davis449

I posted this in the "kill stories" forum and I thought I would go ahead and post it in here too. I want some advice on how to drive a 1995 C 280 in a race situation. I'm not a really big street racer and don't plan on doing anything drastic to my car to make it lightning fast, I just like to have fun every once in a while. I'm a very experienced driver, so I do know how to control a car in high speed situations, but this is is a new car to me and I'm too familiar with how to drive it agressively. The last CAR I owned had a five speed manual in it mated to a 6 cyl. engine with the same HP as this car, but more torque and front wheel drive. It was a 93 Nissan Maxima SE. Now I've notice that this car has very limited low end grunt. Also, the transmission selector has "2" and "3". What shift patterns do these selctions have and what are their purpose? Any advice anyone could give me would be helpful, like stuff to watch for in the car's behavior and what will and won't screw up the car transmission wise. Thanks.

aroppi

just use the "D" with the combination of "E" mode and "S" mode will be ok in most of the situation.
i can say that the body roll of a C280 is not so terrible but somehow it's good for a comfort ride. so, if U don't wanna have a mod on the suspensions, once U pass a fast corner, U may try to shift the gear from "D" to "3" provided that your are driving in "E" mode. coz' in "E" mode, your gear will shift up to the 4th gear instead of the 3rd gear in "S" mode.
i think there is no need to shift your gear to "2" coz' the ratio will be too far for a sharp corner. easily lost your grip also!!!
actually the mass of a C280 is not small indeed. may be the weight is more or less the same as your Maxima but shorter. it's a well balance car with a "strong" body. the Japs is no way in such a case!!!!
it's just me $0.02
anyone can share about your feeling towards a C280??

DougandhisC280

If this could be answered in words I wouldn't have to pay for the Porshe driving experience.

davis449

Unfortunately, my car did not come with a "S" or "E" mode so I have to drive it the way it is. I've heard that most Mercedes start out in 2nd gear instead of first. Is this true? If so, for what model cars. I've been meaning to start counting the gear shifts when in both "D" and "3" and so far it seems as though there are more shifts in "3" but no 4th gear. It appears to stay in 3rd gear and let you wind it all the way to redline. Of course, I haven't taken it that far! It also appears that it may start out in first if it's in "3". I really try to stay away from "2" cause, like you said, it's too low of a gear for driving. Anymore advice would be great! I got flamed like hell in the "kill stories" forum for posting this request for advice. That's all I really wanted was some information as to how the C 280 handles and drives. Thanks Doug. Anymore tips?

DougandhisC280

Your welcome. I hope my advise was very helpful.:p

davis449

oops...my bad...I gues that's what I get for not paying attention when I replied. Not that you're a bad guy, Doug, but thanks aroppi.

aroppi

something about the chips of our cars...

for european cars, most of the time the manufacturers will leave about 10-20% "free space" for our cars to "learn" the driving manner of the drivers. so, sometimes U may hear some drivers said their cars seems not so willing to run after his mom or wife touch!!!!
(assumed that they don't put your car hard)
it's because the ECU will learn the driving style. ==>smoother driving style ==>2nd gear start.
SO TERRIBLE on a Bimmer!!!!!
similar on a Benz too!!!
that's one of the reasons why our car started on the 2nd gear.

steve s

the car does not start in 2nd...it should start in 1st. just leave it in D. if u put it in the lowest gear (L or 2), the tranny can only be in 2 gears....but i'm not sure which one it starts in.


my friend had a question about automatics too...he's never had one, only manuals. so he has no idea what it does. the more i tried explaining, the more confused he got ... so here goes


most likely, the reason u only count shifts up to 3rd gear...get on the freeway. 4th gear is supposed to be cruise and top speed gear. if u're in the city, i doubt u'd get past 3rd gear.

what u CAN do...is say u are cruising around in D on the freeway or something...and u need more power, what u can do is put the gear selector into 3 and it will downshift immediately. sometimes the gas pedal doesn't down shift quite exactly when left to the auto to shift. (or 2 if u are at low speeds and need the downshift now.)

the 2/L is useful for like downhills where u don't want to overkill ur brakes by riding them. the autobox will keep it in either 1st or 2nd gear.



last, leave the autbox alone for the most part. that's what it's for... it'll shift for u

DougandhisC280

Mine will shift into 4th at 35 miles per hour if I'm hardly accelerating.

aroppi

what?? i think if U press hard on your gas pedal, your auto gear box will do a thing called "kick down" which means shift down one or two gear. say...
the 4th gear at the speed 35miles per hour, then kick down to 2nd gear and rev up the engine.
so...
Doug, would it be a typo-mistake?? "2nd" instead of "4th"??

one more thing Dave, if U don't wanna shift the knob down to "3", U may try to press your gas pedal to the "floor" and "click" the button under it. that's the "kick-down button"

KurumaGOD

My I6 C280 never put me down. Its good enough to kick some asses out there.

