Hi,

I am new to this forum. I tried the diesel mailing list but could not get adequate reponses for my transmission problem with a 87 190D 2.5. Hoping for better luck here. Anyway, the symptoms are as such: When I first start up the car, it will go into reverse or drive just fine. Good acceleration, shifts fine as it has always been. But no more than a minute later, it will lose all power. I have to keep the revs very high to keep it at a mere 20mph and the glow plug light will come on too, and if I come to a full stop, the car will not move, as much as I keep the rpm high. My only remedy at that point is to shut off the engine and wait a few minutes, then restart. But that only allows me to get the car moving at a crawling pace back to the parking lot.

I have checked the trans fluid and the level seems fine. Fluid and filter changed 6mths ago. I checked the kickdown switch too and it is not sticking, although I am not sure how smooth it has to be. It takes some effort to push down the switch. I checked as many of the vacuum lines as I could. Vacuum at pump is to spec, 700mbar; good vacuum at amplifier; vacuum control valve is somewhat lower at 300 mbar than the required 400mbar. Is there other vacuum lines I should check? I took a look at the EGR valve and it was completely sealed with inches of gunk, not surprising after 350K miles. I cleaned out as much as I could and I could actually hear the turbo spooling now. But that did not fix my transimission problem.

Any help or ideas would be greatly greatly appreciated. I don't want to give up on this car just yet.

Yen