Hi,

I bought C230 in Feb 06 and recently noticed that down****ing of gears is not so effecient. Once speed go more than 40 mph and then drops to 20 mph and if I want accelerate then car doesn't have enough power because gear stays at high level.I found this by shifting gear to manual mode.

I took car to dealer and they have resetted the whole software who controls the gears part but no help. Now I am told that new software si going to come and then they will put that once it comes from MB factory..

It is so surprising that such kind of s/w needs upgrade etc.....

Anybody faced similar problem???

I appreciate any commencts and help.

Thanks,
Bjosh

 

Repost from w202 forum:

I'm so sorrry, but WELCOME TO DRIVING A MERCEDES! LOL! I have the same problem in my w202 as well as all the w203's I've driven. What you need to do is learn to drive your car. I don't mean this as an insult. What I'm saying is that you need to learn how to punch the pedal just right after slowing/cornering at lower speed to get that proper downshift. To help with this, I drive in "S" mode 95% of the time. It will help with the ease of getting the car to shift. I think out of all of them, the 2006 w203 is the worst with this problem because of the 7g auto trans. they put in it. I personally am not a big fan of it.

 

I have the 7G trans. And I absolutely HATE it.

I'm still trying to learn how to punch the pedal "just right" when taking a sharp corner to get the best boost..........but the 7G is so unwilling..............

 

buy a car with 3 pedals and a gear selector Solves the problem!

 

why don't you guys just select a lower gear?

 

agree.

like said above, no offense, but learn your car, know ur own limits, know your car's "best" avg rpm, punch a higher gear when your at the moment.

I have a lot of fun driving my car, tiptronic or not. just dunt push your limits.

I raced a 750Li a few days ago, this guy punched his bimmer to the limits, red light, he jammed on the brakes and his car was screeching, i rolled down my window and i said

 

Well there are two sides to this, which is why I don't think selecting a lower gear is the ultimate and all-encompasing solution. If any of you have ever driven a Honda Accord V6, you don't have to "know how to drive it" nor select a lower gear to get it moving again after rounding a corner or a turn. What the poster is talking about, I believe, is the utter unwillingness of the tranny to downshift properly during NORMAL driving. This is not a problem that can be solved by the driver or the dealership. This is just a Mercedes transmission issue. The fact that you almost have to "punch" the pedal to get a down shift after a turn or corner = crappy programmed transmission. Now I'm not gonna knock Mercedes too much, but this is one thing they REALLY need to work on. BMW's do not have this issue. I don't have to press the pdeal very hard to get a downshift out of their transmission.

So in short, yes you do have to learn to drive these cars and once you do, it becomes second nature to you, it can just get annoying from time to time. The only way to truly solve it is to get a clutch or buy an AMG (because their transmissions have way better programming).

 

Thanks everyone for some sarcastic, funny, informative, careless replies...
It is entertaining. I need to go to right dealer and to right service agent who would understand such problem so they see into transmisson rather that software issue.

BJ

 

Ok, maybe you didn't understand me correctly, let me see if I can get this right. This is not a problem that can be fixed. This is the way the car drives. It will not matter if they replace your transmission and what not, it will ALWAYS drive this way. The only solution is to buy a new,different car or an AMG.

 

I have a 7G-Tronic but am loving it. I have to feather it if I don't want it to downshift otherwise a few millimeters and it kicks down a few centimeters and it skips a gear or two, a lot of the time I don't have to even press the kickdown button.

For those who have problems downshifting, have you tried reseting the software by (Do this of your own free will, I don't take any responsibility if anything happens because you did this...e.g aliens land etc....:

1) Insert key
2) turn key to position 2 where the instrument cluster lights up(the next turn would start the engine)
3) Press the accelerator pedal all the way to the floor and by this I mean, yes, even pressing the kickdown button which sits at the the very end of the pedal's travel. HOLD THE PEDAL IN THIS POSITION FOR ABOUT 15 SECONDS
4)While keeping the pedal pressed, turn the key back to position 0 and remove the key.
5)Keep the pedal planted for about 10 seconds then release and wait at least 2 minutes before starting the car.

The car should feel swifter!

There was a link somewhere else on MBworld for this procedure so I'm not taking any credit nor responsibility for this and it works all the models with electronic pedals (no accelerator cable connected to the pedal). It resets the gearshift software together with the engine management software in the ECU or something like that.

But it works! The car feels like you just gave it some high grade fuel or activated some kind of aggresive sport setting. From what I've heard the auto transmission goes into a sort of lazy shift pattern thanks to a slow driving pattern from everyday commuting so this reset brings it back to life. The other way to do this is drive very aggressively with a some kickdowns and redlining the engine and the auto trans will be hyper sensitive to your right foot thereafter, though this might not be the best to do on public roads.

 

yea, the pedal reset is great, or before taking turns jus downshift to 2/3 gear to let the rpms be in the 2-3k range, after u take the turn ull have enuff power thru it, then after jus shift up. 7g tranny is kinda sloppy to me, but its fun and u jus gotta know what gear to be in, its a part of the learning process of the car, not the car its the driver.

 

do you guys know that if you simply just hold the shift knob to the left (for downshifting), it will downshift to the lowest possible setting? thats what I use and have no problems at all with acceleration....it says it on the manual and you can even use it for brakeshifting for downhill purposes...hope this helps!!

 

BJ, This ECU reset really is a great way to "re-new" your car whenever you want. It will erase the adaption settings the ECU learns over a series of drives. All it does is return the memory to factory settings. Every time I have done this to my car, I am astonished by the snappy throttle response and crisper shifting. Some people do this each day.

Please understand the tone of some earlier postings. They are not nessesarily sarcastic. MB's do require you to learn a different driving style. Yes, you can hold the tiptronic one side or the other to seek the highest or lowest available gear. Yes, you may have to mash the gas more at certain times. The car will not downshift very easily most of the time though. I have an AMG and have been driving an 06 C230 loaner recently. The difference in the programming is pronounced.

The cheapest, easiest thing you can do is the ECU reset. By the way, you need to hold the gas pedal down for just 5 seconds and once you turn the ignition off, you can let up the gas pedal. Some people have been skipping the 2 minute wait time also with positive results.

Good luck.

 

GMW,

I tried this today, and it works GREAT. My 7G is less laggy and lethargic, and much more aggressive and punchy!

Woot.

 

Well, I'm glad I could help one person out at least!

 

Thanks a lot for GREAT tip! It helps a lot. Accelerator feels quick and wil more power...

I have told 2 of my friends and they also felt the same.

Thanks a lot.

 

get a sprint booster. like me in about 2 weeks , combined with intake and exhaust and i bet itll punch thru a turn...try holding your shifter to the left for a few seconds itll naturally downshift to about 3-4k, easily take a turn and punch thru it if timed right. i actually dont mind the 7g, jus learn its tricks.

 

I have an 06 7G. The reset does help but only if you drive like a crackhead everywhere. When I say everywhere I mean as long as the car is running you are hammered down, freeways, surface streets, parking garages, etc. The tranny becomes very responsive when you drive like you're being chased by poparazzi. I drive like I'm on crank every morning only because I can. There's nobody on the road at 4:00am so I take full advantage of that. When the computer sees this new driving habit and I jump all over it and then let off slightly it will sometimes not upshift because it the computer thinks I'm going to keep hamering on it.

Much like everyone here has stated, get used to it. There's no changing the car you have to change your expectations of what the car is and what it can do.

 

The reset works for me too. And it's true that the transmission will learn our driving habit.