Hello folks,

A recently purchased a pretty clean 86 300 sdl. The tranny is starting to act up now, at 160k miles. The tranny will not shift out of 1st gear until you are doing 4,500rpm's. Thats going about 25-30 mph. Seems like that is really hard on the engine. Does anyone have any ideas about a cure other than a rebuilt tranny. 2nd, 3rd and 4th seem ok, nice quick stiff shifts. Thanks for your help. Great site , very helpful and informative.

Ken

86 300sdl
83 300 d
83 300d
82 240d great kids car

It sounds as if the kickdown switch is stuck or the valve is energized for some reason.

I have also had the bowden cable become sticky and cause the same syptom. This could be a cheap repair if done now.

300sdl transmission
 

Donnie, Thanks for your help with the trany problem. My mechanic said he tried all of your suggestions, still no luck. A rebuilt is 1,250 plus 400 to install so I want to be absolutely sure I have exhausted all possibilities. Any other ideas. Thanks.