At least if I can replace the soleniod and get it out of limp mode I can drive it to louisana and swap the transmission out. Please let me know if this possible . Looking at the codes, is the tranmission wore out if only one tolerence seems out of spec?

I will try to respond to the adaptaion values now, my comments hopefully will appear in red:

The above are the only codes... below is adaptation info
ETC Adaptation data
undefined(#01 thru 16 are the adaptation values for the interpolation points for the shifts given <1st to second and so forth> For each shift there shoud be 6 numbers, so I am having trouble understanding the numbers you give, not making much sense. Should be 2 dark boxes, you can try giving me the numbers again. List the first box top to bottom, then the second box top to bottom. I do have a few comments I will give further down)
01 Accel 1-2 -9 51 02 Accel 2-3 84 105
-18 -78 -3 -6
-3 -6 -9 18

03 Accel 3-4 27 42 04 Accel 4-5 -78 63
-9 -27 -21 -60
-12 -60 15 12

05 Decel 1-2 -9 0 06 Decel 2-3 -48 -18
07 Decel 3-4 -33 -15 08 Decel 4-5 -72 -18

09 Accel 2-1 -51 -114 10 Accel 3-2 12 -129
-15 0 -66 0

11 Accel 4-3 -27 9 12 Accell 5-4 -6 -168
15 -6 -180 0 undefined(The maximum allowable value on the 6 cylinder engine is + or - 180nm, after this it stop trying to adapt, so you do have something going on here)

13 Decel 2-1 3 0 14 Decel 3-2 12 0
0 0 3 0

15 Decel 4-3 0 0 16 Decel 5-4 9 0
3 0 12 6

17 Fill Pressure 1-2 -600 mbar 22 Fill time B1 in 0 cycle
18 Fill Pressure 2-3 -400 mbar 23 Fill time B2 in 2 cycle
19 Fill time K1 in 2nd gr 5 cycle 24 Fill time K1 in 4th gr 2 cycle
20 Fill time K2 in 8 cycle
21 Fill time K3 in 4 cycle
#17 & #18 are fine, maximum adjustment to fill pressure is + or - 1.6 bar. #19 thru 24 are pretty much OK. The only thing is the maximum allowable fill time adjustment is 15 cycles, but once they get near 10 cycles they are somewhat suspect, depending on the exact concern, so #20 is getting a little "on edge", but I'd mainly focus on the bad solenoid valve for now.

Gilly

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To change the valve may be a little tricky, sounds like you "may" be up to it, you can decide:
You'd need to drain the fluid out of the pan, then remove the trans filter (I'd recommend having a new filter available, easy to replace, also you can either store the drained fluid ((in a clean container))and reuse it or buy new fluid, BUT it's a special MB fluid, if you decide to put new stuff in, also buy a new locking tab for the dipstick tube cap, and NOTE there is no dipstick, do a search on this topic for LOTS more info).
Then you'd remove the whole valve body, there is a part on top of the valve body called the "conductor plate", also called the "electro-hydraulic control unit". I think you could buy the whole "conductor plate"(they are prone to trouble) and the solenoids are swapped over to the new plate, so be sure to get the new solenoid installed and swap the rest of them over. Y3/6y3 is on the same side the big electrical connector is on (the side that has the 4 valves, the other side has only 2) and it's the 3rd from the front. You just remove the screw from the retainer for each pair of valves, remove the retainer itself, and pull STRAIGHT up on the individual solenoids. DON'T mix them up and DON'T forget to replace y3. OH!!! Before you can remove the screws to pull the valve body out of the tranny, you need to disconnect the electrical connector, it's on the right front corner of the transmission case, then remove the connector itself, which is retained by a screw right in the middle of the connector (on the transmission side of the connector), then the connector pulls right out of the case, I'd recommend replacing the connector also, another relatively cheap part.
Then slap it all back together and hope for the best. I am betting this solenoid is the trannys only real problem and won't need to be replaced. Be sure to read that other thread with the post in it I wrote about looking in the pan for problems, if there is alot of chips in the pan (big chips) then I'd be worried the transmission is toast. If the dealership never said the pulled the pan but they want to sell you a new tranny, I'd be worried about the diagnosis.
Gilly

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bump...

__________________
...Tracy

'00 ML320 "Casper"
'92 400E "Stella"

Can someone please comment on these adaptation codes and do they have anything to do with the trans being "adaptive". I have the 722.600 in my 1998 C230 and it seems to shift one way one day and then different another day. I don't really like this feature of it trying to "figure out" how I drive. I don't always drive the same way. It would be nice if the parts of my car always worked the same way. Imagine if other parts had this feature: The steering would try to figure out how I like to steer and so some days it would steer more and some days less. Does that make any sense? Also, what is the deal with the throttle position being cut in half when in reverse? The first time I experienced this I thought I had my brake on or I wasn't in gear. I was parked on a slight decline and the car wouldn't back out of the spot until I had pushed the pedal down twice as far. I though I was going to rocket back at any moment, since the pedal was so far down. I since found out that in reverse the throttle works "half as much". Please, someone tell me how wrong I am.

