jazzmina

Hi all, I have a 2006 CLK500 Cabrio and unfortunately it is stuck in limp mode. I had a diagnostic check at a non Merc garage and the mechanic really thought that the ABS pump was at fault, but was not 100% as his device had an unknown code displayed. I took it to Merc main dealer today and they have advised it is the valve body that is faulty at a huge cost of £1400. The car has been really well looked after and has 72K on the clock and I just find it hard to believe that this part should need to be replaced, so soon. Has anyone had a similar experience and found another fault. Many thanks for any advise.

mrbobby

That sounds about right for a valve body replacement. The 722.6 was notorious for bad valve bodies, even though Mercedes won't admit it (recall). While I can't say for sure I wouldn't be surprised if the valve body was the problem.

Patton001

I had the same problem with mine at about 50,000 miles. Seems pretty common. Actually not the valve body itself, it is the conductor plate. It is much easier for them if they do the whole valve body and conductor plate at once but fortunately my indi told me he could do just the plate and save me some money.

KyHusker

I was lucky the valve body failed while mine was still under warranty.

kb24forlife24

The 2006 CLK500 should have the 7 speed 722.9 transmission, not the 722.6 5-speed transmission.

xsever

Yes that is correct and those 7 speeds are known to have this early failure. Fixing the 7-speed transmission is much more involved than the 5-speed and requires the repair to be done at a Merc stealership since they need a live copy of DAS to re-code the transmission.

I stayed away from the new generation 350 and 7-speed and stuck with the bulletproof 320 and 5-speed of 2005.

mrbobby

And to further add to the cost the new valve body has to be properly mated to the EIS. The EIS had many "updates" and in my case the EIS had to be changed at the same time the valve body was changed.

jazzmina

Thanks for all your replies, it is having a 2nd opinion today, but I fear the worst. Only had the car 7 months, so just out of the sellers warranty, not that they would have wanted to pay up anyway. Should have kept my 15 year old Lexus LS430 it never went wrong. I have already replaced the water pump, a back spring broke and replaced two back tyres, so not a great start to the year

kb24forlife24

I thought all 2005+ cars (except the CLK 55 AMG) have 7 speeds?

kb24forlife24

I thought all 2005+ cars (except the CLK 55 AMG) have 7 speeds?

floridawriter

I believe the 05 CLKs all have the 722.6 5-speed.

Rudeney

The 722.9 was introduced in MY2005, but only on select vehicles. For the W209, only on the CLK500 had the 722.9. All others (CLK240, CLK230, CLK320, CLK55) kept the 722.6 It went fleet-wide in MY2006 except for AMG models, then for MY2007, they added it to the AMG's.

tctc

Hi all, new member on board but long time MB owner of numerous models. Picked up an '06 CLK 500 cab last August; beautiful car with about 60k miles as a summer car. All was well until transmission started to jump into limp mode more and more often. Went for a diagnostic and sure enough, the dreaded plate on the valve body had to be replaced. It's not a cheap fix and now I can see that this is a fairly common issue with these things. Hope to learn more about this model from you guys (and gals) on this board.

tctc

By the way, I'm looking to source a wind deflector too, so any leads are appreciated

Rudeney

Once you get the conductor plate replaced, the transmissions is usually reliable. And the M113 5.0l V8 is a solid engine. I'd check eBay for the wind deflector. They usually go for about $200, but if you watch closely, you may get one a bit cheaper. Make sure you get the W209 version for MY2004-MY2009.

tctc

Thanks Rod. I hope it's a long term fix. This is the first non warranty MB we've ever bought, all previous ones were new with warranties. Go figure something happens. I will keep eye out for that deflector.