My low mileage 2005 Crossfire Convertible just decided to mistreat me. Last time I drove it, all was well until I parked it and tried to shift the automatic transmission into Park, it would only let me move the shift lever into Neutral or back into Drive. It would not move let me move the lever into Reverse or Park. The dash indicator correctly showed the transmission as being in the Drive or Park positions; the car is drivable (forward direction only); the brake lights and backup lights work correctly, too, so I don't think this is a computer or pedal sensor problem. Of course, the only key I have for the car is now stuck in the ignition, since the car "knows" it is in either the Drive or Neutral mode and is not in the Park mode. Has anyone ever experienced and corrected this problem? My problem is different from the typical stuck or sticky ignition key issue; I have searched both Crossfire and Mercedes SLK forums for this, but have come up empty-handed. Please help if you have any experience with this problem or ideas on corrective actions to take. My local Chrysler dealer knows almost nothing about Crossfires, but I do have a very experienced Mercedes mechanic in Reno, Nevada who may be of help next week. I'll report back to the forum any corrections that he or I may be able come up with.

 

Mangusta1969,
You own a Mercedes Benz not a Chrysler. Take your roadster to a qualified MB repair shop or a MB dealership. I too, own a roadster with an automatic tranny. I am not specifically familiar with this transmission but I also own an E Class MB which produced similar symptons. My E Class has the same type of shifting lever, pattern, and functions as the Xfire. The problem was solved by replacing the shift control module which is located directly below the shift lever. The MB mechanic found the problem almost instantly. When in doubt I highly recommend going to a qualified MB repair shop. It will save you time and $$$$$.
Cheers

 

Is it possible you have the access port manual override on the shifter either pushed in or damaged? There is a little small 'hatch' on the black portion of the shifter (rearward of drive position If memory serves me), I do not know if activating that override (when you cannot get it out of park to move it), would either prevent it from allowing it to return back to it's normal position or be stuck thereby not allowing the shifter to return to park. Might be worth a look to see if activating it (pushing it and quickly releasing it) solves at least the ability to return to park position. That's about all I have right now, good luck.


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Graphite Ghost, thanks for the suggestion on the access port manual override, but I couldn't find that port on the shift mechanism to try your tip. I finally became tired of my 05 Crossfire sitting in the driveway, because I could only start the engine and go forward into a wall that was in front of the car. Since I could still put the transmission in neutral, I had the car towed backwards (it was facing a downward incline, so several of us could not push it backwards) into the street. Once the car was in the street from my driveway, I could start the car and go forward, so I carefully drove it about 25 miles up to my very experienced Mercedes mechanic to see what he could figure out. After sitting a week at his shop, until he had time to look into the problem, I decided to swing by the shop and check on his progress.

Apparently his Mercedes factory diagnostic tool needed some sort of software update from Mercedes to work on the older R170 SLK model that the Crossfire is based on and he was going to be delayed for several more days, so I decided to try driving the car forward again to see if the same problem was still there in not being able to put the car in Reverse or Park. To my amazement, the car started right up and the transmission could be shifted into Reverse as well as Neutral, Park and Forward. Before notifying the forum of the mystery "fix", I decided to drive the car normally for several hundred miles in all gears to make certain the problem did not happen again. I am happy to report now that my low mileage (20K miles) 05 Crossfire Convertible is back on the road, with no repairs needed to be fully functional again. My Mercedes guy and I are both puzzled as to what happened; he has 45 plus years of Mercedes experience, so he is by no means a rookie on these R170-based cars. Do any forum members have any ideas on what might have happened to my Crossfire?? Thanks in advance.

 

Sounds like the typical problem with many automatic transmissions to me. The issue of being parked on an incline and the weight of the car facing downwards won't let you move gears. If you park on an incline regularly, I would apply the parking brake before moving transmission from drive to park to eliminate the stress on the tranny.
Had a similar situation in recent months with my wife's Ford Edge. She was told by a good samaritan (who said he was a mechanic) she needed a tow and probably a transmission. Thankfully she called me. Luckily she didn't have a wall in front of her, I put it in neutral, rolled about 50 feet to get off the incline and all was well. Just a thought.

 

Steve1189,

Thanks for your comments. You may be on to something. In my case, the driveway incline is pretty gentle, maybe only a 1 or 2% grade at the most. Maybe I can fix this issue with about 1 cubic yard of pea gravel that is spread out on my one car parking spot for the Crossfire. That's certainly worth a try, as is your suggestion to put the parking brake on before shifting into Park. Meanwhile, I may experiment with backing into my parking spot and see if the problem re-occurs. It will be interesting to see if other forum members have experienced this shift ****/auto transmission problem...

 

Sorry, I assumed your incline was greater than 1 or 2% but I would still try the ebrake or backing into your parking spot before spreading more stone...see if it solves your problem.
BTW, 69 Mangusta is one of my all time favorite cars.

 

Steve1189,

I'll give your backing in to my Crossfire parking place idea a try and report back to the forum. Yes, my purchase of a very nice red/black interior 1969 Mangusta in 1999 was one of my better ideas. I still have and drive that car. Mangusta1969 (also a Steve)

 

I'm having this exact same problem. I didn't see this thread until after I started my own on it yesterday, "transmission stick stuck" no reply yet and I still do not see a fix any where. I am about to dismantle the center console to inspect. The car is always parked on a flat surface so that's not it.

 

Here's a long term update to my one time semi-stuck shift lever problem from late summer/early fall. After I had my Crossfire in neutral and towed backward to the street, I have driven it for several months with no problems; it shifts into all gears after that first 25 mile drive up to see a Mercedes specialist who couldn't diagnose any electrical problem because he didn't have the latest software in his fancy Mercedes diagnostic system. If you can get your shifter into drive and move forward with normal driving from your parking place, you might have a similar outcome that I did: no further problems to date!! Looking at the Mercedes shifter mechanism photos from a recent post to this forum, that mechanism looks pretty complicated, indeed. Good luck and please report back if you were able to resolve your Crossfire problem.

 

Hi, you might take a look at Mommasride thread - he fixed his issue. It was a broken spring on the solenoid interlock in the sla mechanism. As a guess, your issue might have been some debris blocking the interlock mechanism, and it finally cleared.
https://www.crossfireforum.org/forum...tml#post984715