Here's the mystery I have today:

Crank the car up first thing this morning, put it in reverse to back out of the driveway. Goes into reverse fine. Then I decide to turn the car around rather than back out of the driveway (dewy back glass made it hard to see to back out of our narrow driveway). Put it in drive, the tranny hesitates about 3 seconds then engages. Very strange. It's never done that before. Turn it around, pull out onto the street and drive for a block or so. At this point, temp is still way below normal operating temp. Turn onto main road after slowing. When on main road, car hesitates shifting from first to second then slightly hesitates from second to third. At next stop sign a few blocks down, car hesitates shifting from first to second and won't shift into third. At next stop sign a few blocks down, car won't shift into second at all. So I'm forced to drive slowly in first gear the remaining few blocks to work. At this point, I'm roughly up to operating temp.

This afternoon, I took it out to make sure I could make it home this evening. Cranked it up (still a little warm from the morning drive) and drove it around the block to get it up to operating temp. No shifting problems at all. No hesitation. No nothing. Acted completely normal, even when only warm.

265K on original transmission; tranny is serviced every 15000 miles by MB-trained mechanic; no leakage anywhere; never had this problem before. Have noticed slightly "hard" shifting in the last month or so, but nothing excessive or unusual for this particular car.

Oil was changed earlier this week and A/C drier and expansion valve were replaced week before last.

Any thoughts? Vacuum issue? Mechanical? Just plain weird?

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-- Jason

1995 E320 Wagon
1972 280SE 4.5
1999 Land Rover Discovery Series II

My first thought is a vacuum issue. Get the MightyVac out and hook it up to the line that goes to the vacuum modulator. Pull a vacuum on it and see what happens. If the vacuum falls off then the line going to the tranny has a problem. If not then start troubleshooting the vacuum system.

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Jim

Just like Jim says mostly it sounds like vacuum leaking. Check the rubber connectors, esp the tranny vac line.
Also check the tranny vac line where it connects to the tranny modulator. It might have become loose or rotten.

MVK

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One penny saved is three penny earned.

1985 300D Turbo 179,000miles