The ML was starting and running fine. Took it to the shop to have a few things fixed... tie rod, ball joint and control unit gear recognition switch for the back up lights, part #210 545 13 32. Went to pick the truck up tonight and it won't turn over. All the dash lights come on, I can power on the stereo and headlights but the engine does not even crank. The mechanic told me that he thought it was the anti-theft signal in regards to the key tumbler. The car was starting just fine before I brought it in and I think it's way to coincidental that this just started to happen after the gear recognition switch was replaced.

I was not not able to try to jump the truck or test the battery as the garage was closed last night. Will do that first thing today but the battery shouldn't be a problem unless they drained it. I'm wondering though... is there anything that could cause the truck not to start/turn over as a result of the switch being replaced? Incorrect install, adjustment or something???

JD

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1999 ML 430

Hmmmmm......it sounds like the switch was incorrectly installed. It's an easy mistake to make if you've never done it before. The small pin on the shifter has to be correctly located in the slot of the switch. If not, guess what??? Your shop will need to take it back apart to fix it.

If they had done that, would the truck start at all? The head tech was able to get the car started able 3-4 attempts and pull out of the garage into the lot. When I went to pick it up last night it wouldn't start at all.

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1999 ML 430

Just went back to the mechanic. The truck did start. Here's the weird part.... you turn the key in the ignition and nothing happens. As I described beofre, the dash lights come on but there is no cranking or turn over , as if the battery is just dead. After 5 or so seconds of this deadness with the key turned, the truck just starts??? WTH?!

????

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1999 ML 430

Loose battery terminal??? Bad starter??? Defective key??? If the problem can be reproduced it shouldn't be too hard to figure out. Either way, you didn't have a problem until it was worked on. This usually (but not always) means that a mistake was made during the prior repair.

Loose shift rod...

So the word from the mechanic was that there was no bushing on the rod connecting to the shifter under the car, only a clip. So we got the bushing and he installed it. Went to pick up the car and had trouble starting it. Got it started finally and dropped it into R but the R did not illuminate. Jiggled the shifter and got the R to flicker. Running through the gears, the only other gear that would illuminate was 2. Guess what? The truck would only drive in 2 even though the shifter was in D.

Is this fix/adjustment of the shift rod really that hard?? I gave him the PDF instructions...

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1999 ML 430

This thing is starting to get out of control. Before you start chasing something else, have your guy re-check the switch installation. The shift gate illumination issue is practically screaming at you to take a closer look!!!

Yep, got him to look at it/re-check it again for the THIRD time since he's installed it.

It just sucks that I have made three 37 mile round trips to pick up a truck that was obviously not repaired correctly.

You you ever replaced one of these switches?

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1999 ML 430

Just got the latest....

The head mechanic claimed he took the switch out and re-installed it PLUS he followed the instructions about adjusting the rod. Both sets of instructions (switch install and rod adjustment) were provided to him directly from PDFs. The problem remains, the light on the gear shift indicator is not illuminating when the shifter is placed in each gear. So I guess the only forward gear that is working is 2 as was the case last night. So it seems the car is still in the same condition as last night when I attempted to pick it up.

He tried to tell me there are probably codes in the transmission that need to be cleared by a Mercedes only scanner ( I know tranny codes do need the MB scanner to be cleared). My response was, normally I might agree with that but when I brought the car to you the shifter was working just fine and the car was driving fine. The only issue was that the reverse lights were not coming on. Why would there all of a sudden be fault codes preventing the shifter from working properly? When I said that, he pretty much gave up on a solution.

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1999 ML 430

Here we are at the end of the saga...

Drove the truck in limp mode 200 yards down the street to Curry's Auto. The charged me 1.5 hours labor and fixed the problem (almost $200). According to them, the small pin adapter (green wire was not plugged in). All seems to be good and the shifter is MUCH tighter going between gears now that everything has been adjusted with the new switch.

When I approached the head mechanic at shop #1 for the refund he was happy to give it. He asked what had to be done to fix the shifter and who had done it. When I told him, he told me shop #2 was lying. Head mechanic at shop #1 said he personally installed the switch the second time and all wires were plugged in. I said why would shop #2 lie? Apparently there is some bad blood between him and the owner of shop #2 so he thinks shop #2 was just trying to make him look bad.

Needless to say, I was surprised this kind stuff goes on amongst auto mechanics at different shops. Oh well, problem seems to be solved.

JD

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1999 ML 430

It sounds to me like the guy at shop #1 doesn't need any help from shop #2. As far as I'm concerned, shop #1 started looking bad after you third post.

Leaving the connector loose is probably just an honest mistake. It happens to even the best technicians, but the fact that they showed absolutely no interest in fixing a problem that they created ticks me off. Places like this are why people have a general mistrust of auto repair shops.

I'm glad you got the problem solved.

Glad the problem is solved too but I won't be back. I think the head tech got moved to this location from another one to take care of some personnel problems with the mechanics ect. because they SUCK!

So the only thing I'm left with is a steering wheel that is 5-10 degrees off center from their 4 wheel alignment after replacing the tie rod. I made them fix the steering wheel issue today, wasting 3 hours of my time. Guess what? As I drove away, the steering wheel was the same as when I brought it in (I did seem them take my truck into the bay and work on it)

I'm just going to have to live with it for a while I guess

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1999 ML 430