Any reason not to give up on a car I broke by working on it and can't fix?

I think I ruined the transmission in my Mercedes by changing the conductor plate, it did work quite a bit better right after I changed it, but after a couple weeks it went into limp mode and isn't drivable any more, and unless fluid has leaked into the transmission computer (I still need to check, but the plug on the transmission wasn't leaking so I doubt it), I am out of ideas to fix it. It will probably end up costing me $3500+ for 18k miles and just under 2 years of use to sell it broken, but its beyond me to fix and I am not comfortable with dropping it off for someone else to figure out at $180 an hour. My current thought is to dump it for whatever I can get and buy something else, but I do feel a little bit guilty selling a non running car that's likely to get parted out when it worked fine before I touched it.

Try it again. Transmission are fickle beasts. Work cleanly and try again, happens to the best of us.

I guess the way I see it, this is really up to you.

If at this point you have reached the point of über frustration with it, and the car has no sentimental value, then it may be time to dump it.

If you aren't at that point, and you can afford the parts to try it again, this sounds like a good opportunity to learn from what happened and how not to repeat it in the future.

I have been at both points with cars. In fact it took me a long time to come to terms with the idea of moving on. But now that I did I feel like I'm back in the saddle.

I joke that it takes me three shots at new stuff. First time is upside down and backwards, second is just backwards and the third may work. You have a couple more rounds to go before giving up if you want to learn anything.

If it's already broken you might as well see if you can fix it.
I've broken a few cars that were essentially serviceable before I got my hands on them. Learned something each time. It's part of the process.

if your heart isn't in it anymore dump it. i'm struggling with this right now with a car i've had for 10 years that's been in the family for 16

What Year make and model? Would it be better / easier to just get a good used one and replace the whole unit? I have been down that road before and many times that is the answer that gets the car back on the road with the least amount of pain.

Its a 98 e300d, the problem is that the transmission has to much electronic stuff that I am not even sure its something in the transmission, it has a separate control module, the shifter is electronic, etc. Its entirely possible replacing the whole transmission wouldn’t even change anything. Aside from being kinda annoyed with it, I could afford to do the job again (~$400 or so), but I kinda need to either commit to fixing it and keeping it, or start over with a different car now, because if I do both it would probably end up being a good bit more money than I should really spend on car stuff. That's why I am hesitant to start working on it when I have not the slightest idea what is wrong.

Find a Mercedes transmission specialist. Ask them to teach you how to fix it for $40 an hour.

The other possibility is if there is a Vocational/Technical school near you that needs projects to fix. The staff usually knows what they are doing and will be supervising the students.

Brett_Murphy wrote: The other possibility is if there is a Vocational/Technical school near you that needs projects to fix. The staff usually knows what they are doing and will be supervising the students.

Just don't go to the vo/tech school that teaches how to cut hair. I found that out the hard way ....

I've always found working on pre-broken stuff liberating. I can tear into it with enthusiasm because, hey, it's not like I'm gonna break anything

Another thing that makes it more annoying is this is likely an electrical problem, and every time it sets a fault code it means having it towed to the dealer and paying $180 to reset it however many times until it works.

IMO it is worth having an indy specialist diagnose the problem for you even at a high labor rate.

It could be a simple fix that you've overlooked. I scrapped a car a while back after swapping the trans and finding the salvage yard sourced replacement stuck in 4th gear. I still regret not tearing back into it and having a closer look.

Sounds like the problem is most likely related to the conductor plate or your work when you replaced it.

It's not a very expensive thing to replace, and it's basically free to pull it. Just takes a little time, and seems its a pretty simple Saturday job taking but a few hours. So, I'd be awful inclined to do this first.

Then, I'd seriously consider dumping it. Sometimes a job is indeed beyond ones skill set, or even desire. At which point the cost of the repair vs the worth of the vehicle as well the desire for a replacement... Well, you'll have to decide where those break points are. For me, pretty generally with any of my cars it would be the cost and headache of a transmission replacement.

