1998 W210 E200 Gear shifting problem
 

The car refuses to engage when you put it on Neutral, especially during heavy traffic, & then move to either Drive or Reverse. To cope with this problem, I quickly put the shifter back in Neutral followed by Drive or Reverse. And that works. The problem started with the car refusing to shift and going into limp go home mode after which I changed the gear shifter module. That seems to have solved that problem i.e. lack of shifting. Anyone here who's ever experienced a similar case? The DAS says - the gear is sporadically implausible or the transmission slips sporadically. I'd really appreciate if someone could help me figure this one out. Thanks in advance.

Check out the below tech article from our site. It should help you troubleshoot and address the transmission issue. If you have any questions, feel free to post a Comment just below the article and someone will get back to you with more detailed info. Hope this helps and best of luck!

Gear Selector Bushing Replacement


-Dmitry

A few things. When sitting in traffic, shifting into neutral only serves to increase clutch wear when shifting back into drive.

The trans will default to 2nd for forward gears in drive if there is a computer / sensor issue. You could unplug the electrical connector and still be able to drive the car in both directions.

You need the test dipstick to check fluid levels before going any farther.