Ml 55 Nightmare!
 

Has anyone heard of this - I am losing my mind with this car!

2000 ML55 w/ 65K miles. Car started stalling, brought in for service and had crankshaft sensor replaced. Problem came back with increasing frequency. It would stall when driving, I put it in neutral and it starts back up but when I put trans back in drive, it does not seem to catch for a minute, anbd just revs like it is still in neutral. MB next replaced stop lamp switch, which was the only code that came up, which did not fix the problem. Then MB tells me that the transmission seal leaked and fluid got in to the main wiring harness and all the way to the ECM. Thankfully, I bought an extended warranty from AAA, the repair was $9K. MB was actually great about working w/ AAA and coordinating the repair.

BUT after weeks without the car (the ECM had to come from Germany), I have had it back for 2 days, THE SAME PROBLEM IS BACK! The car is back at MB (it stalled twice on the way there). Now MB tells me that they are driving it and cant find anything, there are no codes.

Has anyone ever heard of anything like this? Any ideas? It's making me nuts!

Many times the crank sensor WIRING harness is the problem..won't leave a code.

they charged 9K only for the problem to come back again ? that's ridiculous. good thing you had the warranty.
do you have a link to this AAA warranty site ? seems like a good company who covered this issue.

9K for an ECM?
 

May be a good company, but they will likely go bankrupt with that crap - just like "warranty gold" did.

Hmmm... They probably get a special deal and don't pay the full amount....

I don't know about you guys but if I brought my car in and they replaced a 9k Part and did not do any further testing and driving and the problem ended up being a much cheaper part I don't think I would bring any of my cars back to that shop/dealership.... They seem more interested in moving vehicles in and out at the maximum profit rather than actually repairing them......

Perhaps your problem might be solved by going to a more experienced independant mechanic? The dealerships do have "factory training" but screw over mechanics in droves and can't seem to keep the good ones. I have found the best mechanics are not at the dealerships.

It could be 2 problems
 

The shifting problem could be caused by insufficient transmission fluid. Did they correct the leak?

yes, they supposedly corrected the trans. leak and replaced all the other parts. The trans. still did not engage right away after putting in D following a neutral rolling re-start. As far as AAA going out of business or bankrupt, I doubt it. That is why I went with them instead of the other aftermarket warranty co's. Their 'platinum' coverage covers basically everything in the car and cost me around $3300. To date, they have paid out over $12k. I found the info on the AAA website, I think its AAA.com.

wow...we didn't pay much more for our 300's than $3300.....

I wonder if its the design of the Mercedes trans as my Jaguar XJR did the same thing(It has a Mercedes trans in it, same one thats in the E55). My knee hit the key and turned off the motor, I did a rolling restart and it wouldnt engage until I came to an almost complete stop.
Chris

It sounds like the ATF contamination was discovered while diagnosing the stalling complaint. I doubt the dealer attributed the stalling condition to the transmission problem, but they couldn't very well not say anything about it either. I find several ATF contaminated ECU's every month, usually during the course of unrelated repair work.

Sonow, after all of this work, the car still stalls. Went back to MB and it finally stalled on them and they had to tow back to the dealership. The latest is that the ME module is bad. Does that sound plausible? Can anyone tell me what the ME module does and whether it can cause stalling?

mercedes tech's arent what they ought to be i tell ya ! they shouldn't have to make you go through all this just to figure out what the problem is !
tells u something !....

Nothing to do with M-B.
I can show you dozens of bald mechanics ( from pulling their hair out ), trying to diagnose this high - tech junk on ANY vehicle.
The worst problems to trouble-shoot are the intermittent ones. ;)

what's the point of paying top dollars buying a benz and paying top dollars to the dealership if they can't figure this stuff out. might as well go to jiffy lube and have them figure it. at the end they'll charge less per hour !
j/k ! :)

I personally know a Cadillac mechanic ( they charge the same rates as M-B ), that spent an entire WEEK finding a problem on an Escalade. ;)
Buy ANY " high - end " i.e. expensive vehicle, with all the bells & whistles and I wish you the best of luck.
Maybe not so much the original owner ( Lesee ), but the poor schmuck that buys the vehicle when it is 4 or 5 years old.