Originally Posted by
Luthier
Hi, nickwe21!
The only symptom I had is the car wouldn't start. The only decent mechanic is laid up for 6 or 8 weeks, and I couldn't work on it .. so it went to the Mercedes dealer. Normally it would be packed away for the winter, but I needed a car. To answer your other question: No, I've never seen a leak under it. Which is why the "explanation" I was getting didn't sound right... but they were supposed to be the experts, so I tried to find another TCM and consulted the forum here.
But your suggestion of checking under the carpet is great! I can do that as soon as the weather abates, or if it does it again! Thanks a lot!
So Zeracer is correct. These cars for the most part are bullet proof without having to do major repair work but there are a few small known culprits.
One of the is the Relay control module (RCM) that sits below the black plastic box under the hood, passenger side. It houses a bunch of connectors and if you replace the whole thing you just unplug them and plug them into the new relay and slide it back into the box. Super esay.
These relays if they never have been replaced will almost always fail at some point. Now, they can also be repaired if you know how to use a soldering iron. There are instructions on the forum how to do that and we also have a member here who repairs these relays for a very small fee. You'd send it to him, he touch up the 3 cold joints in the top left corner of the board and he sends it back.
If you have never replaced the relay, most likely this is your cause and it will sometimes work again for a while but then yon get stranded or car shuts off mid-drive. So I would just get this fixed even if just a preventative measuremeasure.
The way this sounds I would think you do not need a TCM. However, in most higher mileage cars that connector we mentioned yesterday, does leak and should be replaced and preferably in combination with a full transmission service if it hasn't been done recently (I do mine every 40K-50K miles).
Hope that helps. Read up on RCM as that is most likely your issue.