While I was out of town the transmission has seemed to fail on my wife's 1998 e320.

She told me that when she was driving the car starting to make a banging noise at the transmission. She pulled over and turned off the car. She later turned it back on and couldn't get the car to go into drive. She messed around a little bit then found that the if she shifted into neutral that the car actually was going into drive. Instead of driving it she had her father town it home for her.

When I got home I tried to figure out the problem. When the car is in park after starting it up everything sounds normal for about 1 minute. After about 1 minute the car while make a bang or clunk noise like it is trying to go into gear. When I shift into drive it doesn't seem to do this. I also notice that switching the car to W instead of S makes a difference. When I switch the car into W the car makes a whirring noise. It is like a rolling noise sort of like a bad wheel bearing.

Anyway I don't want to try and drive it to help the diagnosis unless someone thinks it would be okay to try. I am currently working from home since we are short a vehicle so I need to get this figured out asap. I am beginning to wonder if it is a complete transmission failure.


So after listening to it a little bit more, it sounds like a rolling noise that rattles too. I imagine it as to moving pieces of metal barely touching while they rotate.

Thanks in advance

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1998 E320 150,000
1980 300SD 240,000
1965 190D 79,000