Sprinter Chassis Transmission bangs

[tmikea]

Pulling out of my driveway with a 2018 Thor Chateau 24FS (with a 2016 Sprinter 3500 diesel chassis) with less than 9K miles, I had a "bang" from the transmission. One bang only. In hindsight, this was just after a right turn. About 300 miles later after a stop light and right turn, the Transmission started trying to shift back and forth between 2 and and 3 (or maybe 1st and 2nd) in somewhat violent rapid alternation. I stopped and restarted the RV. Ran fine. About 75 miles later after a right turn, same thing. Stopped and restarted.

ODBii (ScanGauge) gave me a C0037 "left rear wheel sensor" code and the dash lights showed: Check Engine, ABS, Tire Rotation and Traction lights...and they wouldn't go off after restarting engine.

I'll skip the sad parts, but finally got it to an MB dealer and they simply pulled the code and replaced the left rear wheel speed sensor. Have only put 10 miles on it since then w/o problems. I hope the problem is now fixed.

Also, as hindsight, when this starts to happen, perhaps putting the transmission into manual shift mode might help. Stop/Start/Put in drive then left tapping the shift knob will shift down to 3, then 2nd then first. Right tap to shift up. Manually forcing the transmission from 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th as you accelerate might work around the transmission having fits if you can stop and then downshift to first gear before a right-turn...might be a short-term workaround to all the banging. I've not tried this (and hope I don't).

More details at:
https://sprinter-source.com/forum/sh...ad.php?t=62996

[tmikea]

7-9-2018: Pulling out of my driveway with a 2018 Thor Chateau 24FS (with a 2016 Sprinter 3500 diesel chassis) with less than 9K miles, I had a "bang" from the transmission. In hindsight, this was just after a right turn. About 300 miles later after a stop light and 90 degree right turn, the Transmission started trying to shift back and forth between 2 and and 3 (or maybe 1st and 2nd) in somewhat violent rapid alternation. I stopped and restarted the RV. Ran fine. About 75 miles later after a right turn, same thing. Stopped & restarted.

ODBii (ScanGauge) gave C0037 "left rear wheel sensor" code and the dash lights showed: Check Engine, ABS, Tire Rotation and Traction lights...and they wouldn't go off after restarting engine. MB dealer replaced left rear wheel speed sensor.

9/2/2018: Did a left turn and started having same problem. Same dash lights came on. ODBII Code was C003A (“right rear wheel sensor”). I was able to nurse the unit home, but it did have the same problem after left turns a couple of times.
Safety issue: If you make 90 degree left/right turn (depending which sensor went out), the Sprinter starts shifting between gears rapidly with great noise. No choice but to manually put the Transmission into Neutral. At that point, until you stop the vehicle and turn off/on the engine, the transmission will not engage and you are stuck coasting to stop. If you just pulled onto a busy intersection and have this problem, you would stop traffic and may get rear-ended. The Sprinter’s computer obviously doesn’t take into consideration that changing gears multiple times per second is not good and thus the speed sensor must be bad. There should be a threshold limit that if exceeded, the computer would ignore the sensor….go ahead and turn on the dash lights, but don’t try to destroy the transmission….and don’t leave the poor drive a “sitting duck”.

I filed a "Report a Problem" with NHTSA.gov. If you've had this problem with the Sprinter, I'd recommend you report it too...as a safety problem.