suntubi

Reading through this thread it is really obvious that this site is getting into a bit of cat fighting ( not unlike a few other threads too.)

Come on folks, leave the claws at home.

040mercedes

You're right. It did get out of hand. I feel at fault. Letting out comments that were'nt exactly mature. I'll go ahead and apoligize to all. So let me be the one to officailly kill this thread.

meanie

Well, I beg to differ, but in my 40 years of driving just about every vehicle you care to name ( including trucks for 15 years ), M-B's do not strike me as being inferior to any of them.
Hell, I wish you could have been with me today, when I was driving on a complete sheet of ice for 3 1/2 hours.
My M-B did an excellent job, can't say as much for the demolished Land Rover, Chevy Avalanche & Subaru Forester that were in the ditch.

MichaelB43

I put on Nokian WR's, and my car is unbelievable in the snow. The WR's are their all-weather (not all-season) tires, so you could theoretically use them year round. The Nokian dedicated snows must be absolutely amazing.

actionreaction

I own a C230 sport and am wondering how much help the W vs. S modes will be.

I'm a pretty experienced snow driver - went to college in New Hampshire / Vermont and have driven everything from my first car - a POS Hyundai Excel - to a Nissan 300ZX twin turbo in several (I mean several) inches of snow. I even drove my last car - an Acura Integra - up to a ski resort from NYC in a blizzard last year.

So what gives with the "W" mode on the auto tranny of this W202? What's its purpose and is it really necessary? In an automatic you sometimes need power to correct/adjust when the ride is sliding off...I would worry that the "W" mode would reduce the efficacy of this technique.

Any thoughts?

One more thing - I'm running stock Contis ("all season") and by looking at the tread pattern I would imagine them to be pretty stable on the snow. Definitely better than the Michelin MXV+ that were on my last car...

MrSpace

the W starts in second gear, it also uses a special second gear for reverse

it also makes downshifts and "hard" accelerations smoother for the tial not to spin

Etienne

sph17

S = Standard, W = Winter. In Winter mode the transmission up-shifts at a lower RPM to put less torque to the rear wheels, to lower your chaces of spinning them on acceleration.

The old MBs, like the W123 300Ds, would start out in second gear all the time, unless you placed the transmission in L. This was because of the Torque put out by the diesels. I will have to go back and check the Owners Manual, because I am not sure that the 5 speed electronic transmissions for the W202 gas engines here in the US start out in 2nd gear when they are placed in W.

I also do not remember reading anything about a "special second" reverse gear for the W mode here in the US, but I could be wrong, as my kids often tell me.

stox

The old W201's always started in second unless you shifted to L first or floored it off the line.

MrSpace

You were wrong

we learn every day hun? ;-)

from mbusa website itself:

source: http://www.mbusa.com/brand/container...45678&menu=6_0

According to the website, it was only on the 1999 and 2000 models for the W202

Etienne

sph17

When checking my owners manual I was surprised to see that you are in fact correct, my 97 W202 does start out in 2nd gear in W mode. I have had this car for almost two years and I couldn't tell the difference from starting out in first or second. Maybe I am just use to my W123 starting out in second, so it didn't seam different.

Now in reguards to the special reverse gear in W, my owners manual does not mention anything about it for my MY 97 car. Is it possible, that for MY 97 (and 98?) this transmission didn't have this feature? I know there is a durability problem with the AT for MY97 that lasted into MY98, and there was a change/fix that was made mid-year. Mabe that feature was added then or for MY98.

Thank you for educating me about my car, which prior to today, I though I knew alot about.

Now do you know where I can get a "city Light" bulb holder, so that I can mount a bulb in my headlight where the hole is cut out and have "city lights" when I have my paking lights on?

Steve

MrSpace

for the reverse gear, I could check in my manual to see it it talks about it. Mine is a 2000 which have the touch shift thing, but it's a 5 speed like yours.

For the parking light holder, I can check in my EPC cd, it's probably listed in there. Altough mine isn't the same because it has DRL so the electronic is different for the lightning. Maybe asking on club202.com would yield more replies as I think some members already added city lights.

Etienne

sph17

Thanks for the idea,

Steve