I'd probably be looking at about $600 to redo the job with all new parts, then tow it to the dealer to have them clear the fault code. That's probably 1/4 what I'd pay buying another car so it's hard to decide.

Is there another way to clear the code? Look on mark specific forums. Mine is resettable with a paper clip if you know which ports to jumper.

2002maniac wrote: IMO it is worth having an indy specialist diagnose the problem for you even at a high labor rate.

This^^^. Find an independent German/Mercedes specialist and at least get it diagnosed. Go from there. No dealer. There are some vids online about MB trans rebuilds. Have you checked them out. Mercedessource comes to mind.

itsarebuild wrote: Is there another way to clear the code? Look on mark specific forums. Mine is resettable with a paper clip if you know which ports to jumper.

This is a good call. A car that old must surely have been hacked by now.

The cheap option to clear the codes is some reverse engineered Chinese copy of the Mercedes system, the real thing is a $30k per year subscription (what the dealer has).

Even though I know some people are good at it and do it all the time, I still can't convince myself that electrical issues are not pretty much impossible to repair. I am pretty sure I'm just going to try a few more things to make sure I am not missing anything stupid that I won't think of until later, then get rid of it for what I can. I wish I hadn't bought it, but I did drive it for almost 2 years without any major work other than a radiator and front brakes, I guess that's not terrible even if it ends up that I sell it for $3k less than I paid.

Most helpful thing i ever learned 'about electricity' is that there is no magic.

I've also said here that if the only reason you're considering working on an automatic transmission is to get yourself out of a bind one time and never touch one again, i wouldn't even start. Sounds like it's too late for that advice now. In general I give a lot of props for being willing to dive into something you don't know anything about, but with automatic transmissions if you dont plan to commit to getting good at them, i wouldn't waste any time being bad at them. I also say the same thing about window tint, and i suspect paint+body would fit the mold as well.

I hate automatics to be honest, but I want to drive a diesel and vws are way beyond my skill level and budget. So, I am stuck with Mercedes automatics since the few manual ones were the terribly slow ones (w123 240d, w201 190d 2.2, and some euro only ones). I hoped this car would last longer, but I will probably look for a 300sd or SDL to replace it. I used to have a 300sd and although it wasn't ideal I could live with driving one again.

Travis_K wrote: I'd probably be looking at about $600 to redo the job with all new parts, then tow it to the dealer to have them clear the fault code. That's probably 1/4 what I'd pay buying another car so it's hard to decide.

Don't just go and buy a bunch of new parts to throw at it. Take it back out and look at your work. From the fluids you used to how you put it together. If you're carefull about the bucket you drain the fluid into, you can reuse it and the whole job will cost you $0 to inspect and examine.

As for diagnostics and the tool costing you $30k, you're not looking right. I'm not saying it's available for $5 on Amazon. But there are hacked copies of almost everything out there, as well forum members who will do it for a much cheaper cost, and sometimes what amounts to a paperclip hack. You've got to do some more searching and question asking to find it.

That said, it does sound like you're done. And that's ok. It's equally all right to toss in the towel and decide you never want to deal with the likes of this again, and to go buy a reliable Camry. :-)

Been there, done that. I've dumped two cars that were just cursed, both times to professional mechanics. In both cases, they were unable to fix the damn things either. I take some solace in that.

I'm still going to take it partway back apart and clean the electrical connections (most likely the problem is related to that if it's something simple), but yeah even the cheap way of cleaning the codes is still $400. I'm still not even sure if I went to all the trouble to get it working again it doesn't still need a rebuilt transmission soon anyway, because the whole reason for working on it to begin with is that it was having issues already.

Hard to say if it's worth it anymore if you think you can get some money out of selling it still. My step brother is a Benz mechanic at a dealership and he does side work occasionally. He worked on a friend's E class around the same era IIRC (can't remember what specific model though) and it had so many trans issues that even after replacing the trans he finally decided to cut his losses and say that he was out of ideas and he didn't want to work on it anymore.