunately it's new/replaced units only

I would suggest taking the unit off and blowing it out with a blower and try cleaning it up a bit.. maybe some carb clean in there as well.. then wack it back in and take it for a spin see how you do.

The gearbox ecu will not be "INSIDE" the gearbox, it might be mounted around/on the gearbox.. try unplugging and plugging it back in.. check the pins on it as well as sometimes the pins can become corroded or the plug isn't sitting properly.

Hope this helps.

 

[Snoop789]

Thanks for all you input, this is my first merc so i'm a newbie to were parts can be found. Can anyone direct me to a link how to remove it?
If Im stationary and pess down on the pedal too hard revs go upto 4000 then it will go into F mode, switch engine off then back On its on D. I would say this is really frustrating..it's alrite for you guys you know your way round a merc pretty quick.

 

[jibcl500]

IF you need parts the best place is Mercedes, or ebay. What do you want to remove?

jib

 

[Snoop789]

someone suggested I clean the MAF, see what happens, Maybe also I get all the faults read see if it is actually the MAF-ECU resulting in bad gear shifting.