As the title suggests I'm wondering if its possible to downshift when you're in S+ mode. I want to be able to downshift and have the automatic take over once I start accelerating again.

 

Yes.

 

I guess going out and trying / testing was too much.

*puts it in S+, starts driving, pulls left paddle* ....wow, it works. *continues to drive but never pulls paddle, car takes over shifting* wow, that works too....amazing.

 

This too. Haha

 

You CAN downshift, but the trans will hold whatever gear you downshift to also... It won't shift to a higher gear.

Try watching the gauge cluster...

 

John, mine does shift to a higher gear when it hits the redline.

 

In Manual mode no, you must shift it, or the car will bounce the rev limiter.

 

That's a given. This thread is about S+ mode.

 

Yes, you can downshift in any C, S or S+ I did it all the time when I had my 2010 C63

 

It will shift up when you hit redline in C, S or S+, but will otherwise hold the gear without shifting up if you're cruising. I noticed this when I had been cruising for a while in S+ but it did not go past 5th gear, which is what I had downshifted to earlier. To cancel, you just hold the up paddle for a second or two, and the car will go back to selecting the optimal cruising gear.

My guess is that it does this so that you can hold a lower gear for things like engine braking going downhill or while towing, without having to go to full manual mode.

 

Thank you all for your answers... even though some of them weren't that nice..
The reason I was asking was because I did press the downshift on the paddle but noticed the gear wouldn't switch upwards again, which is why I specifically added to the thread "...and have automatic take over again"
Nonetheless, its good to know all of the information that was provided by people who were being helpful. Thank you.

 

To clarify - when you downshifted to a lower gear did you hit the redline in that gear...if not, what happened....did the rev limiter cut in? I only ask because it won't auto upshift until you redline the downshifted gear. From memory it will be in auto mode for all other non-downshifted gears. To exit this mode you will need to hold the upshift paddle momentarily as it toggles through the gears back to full auto mode.

For example, if I'm approaching a corner and want to give it a squirt out of the corner I might downshift to 2nd - I would also see D2 on the dash. I would then floor the throttle (after taking the corner) and it will shift automatically to 3rd after redlining 2nd. To go back to full auto mode for 2nd gear I hold the upshift paddle and you will see the gears on the dash toggle from D2 through D3, D4, D5, etc until back to full auto mode.

 

If you blip the throttle it down shifts. 2012+ does anyway.

 

This reminds me to ask the questions why we can upshift in any other mod except M when the pedal is to the floor.

 

Maybe I have this wrong but here goes:
There are two different selections (PFL)
You can manually in M mode shift to any gear and it hold it.

You can restrict the highest gear that the transmission shifts into moving the shifter sideways. This is among other things for people like me that reject the idea of cruising at 1200 RPM and would rather cruise at 2500 RPM, so you limit the transmission to 5th for the usual speed. This is why I don't consider this shifting. The transmission can continue to shift 1-5 and 5-1, as it needs.

The bad part and the reason for which I don't use this, is that the usage of the gears becomes awkward. It shifts such as to keep 1500 RPM in every gear, until it reaches cruising where it does 2500, ridiculous. I would want it to shift at 2500 in every gear, and then cruise at 2500-3000, but that will only happen in M.

The same happens with the down paddle.
The meaning of D5, D4, etc is restricted to 5, restricted to 4 etc

 

Gotta drive in M mode to control shift points on every gear.

Why would you want to cruise at 2500 anyways? I understand upshifting at 2500, but once I'm at the speed I would rather be at the lowest revs.

 

If this is a relaxed cruise, then yes. But in morning commute, even with this car being torquey, it's not agile out of 1500 RPM. 2500 RPM is better for changing lanes and so on.
Also, 2500 RPM with the torque converter locked has less torque than 1500 unlocked.
So, 2500 in say D5 you'll see that nice surge forward.

 

doesnt your oil temp get really high cruising at 2.5? I just tried it and it went up to 109c in like 1 minute

 

So this morning, my car showed 76 F outside temperature, this probably means 72F actual outside temperature. I was not using the AC.
My car settled into 213F oil in C, doing 1500 RPM. I know because it was going 213-212-213 etc.
Then i put it in D5 and C, it stayed the same, doing 2500 RPM. It started to show 214 after a minute or so. Then I started to pass other cars 5 minute later, allowing it to downshift automatically and then upshift obviously only up to 5th. It stayed at 214.
Then I put it in manual and held it at 2500 in every gear, it went to 215 and never passed that. That is 101 C
Then I took my exit and started to drive in manual at slow speeds. It stayed at 215.
Then there's a block at the back of a park where .. I can step on it (fences with no gates on both sides). I let it go way up the RPM, shifting manually through first two gears.
Here's the thing, by the time I was done, I was still going low speed, so the air flow for cooling, was just not there.

Now, I've been monitoring oil temperatures for many years on several cars. The gauge doesn't have instant response. It takes a few seconds for the hot oil to come back to the pan, for the whole mass to equalize temperatures and for the sender to heat up. So almost 30 seconds after I did this, now driving in C at 25-30 MPH (good ol' 1500 RPM), the temperature jumped directly to 221F. Then stopped at a traffic signal, it went to 228F (109C), then started to drop slightly.
If I had gone back on the parkway and bring it back to 60 MPH, most likely would have dropped back to 215 or so.

In conclusion, it's normal behavior, nothing crazy or unexpected has happened.

Back in the day, the VW had a small LCD display which you could cycle through readings. Your average Jetta ran 250F oil temperatures in the summer.

In addition, the car has a fan too, which helps control the excess temperature. The only thing that worries me is that the oil thermostat is difficult to replace. But in many cars (don't know in Mercedes) it fails open.

 

Thanks for doing some testing! Ive also noticed that oil temps lags a bit. When punching it, the temps will spike up a few degrees after finishing the pull. Makes sense. Just wanted to check that my oil temps and experience is in-line with what other owners have