Sprinter Gear Lever

[Cnics]

311cdi (52)

I had the gear linkages replaced about 10,000 miles ago (at about 86k) after a 35 mile trip at rush hour with 4th gear, luckily unloaded. They must have been worn for some time but it had gone un-noticed but straight after the gear lever felt as good as new. much easier to get into gear.

Sadly 10,000 miles on and its like stirring porridge, there is no difficulty selecting gears, but the lever sometimes struggles to centre itself and there is ALOT of play in the lever itself, this is present in all gears. Someone mentioned it may be the lever itself that is worn, someone else mentioned the box.

My first look would be the linkages normally, but these are nearly new.

Any help appreciated.


Rob

 

[Sprint'n'Go]

I don't know if it will apply to your van but when I had a 2001 311 sprinter Merc carried out a non-recall modification to the gear selectors during a routine service in mid 2002. They were very sketchy with the details but I got the impression it involved work more in the gearbox than with the linkages. I couldn't feel any problems before and it felt no different afterwards but they said the first time you would know about it was when you suddenly lost the ability to select gears.

Perhaps you have experienced this fault and by changing the linkages the problem has just been temporarily masked. It is probably worth calling into an official merc commercial dealer and asking them for more details and they should be able to check if this modification applies to your van and if it has already been carried out?

Must be worth a punt?

 

[dava]

To be fair sprinter boxes are good, but the gear leaver and associated cables let them down. Quick check is to take the boot off the gear leaver if it is full of white plastic dust then it is this that is causing the probs and needs replaced, could be covered under warranty if only done 10k. If it's not then get back and I'll try to explain how to reset your gear leaver cables and if that works great but if not then you could be looking at a set of cables, DIY do-able but fiddly, same for the gear leaver, do-able but will need to know the short cuts of doing them.
Hope this helps.

 

[Midnightrunner]

On my 2002 311cdi, the first gear keeps on popping out and it feels like some one has just drove into the back. Is this common on 311cdi's?

I have also noticed the sometimes the gears grind when I engage the clutch.

Please help any remedies?

 

[Cnics]

It's not common, mine does it from time to time, and has only done it since the linkages were changed, but if you make sure you shove it in properly (but don't force it) then it should be fine. My gears certainly don't grind, apart from reverse if i'm still crawling forwards, but that's to be expected and i really shouldn't be doing that.