Passing gear 95 e300d

[connerm]

Just purchased a 95 e300d 115k. Sorry for this rookie question, but it doesn't seem that this car has a passing gear. At speed, when you floor the pedal, the gearing doesn't drop down and offer what I used to call a passing gear. Don't get me wrong, after flooring it, it does move on, but not like any other car I've driven. Granted, this is also the first MB I've driven for any length of time. Going up a hill, it doesn't lose speed, but can continue without much increase in speed. Is this normal? I just want to be sure I've got everything coming to me. Thanks.

[md21722]

There is a kickdown switch that engages when the pedal hits the floorboard. Maybe its not working. I had a 1995 E300 for a few weeks and one of the things that happened was the top of the kickdown switch fell off and wouldn't engage. If it stays in 4th gear then yes the E300's won't pick up much speed or feel like they have any extra power going up a hill.

HTH,

[connerm]

Ok, I'm a rookie and didn't look at the old posts thoroughly. I'll check the switch under the gas pedal and then start looking around under the car. Sorry. Just kind of overwhealmed with wanting to make this car run well. Sorry for the redundant post.

[R Walter]

I've got the same 95 E300D with 103K miles. These vehicles do have a kickdown lever to the transmission which drops the AT from 4th to 3rd when you floor the accelerator.

Even with the tranny dropped to 3rd, which I'll do manually via the gear shift sometimes when in mountains and hills to keep the tranny from "hunting" back and forth between 3rd and 4th, you're not going to see great acceleration. It's the nature of the beast with the non-turbo six cylinder that does not put out a lot of HP.

I do my best to "drive ahead" and anticipate needed changes in engine speed and bring the engine up to more RPM's before I'm bogged down. I've driven all over northern NM and CO and not had major problems.