Hey everyone, I’m new to Mercedes, I just got a 1989 260e yesterday. I come from BMWs but wanted a change.
The car is a great car with a ton of service history, but I noticed a problem.
While on the highway it doesn’t want to shift in to 4th.
I know they start in second, I’m not counting the gears necessarily, but at 80 mph I’m around 5-6k RPM. Cursing at 65 I’m around 4-5K. It just seems to high.
When I got at increasing my speed slowly I can get it to go in to fourth, but when trying to merge on the freeway when I need to accelerate rather quickly, I doesn’t seem like It wants to pop in.
I’m gonna start with draining the pan, replacing the filter. I was gonna leave the Torque converter alone and try draining and filling the fluid every month for a while to make sure it doesn’t shock the system(this is my first automatic car and I heard flushing it fully can be harmful?)
Any other recommendations? Or is this a normal rpm range?

Thanks

Most likely a valvebody/governor issue. There are pressure tests you can do.

move the shifter around to make sure you engage D.

Welcome to the forum Zachary and to ownership of your 260E.

It would be helpful of you if you'd complete your profile and share with us the cars mileage, service history you know of. Have you checked the fluid leveling the transmission? The car needs to be fully warmed up, running, in park and on flat ground to check the fluid properly. You want the level to be between the makes on the stick and do not overfill if the level is low.

Report back and again, welcome

Jayare


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When I’m around 50-60 I have pushed it down to 3 to see if it was in forth and I was just being paranoid but it doesn’t shift, telling me that it is in third. In drive it shift from second to third just fine, maybe a little aggressively, but again, that could be me being paranoid and over analyzing everything.

Do you know what test I need to do or what to look up to find the tests?
Thanks for the response

Before asking more questions Zach, let's answer the questions already ask.

Jayare

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Suggest removing the carpets under the pedals, cleaning the area thoroughly, and insuring that the kickdown (KD) switch is not being held down by misaligned carpet or accumulated trash.
When accelerating at small throttle settings the gas pedal is clear of the KD, and does not hold the transmission in a lower gear.

Sorry you posted that question while I was responding to the first reply, I will work on getting the rest of my account filled out, because I’m sure this won’t be my only question with my new car

So I feel like a dummy, the Mercedes I have worked on in the past require that dip stick tool to check the level, so I assumed this was the same.
I got the car warmed up and checked the level, it was not even on the dip stick. I got some fluid and went thought the procedure in filling it back up and the problem has gone away. Like I said I feel dumb, not thinking of the easy problem and instantly assuming it was gonna be something larger. But since it was low I’m gonna lift the car up and see where it’s leaking to prevent this from happening again.

Thank you for everyone who answered in my brain fart moment lol

1) Isn't the kickdown switch a toggle? just snap it once and see if that clears it up. but it should try to be in the lowest gear possible for the speed if that is the case. Or just disconnect it right there under the throttle and see what happens. Or, get up to the 3rd gear red line and see if it shifts up.

2) there are small plastic/nylon/whatever bushing in the shifter linkage that could keep from being in the indicated gear. I just replaces some and it took all the slop and confusion out of gear selection. Based on this one data point they seem to last ~30 years

3) you can test for ^ by trying to ease the shifter ahead toward N just a bit and see if completes the shift.

Here are some pictures of the car for anyone who is interested, so far I love it, I just sold my e34 touring that I did a bunch of work to, I was a little nervous about getting in to a Mercedes since I have no knowledge of them, but so far I’m pretty much sold on them
It has 281,000 miles, high miles have never scared me if the car is in good shape, my last two bmws had more then 300,000 (the one before had 500,000) my theory has been if it has lasted this many miles and in this good of shape it’s have been well loved, and the giant stack of service records I got with it all from a Mercedes shop showed it as well.


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__________________
1989 Mercedes 260e
1972 GMC shorty van
1982 Harley Davidson Ironhead

Looks like you did well there Zach. Not a blue you see very often and as a bonus, the clear coat is still clear!

Have fun

Jayare

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