rhill55

Recently my SL 63 with 22K miles has been slow, especially when cold, to shift into gear. When moving to D from P, I have had to wait for the transmission to engage before applying fuel with the accelerator. It seemed that once the car warmed up, the delay wasn't so obvious.

I took it in to my local MB dealer as I have an extended warranty, and was told that the "wet clutch" system in the 09/10 models had this problem which was known to MB. They are switching out the wet clutch parts for the new transmission parts in the current SL 63's and loading all new software to ensure the new parts work properly with my 2009.

Has anyone else heard of or experienced problems with the 09/10 wet clutch system, and did the fix the MB dealer is doing alleviate the problems? My extended warranty expires in another year and I don't want an expensive transmission issue a year from now.

Thanks for any information you can provide.

R. Hill

JadAwada

Try changing the Oil and the filter first. I faced similar issues on my 2003 SL55, and it got solved by changing the oil filter and the oil. You can use Fuchs Titan transmission oil, it is good.

gmphertford

Take it to a dealer or independent garage to get checked, sounds like internal fault with transmission. These gearboxes do have some problems with clutches in the transmission, u can normally tell via fault codes in transmission control unit.

rhill55

Thanks for the responses. The car has had the transmission oil and filter changed, and it is in the MB dealers service dept. They are aware of the known problem with the wet clutch system and are replacing it with the current transmission technology. I think they know what they are doing as the Mgr of the tech services knew about the wet clutch, but I have never heard of such thing. Really would like to know if anyone else has had this problem and this fix performed. I will be getting the car back in a few days so I guess I will find out.

okbarnett

it was well known the MTC transmission had problems from the start. They found a solution and warranteed all the bad ones.

rhill55

Ok, thanks for the information. I never received any bulletin or correspondence about such an issue, do you know when this warranty happened and if owners were notified? Their solution is to discontinue the wet clutch parts and install newer ones, however not being a mechanic I don't know what the fix is. Will ask the MB dealer when I get the car back and drive it. If you know anymore about this issue or the warranty, please let me know. I have had to go through MB extended warranty to get each step of this repair approved. It has now taken 3.5 weeks to get to this point.

R. Hill

fledda

I had a problem but I am not sure if it is the same. With the transmission on D, going from a stop to accelerate I would have to press the accelerator hard to get going and in the process it "jerks" (not sure if this is the right term but it was not smooth. Additionally, when I put the transmission in reverse, it would take awhile for it to engage, again I would need to press the accelerator hard enough and it would "jerk".

I brought the car to the dealer and there is a TSB for it. It basically involved an update to the software. I still had warranty so it was covered.

Try looking/Google for the TSB. I cannot remember the term used in the TSB for the jerking feeling. When I went to the dealer I kept on repeating the term to the Service Adviser to lead them towards the TSB.

I will try looking for it and if I find it I will post it.

fledda

The term is "jolt". The TSB is

Bulletin Number: LI27-60-P049981 Bulletin Date: 10-03-2011 Component:
103100 power train:automatic transmission:control module (tcm, pcm) Summary
Xentry (mercedes): poor start off performance (revving) or occasional uncomfortable jolts when driving away. harsh shift operation (coast down shifting). no model years listed. *pe updated 7/8/11. *pe updated 12/28/11. *p

Read more: http://engine-codes.com/tsb/mercedes...#ixzz2vnofagFc

rhill55

fledda, thanks very much for the infomation. That describes exactly what has happened to me. I printed off the TSB doc you provided, and will contact the MB dealer tomorrow to be sure they are aware of these docs. Also noticed references to the wet clutch in TSB's on 5/2/11. Will be interesting to find out if what they are doing with the wet clutch is the recommended solution to the TSB docs. I also had this problem when starting from a traffic light or stop sign, as if the transmission was slipping, engine revving, then jurking into gear. Reminded me of driving my 1958 Impala when the clutch was slipping. Wish I had that car back.

fledda

I too thought the transmission was slipping and did some research and found the TSB. Make sure when you go to the dealer use the word "jolt". I did not even mention to them the TSB just in case they found other things wrong. If I had mentioned the TSB, then they would only fix the TSB and would assume everything is OK.

fledda

rhill55, did you get it fixed or resolved? If so what was the fix? Thanks.

rhill55

fledda, I had the car fixed at MB of Austin, TX through my MB extended warranty. It was the exact wet clutch problem described in the TSB you sent me. I now have the car back and it seems fully fixed. They replaced the 09/10 wet clutch parts with the ones now being used in the 2014, as they no longer use the parts that were in the original transmissions. The one issue was with MB warranty wanting them to try a bunch of minor things before they agreed to the wet clutch replacement, so it took them a month to complete the repairs. Wasn't the fault of MB of Austin, but the MB warranty people trying to get out of doing the full transmission overhaul. Anyway, it seems fixed now and hope to have no more trouble. I can certainly recommend the service people at MB of Austin if any of you have any issues in this area. Thanks to you and others who responded to my original post.

fledda

Thanks for the update. If I do have an issue with slippage I know what to refer to.