Mike

__________________
1998 C230 330,000 miles (currently dead of second failed EIS, yours will fail too, turning you into the dealer's personal human cash machine)
1988 F150 144,000 miles (leaks all the colors of the rainbow)
Previous stars: 1981 Brava 210,000 miles, 1978 128 150,000 miles, 1977 B200 Van 175,000 miles, 1972 Vega (great, if rusty, car), 1972 Celica, 1986.5 Supra

Hi
If you guys are gonna keep asking me HARD questions I'm gonna start charging. heh heh, j/k.
OK, I'll try to respond to this first:

Dan, thanks for taking the time and effort for posting this!! It points out something I've never found a clear answer for, and here is the question: If you were to remove the build up of debris that is in the pan, and I’d guess to a lesser extent suspended in the oil as well, wouldn’t cleaner oil slow down the rate at which the parts brake down? Don't the filings contribute to the rate at which wear occurs?

[Good question, wish I could say for certain one way or another for certain. Kind of like the example I've used comparing ATF to motor oil in a Diesel, although I know that's a little lame, but with the graphite friction surfaces in the transmission, does it really "hurt" that the fluid turns dark? My thought is that if the transmission is as we say "making metal" (something wearing out and making metal chips) then will clean fluid save it? Did dirty oil CAUSE it? Doubtful, especially on a "young" transmission that fails way before it's time. I don't think the graphite "slime" in the bottom of the pan affects things one way or another. Obviously if there were a short-term condition that made some chips, it's be better if it ended up safely in the filter an not continuing to circulate. Hopefully if it makes it to the bottom of the pan it won't make it back into circulation. That's where those new magnetic pads give some peace of mind. I'd use the pan more of an indicator of internal trouble before I'd really think that the stuff in the pan is the CAUSE of the trouble. It's the EFFECT not the CAUSE. The HARD question is the next one, I guess it's related......]

Also, the MB comments strikes me as unnecessarily innocent from a manufacturer. I’d think they could reverse engineer, or measure the wear and calculate between the wear and the original specs, to show how and what variances of the design influence wear and tear. From this you’d think they could really design valves, bearings, solenoids and so forth so they would last 200K miles or even 400K miles. You'd expect they can tell which elements wear more quickly, and from that basis, determine design tolerances to facilitate greater longevity....

[OK, as far as the unneccesarily innocent comments, this was a handout in a MB class, so it may be written for a slightly different audience than you'd normally expect from an MB document. Not to be frivolous, but the same comments can be made about other things, comments like "We can send a man to the moon, why can't we make peanut butter that won't stick to the roof of my mouth". OK? Not a perfect world, they have to make these things to a PRICE. There are going to be failures, lots of people ***** and scream when one of things fail (I know, there have been failures alright) but by golly the 722.3's fail, the 722.4's fail, and the 722.5's fail too. Turbohyramatics fail, Torqueflights fail, etc etc. I think the 722.6 is a really great design and many many of them last hundreds of thousands of miles without a failure. If they took an hour per transmission to QC it and were real strict in the analysis, there would be far less failures. As it is the QC a certain amount and every one of them has a certain standard they must meet, but they can't afford to spend an hour on EACH transmission QC'ing it, and if they only would accept transmissions that were absolutely PERFECT you'd have probably 25% of production being rejected. (By my rough estimate, based on nothing). I'm sure many of the changes they've made are based on failed transmissions they've examined, MB doesn't live in a vacuum. Time to move on:

Can someone please comment on these adaptation codes and do they have anything to do with the trans being "adaptive". I have the 722.600 in my 1998 C230 and it seems to shift one way one day and then different another day. I don't really like this feature of it trying to "figure out" how I drive. I don't always drive the same way. It would be nice if the parts of my car always worked the same way. Imagine if other parts had this feature: The steering would try to figure out how I like to steer and so some days it would steer more and some days less. Does that make any sense? Also, what is the deal with the throttle position being cut in half when in reverse? The first time I experienced this I thought I had my brake on or I wasn't in gear. I was parked on a slight decline and the car wouldn't back out of the spot until I had pushed the pedal down twice as far. I though I was going to rocket back at any moment, since the pedal was so far down. I since found out that in reverse the throttle works "half as much". Please, someone tell me how wrong I am.

