I went to Virginia today to pick up my SD and the 190d parts car that I left behind last week. We are driving both cars back to Indiana... We made it to Beaver West Virginia and currently I am in a hotel, stuck.

The 85 190d 2.2 was performing well enough. I had to do alot of downshifting(5spd) to get up the mountains. About 3 times I had to use 3rd gear doing 45mph with the pedal to the floor to get up hill!! The clutch has never slipped.

The PROBLEM..

I noticed I was having a hard time shifting gears. Then all of a sudden I could not get into 5th gear, then I could. Same for 4th and 3rd. I pulled over and put gear oil in the transmission. It seemed to be very low or out of fluid. I fired it up and away we went. Got a few miles and then I could not downshift OR get back into ANY gear.

I looked at the clutch master cylinder and piston thing and see no leaks. The clutch pedal will go from "ok" feeling to very weak. And right when we were going to hook up and tow the 190 to the hotel with my tow strap it went into all gears just fine. It was late so we stayed with the hotel plan.

Right now my plans are to spend LOTS of money and rent a uhaul pickup and tow dolly(I have driven the parts car on a 5 hour trip before with no problems). Can anyone give some ideas on what to look for with the clutch? I cannot get a socket on the bleeder nipple on the clutch pistion thing... I figured I would see if fluid would come out. I also did not see a place to fill the hydraulic clutch at the pedal. I would like to NOT spend money on a uhaul.

I think I have given all the info I can.... oh ya, when I was checking out the problem in a parking lot I pump the clutch pedal several times to see if I could get it to firm up, nothing. And that is when we were going to tow it and it decieded to work right.

I will check this post out in the morning when we wake up.

Thanks for any help.

__________________
08 R320 CDI current

Past
95 E420
87 300D Turbo 5spd
90 300TE
83 300SD
85 300TD
92 400E
85 190D