Rincewind

i usually drive in 3 all the time

shift to 4 when im doing 45-65

i find that my car gets a better start off when in 3rd. 1-2 is auto, but it lets me hold on longer to 3rd gear for high revs when i floor it.

if im in 5th (d) the car shifts to 4th when im hardly accelerating at 35 too heh

davis449

See, I can't remember when they switched from the 4-speed auto to the 5 speed auto ('97 maybe) and this 4-speed is a lot different. The '95 doesn't appear to have an overdrive gear at all. I believe this is true because I run 3,000 at about 70 mph. Oddly enough, that's what my Maxima ran at in 5th gear (manual tranny) on the highway. If you dropped it to 4th it would run almost 4000 at 70. But as far as around town driving is concerned, this sucker will sometimes give me long intervals between shifts and sometimes short ones depending upon how much pressure I put on the gas pedal. What's weird is I still can't figure out exactly how this thing behaves at certain pressures because it's so erratic. But I think it goes all the way to 4th every time I get going cause the rpm's are relatively low at 35 mph. Funny thing is that this isn't a ***** car. It will get moving if I tell it to. I sometimes will drop it to "3" when I need more power, but I sit on the side of caution when it comes to manually shifting automatic trannys. Some cars are made to do it and some aren't (I'm not talking about tiptronics either). This has been good advice so far. Keep it coming.

Rincewind

hmm is this car made to manually shift gears when its an auto? I never really thought of the possibility of it harming my car

i know 2000 models have a touch shift gear system

98+ start to have 5th overdrive

i know i cant manipulate 1st/2nd manually but i can control 3rd 4th 5th

davis449

I was kinda wondering about that. On Jap cars and most American cars there's a button you have to push in order to shift into lower gears. That leads me to ask: Do they really want you to shift down when you're driving? I guess as long as you don't redline it, i.e. down shift when you're going too fast, it won't hurt it. Anyone know about this?

steve s

i think i remember reading it somewhere on the manual saying u can select the gears urself if u don't want to do the kickdown (by stepping on the gas) and wait for the ecu to decide...so it isn't all too bad...

Rincewind

i find u can hold onto each gear longer when doing it manually rather then being in auto and manipulating the gas for the ecu to decide

GDawgC220

My tranny does this too! Is this normal? 4th gear at 35mph? But, that's only when the engine/tranny is still warming up. After about 10 minutes of driving, it will shift into 4th at 25mph... Anyone else experience this with the 4 speed?

aroppi

about doing manual shift on an auto tranny, that's not a problem provided that U know how to drive a manual car!!! and one more thing, it'll be good if U do the oil service on your auto tranny every 30000 miles or 24 months. please change the oil pan gasket and the filter!!! and...
always stick on the Original Mercedes ATF!!!!!

about the rpm VS speed, there's no reason to compare so much on a 5 speeds version and a 4 speeds one coz' the manufacturers will adjust the optimum by the gear ratio as well as the final gear ratio!!!
since we have a torque converter on our auto tranny, our pick up will not as fast as a manual one with the same spec. but a Benz is SO famous for its high-end cruising and W202 is the one with comfort and handling!!! so does the W203. so...
enjoy your C280!!!!!!!!
same as KURUMAGod said, the I6 C280 never put me down~~~~~

davis449

I hear that man, I've passed plenty of 18 wheelers on the highway at 80-90 mph and this thing handles it like it's nothing. I like the fact that it cruises at high rpm's, makes it easy to pass. Thanks for the confirmation on the tranny thing. That was one of my main concerns. I also experience the 4th gear at 35 thing. Mine will usually kick down pretty quick if I need to pass, but sometimes it won't. I tried something today though. I used "3" in the areas where it's 35 and 40 mph and my I6 will run about 2500 rpm's and give me plenty of power for passing and manuvering.

Rincewind

try something else, floor it while in 3

davis449

Oh, I know!

steve s

u know...the 4sp on the c36 keeps the car in 2nd gear or even 1st gear when it's cold and trying to warm up....it stays in 2nd gear at like 30 mph so it sounds like somebody forgot to shift...only does that when the engine's cold...

GDawgC220

Yea, that happens on mine too...it holds the gear, mostly second longer when the car is warming up from when u first drive off after starting....something common i guess on the 4 speeds?

aroppi

the reason why this happen is because of 2 reasons.
1,cold engine + higher gear = wear out faster.
2, this help the "cat" warm up faster in order to lower the level of pollutants.

the euro spec has the "E" and "S" mode which is really a goody for our C280.
once U R in "S" mode, all the time all the way your tranny will transfer U the most adaquate power!!!! but i feel that it won't up shift to 4th gear even i pass 70mph!!!!
but SURE our C280 can pass 200km/h+ with "E" mode no doubt!!!