26 Apr Mercedes Benz Stuck in Park
If you are having trouble getting your Mercedes Benz released from the “P” position despite Direct Select lever actuation, this can be due to a missing CAN signal from either the ESP or the steering column switch/control module.
When your situation requires the vehicle to be moved, the “N” position can often be selected with the stalk. If the battery has gone dead, the car may need to be jumped or charged in order to select neutral. Unfortunately, due to the design of the transmission interface and mechanism there is no manual release in the event of an electronic failure.
If you suspect the vehicle is having a failure of this system, your only real option is to keep repeatedly trying to select neutral once the battery is fully charged. You may get lucky, keeping you from seeing your vehicle dragged up by a tow truck. We have had several vehicles with faulty transmission conductor plates, speed sensors, and shift selectors themselves that all had to be dragged by tow companies and luckily the damage to the vehicle was minimal. Often times the dragging the vehicle onto the truck is not what does the most damage, it is the shaking needed to get it off the tow truck that breaks components.
In such cases, using Star Diagnosis equipment, or a manual free wheel hub adapter, will be the best ways to mitigate damage to the vehicle when removing from the tow truck. We use the Diagnostic interface to go into the affected module and release the transmission from park. However that is not always 100% effective. If the above steps fail to release the vehicle from “Park,” MBUSA has introduced a new Special Tool, (W164 589 03 63 00 Free Wheeling Adapter), which will allow the vehicle to be easily moved when the transmission is locked in park. It becomes necessary to install the freewheeling adapter in order to aid with vehicle recovery or to move a vehicle which can not be disengaged from position “P.”
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