A-Class is broken...

[Naked]

Well, not broken as such. Since friday it has intermitently refused to go into 3rd or 5th gear. If I go round a roundabout it goes "click" from the gearbox area, behind the bulkhead anyway, it is ok, 3rd gear works perfectly! It clicks again and will refuse to go into gear again. On friday night I drove 150miles using 4th and maybe 5th if I was lucky!

Last night I drove back, from Brentwood to Toddington Services I had to drive in 4th gear all the way. I stopped for some food and when I tried 3rd and 5th, they worked perfectly! Just before my junction, the M1 went down to 1 lane and the line of traffic weren't going faster than 40 so I would have used 3rd, but again nothing! Its just like there is a block over 3rd gear and it won't engage!

On Saturday night I had to drive into the centre of London for a party and with all the start stop driving with all the traffic lights, it was a big frustration with no 3rd at all!

With the clicking sound, to me, a non-mechanic, it sounds like something floating about in the gear chamber, a woodruff key worked loose maybe? tooth off a gear?

I can't afford to get it fixed at the Merc dealer and I am over 300 miles away from my local garage at home.

[sneijder]

There's a little plastic rod that goes, only a few £ and only around half an hour to put it on.

Find a local Merc specialist and describe the symptom, I think you should be looking at under £100 all in if it's what I'm thinking.