99 E300 with 304k miles, no start
 

Car was brought in with complaint of not shifting out of 1st. Seems sweet tea was recently spilled on gearshift area. Car would shift manually but did have a delayed shift even then. Next day, after owner ran car over for me to take an initial look at, it would not start in P or N. Disassembled the gear shift selector and this is what the gear recognition control unit circuit board looks like. I'm thinking this could keep car from starting. Key turns but nothing happens, no click, nothing. I do plan on replacing it with an OEM part. P/N on it is 210 545 13 32.

Oh yea, we found a rats next in the area behind the battery too. Rats sure seem to like the W210 diesels:).

The neutral safety should be a reed switch on the conductor plate in the trans. ( At least up to 97 that I'm familiar with. )

Spilled liquid onto center console / shift lever

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Replacement of gear shift switch, p/n as listed, seems to have resolved it. Was unusual in the fact that immediately after installation it was still nothing. Rolled car into shop in preparation to start doing more troubleshooting and it then started right up.

The customer is very lucky that more wasn't destroyed than the shifter module. In most cases, I've seen the transmission take a hit in the process as well, which is much more expensive than a shifter unit.