Transmission Woes

It’s been a long time since I updated this blog, but I hope to correct that going forward.

I’m still enjoying the Banana but I haven’t been driving it much lately. My father moved in with us and since he is getting older we decided he didn’t need to drive anymore, so I became the proud owner of his 2007 Camry. I figure it is much less stressful to park that car at the airport than the Mercedes, and since I spent the first part of the year in airports I didn’t drive the SL55 much.

Recently, my insurance company, Hagerty, was hosting a cocktail party at the Sandhills Motoring Expo in nearby Pinehurst, so I decided to get in the Banana and go.

The first issue I ran into was that I couldn’t get the driver’s side door to close. It would just “thunk” against the body of the car. I could work the latch manually with my finger and it seemed work fine, but there was no way I was going to drive an hour holding the door shut with my arm.

My car has the M113K V8 engine which is considered one of the best engines ever built by Mercedes, and I haven’t had a single issue with it. The rest of the car, however …

Because the car is a convertible, when you touch the door handle the windows drop down about a centimeter so that you can open the car while still having a tight seal when the door is closed. I got to thinking that perhaps there was an issue with the sensors around that function. When I lowered both the main window and the small quarter-pane one the door would latch.

Yay.

I met some friends for lunch and then headed over to the car show. I was disappointed with it, actually. It wasn’t set up very well, and while there were some cool cars in the parking lot it was all mixed in with random other cars. Plus, while I am an old I was pretty much the youngest person there. People seemed more interested in getting at the appetizers than talking about cars.

So I hopped back in to head home. I had the same door issue but lowering the windows did the trick and I was on my way.

I’m cruising along the interstate when I notice that the car is revving at about 6500 rpm which is at the redline. It wouldn’t upshift. I tried a number of things but nothing worked, so I pulled over, turned the car off and back on again, and I was able to get home.

I pulled out my diagnostic tool and found out it was throwing a code (sigh).

This didn’t look good so I made an appointment to get the car serviced.

My shop, CW Performance, is about 90 minutes away, but I like them a lot so I’m willing to make the drive. They do good work and also offer a loaner car as my repairs tend to take several days if not weeks.

I was worried I wouldn’t be able to make it, especially if the car was in “limp mode”, and when I started it up the display would not show the gear selection. Luckily turning it off and back on again (like a Windows computer) got it working again.

You can also see in the pictures that the “check engine” light is on.

Just before I get to the shop I usually stop at a Sheetz to top up the fuel. Afterwards, nothing I did could get it out of limp mode but since I was less than half a mile away it wasn’t a big problem.

I found out yesterday that they believe the shifter assembly is to blame, and a new one is about $1700. At least it is in stock. When I was messing with the door I noticed some weatherstripping was missing and that part is no longer available (surprisingly the passenger side one can still be purchased).

I managed to find one in Latvia via eBay so here’s hoping it shows up and fits.

The part should be in early next week and, fingers crossed, that should address the issue. They haven’t been able to recreate the door problem so there is another weird gremlin I have to deal with in the future.

I have always been told that the cost of Mercedes ownership is low as long as you keep them maintained, but I’m getting a little despondent over these repairs. I was hoping not to have it in the shop for awhile since I’m still something like 9700 miles away from my next service and I don’t drive the car very much, maybe 1000-2000 miles a year.

But then again the Banana was completed on March 14th, 2005, so it is over 20 years old now. It is still fun to have a unique, one of one car, and I don’t plan to sell it, so let’s hope this is the last big thing I need to do for awhile.