I have a 1994 E320 and twice in the last couple of weeks it will not shift from 3rd to 4th when hot. Both occations I was about 30 miles away from home and got back on the e-way and after a couple of miles it would slip out of 4th and be in a nuetral state. I would pull over, check fluid and start again and it would go from 3rd to 4th. So I crawled home at 35 mph. Had the transmisision looked at and service and he comented on how clean it was. It has about 165,000 miles and I have had it for the last 10,000. Any ideas???

Look for the easy things first.
Check the linkage from the shift lever to the tranny; there is a plastic busing that connects the shift rod to the tranny shift arm under the car. These can wear of break, resulting in the tranny not getting into the proper gear when shifted.
Check the vacuum line to the tranny.
check the bowden cable, or downshift cable for proper adjustment - do a search here to get nice instructions and pictures.

After that, it could get more expensive and complicated.

DG

Just a lame guess but check the shift rod adjustment, the bushings on the shifter and trans and the engine and trans mounts.

Good Luck

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It sounds likely that you are on the last few miles before a replacement or rebuild. When you have a problem with only one gear, adjstments are not likely to help as the adjustments provided affect all gears. With the mileage on the car I'd suspect that the clutch pack for 4th is worn out. When they are worn it takes more fluid pressure to hold what is left of the clutches. When the fluid gets hot it thins and doesn't hold as much pressure, to the point that it doesn't hold the gear. It's going to be money either way so I'd suggest to have it gone through by a competent trans tech sooner rather than later. The longer you continue to drive it as is, the more likely that the internals will suffer more damage and cost more to fix.

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