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Manual kickdown switch on 2012

Old Apr 1, 2013 | 11:45 PM
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Manual kickdown switch on 2012

Correct me if I am wrong, but for those of you with 2012s, if you push the accelerator all of the way down, do you feel a physical click in the pedal as the kickdown switch is depressed?

I swear mine used to, but it does not now. I had that stupid BMW for 2 weeks and got all out of whack so I couldn't remember if it was supposed to or not.

I had a loaner 2013 2 weeks ago while my camera wiring harness was being replaced, and it clicked on kickdown. I have been wondering if mine is broken since then. Earlier tonight I went to pass some jackass, and when I put my foot down it did not want to downshift at first but finally did after a few seconds - much longer than normal, so I think it is broken.

Does your 2012 click when kicked down?

Last edited by MDMercedesGuy; Apr 2, 2013 at 12:44 AM.
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Old Apr 2, 2013 | 01:11 AM
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Click? Like a physical mechanical click? The pedal clicks if it's stepped all the way down... Otherwise, if i depress the pedal 1/2 or something, it will kickdown but no "physical" kick. Mine's 2013 C250.
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Old Apr 2, 2013 | 01:19 AM
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Originally Posted by AllEyesOnMe
Click? Like a physical mechanical click? The pedal clicks if it's stepped all the way down... Otherwise, if i depress the pedal 1/2 or something, it will kickdown but no "physical" kick. Mine's 2013 C250.
Yep - click when fully depressed. It will trigger the most aggressive downshift it can do at that time. No click here though, so it definitely sounds like mine is broken.
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Old Apr 2, 2013 | 08:41 AM
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Sounds like you may have been getting down into the clicker a bit to often and already surpassed its expected duty cycle....
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Old Apr 2, 2013 | 08:59 AM
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Originally Posted by C300Sport
Sounds like you may have been getting down into the clicker a bit to often and already surpassed its expected duty cycle....
Haha, at first I thought that - but actually I probably end up flooring it once every 2 weeks or so (a couple of stupid left hand merges into the beltway and I-95 that you have to go like hell to not get killed at). The C250s don't really gain much by being revved past about 4,500 RPM - so mine has learned to shift at about there unless my foot is pinned.

Sounds like another trip to the dealer... argh!
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Old Apr 2, 2013 | 01:15 PM
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Originally Posted by MDMercedesGuy
Yep - click when fully depressed. It will trigger the most aggressive downshift it can do at that time. No click here though, so it definitely sounds like mine is broken.
That's the first time I have heard about that function.

I recall that at about 80% pedal travel, there is no click, but rather more mechanical pedal resistance to motion ... like engaging another spring in the gas pedal. I recall that at a quick change to 80% pedal, when cruising at 45 mph, plenty of downshifts occured.

Do you know of any MB documents that describe this?

.
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Old Apr 2, 2013 | 02:31 PM
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As far as with the 7Gtronic, I have not seen anything regarding documentation.

Others have had the issue with various models, however - http://www.benzworld.org/forums/w202...wn-switch.html for instance.

Mine's linear in effort all of the way to the floor - no physical click or catch any more.

Back in the day the kickdown was triggered by vacuum or a physical lever on a transmission... nowadays it's either based off of potentiometer readings from the "throttle" pedal or a physical switch that signals the TCU to downshift.

The 2013 I drove was damn near instantaneous when stood on after the pedal change was felt, whereas mine still has to make a decision to shift (even after performing a throttle reset).

Last edited by MDMercedesGuy; Apr 2, 2013 at 02:43 PM.
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Old Apr 2, 2013 | 02:37 PM
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maybe you finally broke it in?
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Old Apr 2, 2013 | 03:47 PM
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Originally Posted by MDMercedesGuy
As far as with the 7Gtronic, I have not seen anything regarding documentation.

Others have had the issue with various models, however - http://www.benzworld.org/forums/w202...wn-switch.html for instance.

Mine's linear in effort all of the way to the floor - no physical click or catch any more.

... nowadays it's either based off of potentiometer readings from the "throttle" pedal or a physical switch that signals the TCU to downshift.

The 2013 I drove was damn near instantaneous when stood on after the pedal change was felt, whereas mine still has to make a decision to shift (even after performing a throttle reset).
So your 2012 is linear, and the 2013 you drove had a hard spot you drove through? That suggests the hard spot was there in 08, gone in 2012, and back in 2013?

I politely have to disagree about kickdown based just on readings from the pedal position. The MB normal kickdown should be based on "load vs rpm" maps for each gear. I think Glyn posted them at one time, and I have seen them for other cars. Load could be based on fuel flow vs rpm.

The link provided for the W202 seems to be for a much simpler transmission, not shure about that.

.
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Old Apr 2, 2013 | 04:12 PM
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To me what is suggests is that my 2012 is broken. That is why I phrased the title of this thread the way I did. I'd like to see other 2012 owners chime in to see if the click is there on their cars.

Kickdown is different from the transmission dropping gears based on load and throttle position or RPM. Kickdown is when the throttle is depressed fully and you are looking for maximum acceleration out of the vehicle.

Further digging on Benzworld has turned up a few posts from W204 owners mentioning feeling the physical kickdown switch - so that kind of seals it for me that I have an issue with my vehicle.
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Old Apr 2, 2013 | 04:17 PM
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There is nothing wrong with your vehicle. I also have a physical kickdown "click" when the pedal is to the metal... And i love it

Even my w203 kompressor had it, and very nice when in sport mode too..
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Old Apr 2, 2013 | 04:29 PM
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Originally Posted by Karem
There is nothing wrong with your vehicle. I also have a physical kickdown "click" when the pedal is to the metal... And i love it

Even my w203 kompressor had it, and very nice when in sport mode too..
That's the problem. I don't have the click. I seem to remember having the click.

