The last few weeks my transmission has been acting up. When the auto tranny downshifs at low speed (from about 20-10 mph or lower), there have been several times when the whole car jerks (feels not unlike taking your foot off the clutch too fast in a manual gear change). Also, it almost stalled on me a couple of times for being in too high of a gear in a parking lot. Of course the problem is intermittent, so I'm afraid the dealer won't be able to find anything wrong. Anyone have any suggestions before yet another trip to the dealership?

 

There have been reports similar to this on the W211 board recently too. Have a look there for a potential solution.

 

Those kind of things are hard to replicate when you take it in to the dealer and try to explain to them. They'll take the car out and either say, "Not able to replicate problem" or "Car is running fine, no problem noted".
What you have to do (and this is really cumbersome when you're driving), but write down on a pad, every little thing that is happening, when you feel the car jerking around like that. Mileage, how fast you were going, your foot work (brake, gas, clutch), from what gear to what gear, etc... Hopefully, they can tap into your computer log and find something in the cars software memory that correlates with the symptons you feel, and troubleshoot from there.

You might have to get the service TECH, not advisor, to sit in the car with you, and run through those 20-10 mph downshifts to see if you can "show" him what you mean.

Good luck with that ! Let us know if you find a solution !

 

Sorry to read you're having problems. I had the same problem on my coupe - turned out to be a bad torque converter and coolant in the transmission. Good luck. BB

 

I got the similar problem on my 2004.5 C230 SS. Took it to the dealership, and they checked the computer log initially. No problem was found in the computer log. Then my service advisor asked me to take a drive with their service tech, and I did replicate the problem.

They found out it's a problem with the transimission control unit, TCU. My service advisor said that sometimes the TCU and the transmission do not match/cummunicate correctly. After 2 weeks waiting for the part from German, the TCU was changed. The problem was solved.

I think the key is that you need to be able to replicate the problem and show it to them. It took me about 1500 miles to get familiar with the problem, and be able to replicate it.

 

This problem you describe makes sense given my symptoms. I know all too well the old "cannot duplicate problem" routine. Ironically, I'm now hoping the problem gets worse to increase the chance my dealer will find it. Seems to be much more noticable in the "sport" setting vs. the "comfort" one. I'm going to hold off until my 10K mile service if I can, which should be a few months away.

 

feel sorry to hear that, i hope they'll fix ur problem asap

 

let us know what happens!

 

Stop by the dealer and ask to speak with the shop foreman... tell him about your problem and about others having the TCU replaced which cures the problem. These guys now their stuff and he might just suprise you and replace the TCU.

 

Transmission problems already? How do you treat your car on a daily basis?

 

Although I'm sure you are not implying that this problem with my automatic transmission is somehow my fault, I drive very normally. No track days, no stoplight dragracing, and only occasional use of the manual shift mode if the mood strikes me. I do drive fast on the highway, but that is meaningless for a tranny problem.
Furthermore, it really wouldn't matter how I treated the car if the problem is electronic versus mechanical, nor should Mercedes be building any transmission that isn't sturdy enough to withstand very hard driving if I did drive that way -- at least through 7200 miles on the odometer.

 

i had that problem in the beginning of my driving days with my mb. i didn't take it in and just played around with the touchshift. made the transmission 'learn' when to downshift and upshift with my gas pedal movements/speed/shifting. that seemed to remedy my problem.

 

Hi r_liebo, I am sure its not your driving. My car is 3 weeks old and the problem started after week 1. Besides the jerkiness, the tranmission also goes "woooo, woooo, woooo..." when I slow the vehicle down. Taking it to the workshop tomorrow and hope the symptoms can be replicated.

 

That's not your car! That's me when I spot nice chickies b/c I am

 

Just took delivery three weeks ago of our 2004 C320 Wagon, had about 125 mi on it because we bought by phone from a dealer in SF, CA., who had to have the car driven from another dealer who had it in stock.

Basically, the exterior color (as light as possible) and the interior color (charcoal -- because my wife uses it in real estate and needed a dark color to overcome children and clients with pens and xerox copies losing toner all over) made it impossible to buy here in Las Vegas. We're blessed with one dealer and he would only look at CA dealerships owned by their owner to arrange a swap.

So had to settle with C320S w/no phone and no NAV, but got the price down from list for the car plus sunroof plus cd changer+ fees, down to $37,065 including shipping delivered by truck to my front door, with the 125 mi on the odo that matched with their driving from one dealer to theirs for truck pickup.

