1999 E55 Problem at speed
 

Hi,

My dad was driving his E55 along the motorway. He was travelling at about 85mph. He needed to pass another car, so put his foot down 'quite a bit' to get the car moving a bit faster.

When he put his foot down, the car revved as if it was in neutral, and there was no acceleration.

He pulled over to the side of the road for a while. Everything seemed to work ok after this, although he hasn't put the car under any hard acceleration since.

I'm not sure if this has any chance of being part of the problem, but lately the airbag light has been coming on quite often.

Hope someone can help before we go and pay big bucks at a dealer.

Thanks

99 e55 problems--warranty?
 

If it is in warranty take it to the dealer for diagnosis. Maybe your Dad kicked it down into a lower gear?

Hi

We'll be taking it back to the dealer this week.

When he accelerated, from what I can understand, the box did try and kick down, but instead of engaging a lower gear, it seemed to engage neutral. Something definately was wrong anyway.

I think it's still under the dealers warranty though, so that's a relief :)

Oliver

sounds like "flaring", a slipping of the transmission, a common trans problem. You can search this site and find a lot of info on flaring.

If it is under warranty take it to them. This is something you don't want to have continue as it will wear out early your transmission.

Keep us posted.

Haasman

I'm not particularly technical with gearboxes and stuff, but it didn't sound like slipping to me. When the accelerator was pushed, the car attempted to kick down, but the revved just increased, but the car was slowing down. A gear only engaged when the car had been stopped, put into park and put back into drive. The car slowed down from 85mph without engaging a gear.

We are taking it to the dealer this week, so I will keep you all posted.

Thanks for the responses

I just spoke to a friend of mine who said that the problem could have been caused by too little transmission fluid. When the car gets hot with not enough fluid, apparantly it can cause problems like the above.

I'll check it out when my Dad gets home.