For the tl;dr crowd - the original jist of the thread:

Anyone with a 2012. Does your pedal click when you shove it all of the way to the floor?

Answer: My car does not. My car is broken
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Old Apr 2, 2013 | 04:35 PM
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Sorry yup, something must be wrong then..
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Old Apr 2, 2013 | 05:32 PM
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Originally Posted by MDMercedesGuy
To me what is suggests is that my 2012 is broken. That is why I phrased the title of this thread the way I did. I'd like to see other 2012 owners chime in to see if the click is there on their cars.

Kickdown is different from the transmission dropping gears based on load and throttle position or RPM. Kickdown is when the throttle is depressed fully and you are looking for maximum acceleration out of the vehicle.

Further digging on Benzworld has turned up a few posts from W204 owners mentioning feeling the physical kickdown switch - so that kind of seals it for me that I have an issue with my vehicle.
The kickdown "hard pedal" is caused by springs in the pedal. I'd say new pedal time, but it would be nice to see if there is a wire to the ecu related to the "special downshift".

I still question if there is a true special kickdown that is different from the upshift/downshift map that shows what happens at 100% throttle. It is possible it's function is a gate that prevents the 100% kick down, so if you want max downshift, you have to go through the hard pedal. Note that 90% open @ the TB is about the same as 100% open, based on butterfly valve flow maps.

.
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Old Apr 2, 2013 | 07:50 PM
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Figure 3 is a general "shift map" for a modern, 7speed automatic transmission.




The solid lines are for upshifts, and the dotted line to it's left are the downshifts for the gear. What is not shown is zones where the TC is enabled, but that is about all the time with the W204.

.

Last edited by kevink2; Apr 2, 2013 at 07:55 PM.
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Old Jul 24, 2016 | 02:38 PM
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Finally!

This is exactly what I'm going through with my 2012 cls... No click and logging it it never see's 100% wot. Replacing the pedal tomorrow did that fix the issue for the OP? Please let me now thank you!
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Old Jul 25, 2016 | 10:33 AM
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Nothing ever got replaced. To be honest, I mostly forgot about it by this point. My C250 has become a bit of a garage queen and only gets driven on the weekends now - next time I have it out I will hook my dongle up to it and see if it will see 100% throttle/WOT and update the thread.
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Old Jul 25, 2016 | 12:04 PM
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I don't know if these cars ever do 100% throttle.

It would be interesting to see what happens in a manual downshift. If you do a hold downshift vs. tap on either the paddle or shift knob the car will drop to whatever gear is needed for maximum power delivery.
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Old Jul 25, 2016 | 01:35 PM
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I love using the downshift feature on the Tiptronic auto transmission. It goes down to the lowest possible gear and then lets you go over 6k RPM without upshifting for the highest power output. Granted it nets me 12MPG when I use it a lot.
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Old Jul 25, 2016 | 01:41 PM
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Yeah, after I added paddle shifters to my wheel I think my MPG took a hit, lol. But it's the next best thing to having a manual transmission.
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Old Jul 25, 2016 | 06:19 PM
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Originally Posted by michail71
Yeah, after I added paddle shifters to my wheel I think my MPG took a hit, lol. But it's the next best thing to having a manual transmission.
.....M-B makes really beautiful (like my C250 coupe IMHO) cars...........

The rare M-B manual transmission seem pale in comparison to Miata, Honda Accord 6M, my VW JSW TDI 6M - just to name a few.

I reckon I'm missing out by ignoring my paddle shifters...........................



ez

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Old Jul 26, 2016 | 01:27 PM
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Originally Posted by michail71
Yeah, after I added paddle shifters to my wheel I think my MPG took a hit, lol. But it's the next best thing to having a manual transmission.
You wouldn't happen to still have those paddle shifts you tried first or where you found them? I figured I can probably get them working on my current steering wheel.
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Old Jul 26, 2016 | 01:50 PM
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I just got another wheel that had them. I had to move my wheel control module to the new wheel. It is so much easier and more fun than using the left/right push of the shifter knob.

After seeing how it all works I could see it's possible to add just the paddles if you were good with a Dremel or drill. But I would be nervous about messing up a wheel that way. The only thing the wheel lacks is the hole/cutout on the outside but they are the same on the inside.
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Old Jul 26, 2016 | 11:38 PM
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Yeah well I know not all cars do "100%" but in at least one Pid it would say you're at 100% parameter or throttle. I replaced the accelerator pedal and no change so back on the hunt.
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Old Jun 10, 2022 | 12:02 PM
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Originally Posted by MDMercedesGuy
Correct me if I am wrong, but for those of you with 2012s, if you push the accelerator all of the way down, do you feel a physical click in the pedal as the kickdown switch is depressed?

I swear mine used to, but it does not now. I had that stupid BMW for 2 weeks and got all out of whack so I couldn't remember if it was supposed to or not.

I had a loaner 2013 2 weeks ago while my camera wiring harness was being replaced, and it clicked on kickdown. I have been wondering if mine is broken since then. Earlier tonight I went to pass some jackass, and when I put my foot down it did not want to downshift at first but finally did after a few seconds - much longer than normal, so I think it is broken.

Does your 2012 click when kicked down?
i have the same problem do yu fix it?
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