There are 4 adaptaions the transmission makes: Driving style, shift time, fill pressure, and fill time.
Driving style adaptaion would probably affect you as the driver the most. The driving style adaptation is NOT written into the memory of the ETC, this adaptaion "lives for the moment" as they say and has NO memory retention at all, which is very unlike most other driver-adaptive transmissions. It's affect is to move the shift point. Here is what the inputs are for driving style adaptation: Vehicle acceleration and deceleration, RATE OF CHANGE (very important) as well as the actual position of the throttle pedal, lateral acceleration, gear change frequency.
Shift time adaptation, this is the adaptation the ETC can make to change the amount of time it takes to go from one gear to another. This value IS written into the ETC memory. Shift time is the time it takes to disengage one shift member while another is being applied. The different types of shift time adaptations are: accelerating up-shift adaptation, decelerating up-shift adaptation, accelerating down-shift adaptation, decelerating down-shift adaptation.
Fill pressure adaptation IS written into ETC memory, it is the ability of the ETC to change the pressure used to engage the shift member. This affects how firm the shift will be. There is no pressure sensor in the transmission, the adaptation values are all calculated.
Fill time adaptation: Fill time is the amount of time it takes for the shift member to take up all clearances in the member, but not actually applying the member. This adaptation compensates for build-condition (clearances) and wear in the transmission.

Gilly

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Dan,

Thanks for taking the time to respond. I apologize if you think I’m putting you in the position of being the MB representative. I know you aren’t. And I’m not looking for a fight.

Regarding QC, I doubt MB would need to spend an hour per transmission to perfect the product, and while I’m not saying it’s a bad machine (I like mine and take it everywhere my ML goes!) were MB to spend, and this is a guess, say 1,000 hours or even 10,000 hours on working out the details related to early failures and resolving QC issues leading to this, they would be at the point where maybe 1 in 1,000,000 transmissions failed in the first 200,000 miles, the result of this would be almost 0 service requirements for the transmission. Only folks "hurt" by this would be MB parts and folks who repair transmissions. And remember that MB has been making cars for over 100 years, so they’ve had ample opportunity to work stuff out. Building to a price has no bearing on a car that sells at or above $40,000. So, in the end you simply have to conclude they typically wear out far earlier than this because MB makes lots of money from it. In a nut shell that is the entire motivation for dubious QC.

End of rant. Thanks for reading

__________________
...Tracy

'00 ML320 "Casper"
'92 400E "Stella"

Rats! Lost my first reply, I'll try it again.
What I mean is they'd need to spend an hour per transmission just to really QC it properly.
As it is, I know there are ports in the valve body they can use to quickly check that all the elements are applying, I don't think they spend time analyzing any data, just a quick and dirty check and that's all they do. Except for the random full inspections off the production line.
Somewhere between what they would IDEALLY do and what is actually done is a happy medium I think would weed out an awful lot of bad ones.

Gilly

__________________
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I have decided to go ahead and just replace the transmission since I have already purchased another. I did not give MB the 6700 they were asking for, I bought another from Potomac German in FL for $1400 with 2000 miles on it when the truck was totalled. I really appreciate all the great advise and it is wonderful to have MB experts online to to help us all out to understand the working of our autos. Since so much of new vehicles has become computerized diaognostic the avg user cannot afford the thousands of dollars for the equiptment to do this. I wll have the truck trailered to my brothers shop this weekend and R & R the trans the following weekend. My last question is the new trans is out of a 2002 ML320 and mine is a 2000 model. After I change the trans, fluid, filter, front seal for good measure, is there anything I will have to do ie: reprogram the computer etc. I believe that all values stored in the module after disconnected will reset and following the drive 1st through 5th less that 1900 rpm and then let run for 10 ,minutes should reset all adaptation values. Are my assumptions correct?? I will also post my findings from the bottom of the pan of the old one so it can be interpreted to the adaptation values that were read. Share the findings??blue

"Building to a price has no bearing on a car that sells at or above $40,000."

That statement is simply does not reflect reality. There is no product, at any price point, where cost is not a factor.

My last question is the new trans is out of a 2002 ML320 and mine is a 2000 model. After I change the trans, fluid, filter, front seal for good measure, is there anything I will have to do ie: reprogram the computer etc. I believe that all values stored in the module after disconnected will reset and following the drive 1st through 5th less that 1900 rpm and then let run for 10 ,minutes should reset all adaptation values. Are my assumptions correct?? I will also post my findings from the bottom of the pan of the old one so it can be interpreted to the adaptation values that were read. Share the findings??blue

I have an update on my ML320. We pulled the tranmission last week and found that the transfer case is cracked as well. Total loss on the transfer case. Come to find out that 98 to 2000 had a bad chaiin in the transfer case but mercedes won't tell anyone about this beucase they don't want to warranty it. They updated the chain in 2001 models. The wrecking yard told me they had 180 of these lying around for a year or so and then they started flying off the shelves. This is how I found out about it. I did find a transfer case from a 2003 for $700. I assume it has the new chain in it. Mercedes, for what they charge should really step up to the plate on these issues instead of being so cheap. I also bought a rack and pinion because mine was leaking like a busted pipe. I will never buy another mercedes after this. I just went out and paid 33K yesterday for new ford F150 supercrew 4x4 for myself. When the ml320 is finished I will decide how bad my wife likes it before I unload this 35K mile piece of ****. I do want to thank Gilly and the people of this forum for the support. I will do the swap this weekend and post a final thread on the details of this adventure.