Anyway after three weeks of my wife driving it here in town and on the beltway we put on about 1000 miles. Thursday morn, last week, in city traffic she picks up her foot from the gas; car lurtches, surges, jumps, leaps, smells like something burning. Friday AM I drive to the dealer, too busy to look at it.

All week end I drive to make sure I know how to replicate the problem. Monday AM drive to the dealer, corner the service manager (teach him to open early;-) and he and I go for a test drive.

He drives as I tell him to and in 2 minutes problem duplicates. Answer bad TCU. Ordered Monday, Today Friday, still "coming from Germany". Service writer never called to update me I had to call him 3X to get update. When we got off the phone he related "lot of cars with the same problem so no TCUs in US."

Guess I'm lucky I could easily replicate the problem. But to have what looks like a wide spread failure after owning a car for three weeks sucks.

BTW, this is our fifth MB: (1) '67 250SL, '76 240D, '86 190D, '92 500SL, '04 C320S. Still have the '92 SL & the '04.

Chuck
Henderson, NV

 

I know sadly what you mean mine has done it since i had it when it gets "moody" when slowing down then speeding up it will "hop" idk why but i feel stupid when it does it.........But i am not taking it in because it has done it since we had it and it only does it ever so often maybe once a week ......

 

Thats pretty sad transmissions are not even reliable anymore. So whats left only having a reliable engine left? I thought MB transmissions are Top notch. Hearing all this crap makes me want to get rid of my car.

 

well its reliable it works.....But every so often it will do that damn hop but other wise its as smooth as silk......And the hop is when i let off the put it back on ...... It only seems to do it on hills too.

 

Twenty minutes to five pm, while in traffic of course (headed completely away from the only dealer in town) MB Service writer calls to say that the Transmission Control Module (TCU) had been received and installed and the car was ready for pickup. And by the way we close at 5PM.

So my wife and I will drive 45 minutes tomorrow morning to pick up our car (and return to them the 2 door pontiac grand am or whatever from Enterprise we've had since last Monday night.

Essentially the way they handle rentals here it seems, plan two weeks in advance for routine service and they'll have a car for you. Have an emergency, drop off the car, drive you to work, pick you up from work and if your problem's not fixed you get a rental car. In all that's fair I guess, even though Lexus (owned by the same dealership corp here in town) all but once had a Lexus for us to borrow even if the car was only going to be tied up most of one day for a warranty repair.

My wife used to sell cars. She hates dealerships. She's going to test drive the car on pickup before we get rid of the rental car, and god help them if the problem's not fixed.

Still wondering why, if so many TCUs are failing, replacements have to come clear from Germany. What ever happened to the idea of forward stocked warehouses? I'll wrap up the saga tomorrow night.

Chuck

 

The dealer "upgraded" the transmission software, apologised, and the shifting seemed ok for the next 2 days, but...it happened again today (jerk, hard shifting, etc)

The service advisor heard the "wooo, wooo..." sound (we now call it "howling" and suspected it was the supercharger, but, when he brought it to the workshop, the mechanics couldn't duplicate the "howling" sound....

I also noticed that the car lacks power now...especially going up slopes, etc. I got to really whack the engine to have a decent go whereas previously a light tap on the accelerator will make the car "fly"...

I really regret selling my SLK...

 

that must suck missing your old car

 

As planned, arrived at the dealer about 10 to pick up my car. Not one single problem, even was able to take it out for a test drive before officially accepting it to make sure there were no hidden faults.

Once again the Service Manager was actually there actively managing the entire process, keeping on top of all the shuttlers, meeting the customers, everything.

Was given complete copy of the service order without asking, showing all the details of what was done, part number of the TCU, labor explanations etc. For Lexus, often if it was a warranty item I had to pull teeth to get a copy "since I didn't pay for the service" here in Nevada they said all the time I really wasn't entitled to a copy of it.

Side benefit. The service writer who I by default was originally assigned to didn't work yesterday. The one who handled the car return provided a much better impression of the dealer's service orgnanization that did the first one. Told that to the Service Manager as we talked for a few minutes and (1) really got the impression that he'd carry forward my comments to what ever type of performance review gets done (2) and he changed their computer data base to from now on forward associate me with the new rep.

Car's home drove for hours on city streets, freeways, up hills and down. Back to where it should be.

Last positive thought. Did a complete inventory of the "stuff" I left in the car. Everything is there -- even down to the LED emergency flasher set I left in the mesh cargo pocket at the back of the wagon.

Plus, it appears that while taking out all the seat and floor protector stuff after
washing the car, they even located a pair of sunglasses my wife had "lost" and put them on the console.

Chuck