Aann_benz

Hi,
I am having the same problem now , the transmission feels slliping especially in the morning when the car is cold , and its apears to go away when the car is warm (or after about 15-20 min of driving ). I went to the dealer , I described the problem to them , they updated the software to newer one but i still have this problem , feeling slipping when its cold .
I also told them about the TSB and the jolt thing you mention but they did not find anything .
What should i do ?

rhill55

Aann, look higher in this thread to fledda's post on 3/12/2014 at 9:36pm. He identifies the TSB number which I printed out and took to MB of Austin. I have now sold the car, but when I took it MB of Austin, the service manager knew exactly what the problem was, so I had no issues getting it fixed. Don't know what to tell you except find and print the TSB and take it to the service manager at your place and show it to them. The new software was necessary to fix mine, but it also required new transmission parts. They did say it often took at bit of testing to get everything right and the software set right, but I didn't have any issues after I got it back.

Aann_benz

I spoke with them today and i told them about the TSB again , they told me they will wait for there tech guy who is taking care of these issues , he will arrive next week from germany , I hope it will be fixed .

Aann_benz

after i went to the dealer , the tech guy diagnosed my car , he told me that he will send the data to the germans so that they decide what to do , I told him about the TSB and I showed him but he told me that the TSB above is local , it is for the us models only !!!
My quesion is that true , are these TSB is worldwide from germany or they are just for the us models , I dont know who to belive right now .....

fledda

I am no expert in this but I would think it should apply world wide for this particular situation. I do know of instances where US Models were setup differently from European Models due to legal issues here in the US but I would think that this would only apply to safety and emission regulations.

Aann_benz

After about three months of trying to solve the problem , I recieve an update from dealer , they are going to replace some of my wet clucth parts , when i asked about the specific parts that they are going to replace , they told me that that they going replace the transmission ecu part number (A2302700606) and the torque converter (wet clucth start up ) part number (A2212500302) , and the oil transmission .
My question is what parts did they replace in your car ??

fledda

Aann_benz, just to be clear. My issue with the transmission is different from what you had. My issue was resolved with a software update.

squashsteve

Hi, I'm interested to know whether you solved your problem? I Have a 2009 SL63 AMG and have quite a lot of problems with getting the car moving when it is cold. It doesn't seem to engage 1st gear and can jolt quite badly. When the car is warm it is perfect.
I've tried to help my local MB dealer and shown them the TSB mentioned but they've said it is a US bulletin which they can't look up.
I'm pretty sure my car has the wet clutch. Having just bought it, with very low mileage, I'd like to get this problem solved whilst it has the used warranty.
Appreciate any thoughts you have

photonut

my dealer "upgraded" the "jolting" clutch on my '09 sl63 to the new design at no charge (because i had an extended warranty).
the car worked perfectly after, however my wife totaled the car in an accident after around 2K miles on the new clutch!!

squashsteve

Hi photonut. Thanks for the reply and very sorry to hear about your car. Hope your wife was bringing you breakfast in bed for quite a while!! Must have been quite a crash to total it. Hope your wife wasn't hurt though.
There seems to be a lot around this on the forum. Biggest concern for me at the moment is that I don't have an MB extended warranty. I bought the car from a prestigious car dealer who put on an aftermarket warranty. And in the UK you have to fight aftermarket warranty company's like mad.
I'll keep you posted where this one ends up. Bit of a shame though coz I love the car.

photonut

steve:
the accident occurred in a parking lot.
my wife crunched the front bumper going while parking the car in a public parking structure.
the car was moving at 1 MPH!
the oil cooler tubing was pierced by a broken bumper mount.
when my wife drove the car home, she ignored the "check engine" light.
a low oil pressure indicator never came on!
by the time she reached the house, the car was out of oil and the engine seized.
the cost of a rebuilt engine plus the bumper repair was greater than the value of the vehicle!!

squashsteve

Talk about bad luck. That would definitely take some getting over. You wouldn't think that such a low speed shunt could cause so many issues. Hopefully your insurance dulled the pain a little.

I've now got the parts on order to hopefully sort my car out. This includes the wet clutch and valve body. I'll post on here if it solves the problem.