Chris Buffalo

Hello all, this issue has serious safety concerns and is something that needs immediate attention and action taken. Please read on.

I have a 2007 GL 450 that has begun the notorious 7 speed (722.9 NAG2 (7G-Tronic) Transmission) etc. electronics failure. It will get stuck in a random forward gear with no apparent driver/user solution but to power cycle the vehicle. (Shut it down, and restart.) If you shift to neutral, it will stay there and not engage any other gear (forward or reverse) until you shutdown and restart. This almost sounds like a bad personal computer operating system. Imagine being in the middle of a normally safe three-point-turn to find the vehicle won’t move unless you shut it off and restart! It happened to me today.

This is a load of nonsense – this problem is not due to abuse, misuse, neglect, or even reasonable wear and tear. I have found others that have been told “the valve body is warped”, etc – so it follows restarting the car un-warped it? Do these people (the dealers) really know how to service these vehicles? This is clearly an electronics failure.

This is an absolute design/manufacturing flaw of the "conductor plate and valve body assembly", and my research carries that the Benz 7 speed transmission is notorious across many models and platforms, and there are many TSB’s on it; recently (Date: April 8, 2011 Order No.: S-B-27.00/120 Group: 27 SUBJECT: All Models Equipped with 722.9 NAG2 (7G-Tronic) Transmission) and it is a well documented problem internally within MBUSA.

Beyond warranty? Not a CPO vehicle? Okay - but - ….

Try this - If my wife (or yours) gets off the freeway, comes to a stop, and then attempts to proceed normally with the vehicle now stuck in 5th (or whatever it chooses) gear, - there is a reasonable user presumption that the car would accelerate normally and be able to safely join traffic....instead it crawls forward at a few miles an hour into potential harms way with no way to accelerate the vehicle normally, thereby leaving the driver and our children in danger. I speak from personal experience.

This is not just a defect, it is a safety issue, and MBUSA needs their feet held to the fire on this one.

It is unreasonable for any manufacturer to tout "The best or nothing" and "Engineered like no other car in the world" and then expect the consumer to pay $2000+ to fix a known electronics design/manufacture flaw. There are even rumblings that VDO (speed sensor/electronics manufacturer) and MB are at odds over who is actually to blame, so clearly they both see costs are going to mount when the inevitable recall occurs. I plan to notify the NHTSA among others if I don't get some favorable answers immediately.

To make it worse, Part # 220 270 27 06 88 is what I am told I need, costing $838.00. (wow!) If I wanted to buy this part outright and have my indy shop or myself install it, I STILL have to go to the dealer for "programming" that I nor most indy shops can carry out.
So regardless of who is at fault, you are railroaded into going to the dealer, dealing with their dismissive “here’s the bill” attitude and paying their inflated rates regardless. You as a consumer are left with no other recourse. I wonder if there is a legal challenge with that in and of itself. To the OP, it sounds like they even robbed you on the part alone.

In summary, they build a defective transmission that will certainly leave you in harm’s way, and then they (MBUSA) say “too bad, pay US to fix it or you have no other option.” I question not only the ethics but legality of this position MBUSA has taken.

I am collecting names, vehicle types, and e mail addresses for any that are interested in signing on to force MBUSA into a recall based on safety (or lack thereof) alone.

I do not seek anything more than an email address, name, and year/make/model affected. Your information will not be used for any other purpose but adding strength to my argument with MBUSA. Feel free to PM me, or email aplguys@aol.com.

Understand absolutely clearly that I am not attempting to defame, discredit, or slander MBUSA in any fashion, but I will not have safety compromised in a premium vehicle and then be billed for it, nor will I be lead to believe it’s “normal wear and tear, abuse, misuse, or neglect”. This is a flaw that compromises safety, period.

I bought my GL450 because I love my Mercedes Benz E55 AMG so much. I bought another Benz because of the quality previously displayed and that one would reasonably expect. Maybe I should have kept my Dodge Durango Limited. What’s right is right.

If we stick together, maybe good will prevail. There is strength in numbers.

I want to hear from all of you affected!

Kevwood

The week after I bought mine the trans went into limp in mode, the TCU failed. Since then, no issues at all, great trans, very smooth.

M-bENZ

No problem so far....

kbahl21

no problems here

jp13

I experienced exactly the same problem with my 2007 CLK. The car has 30k fsh miles yet the problem was diagnosed as a faulty turbine speed sensor. I had this changed by an indie (£500) only to then be informed that the car now "jumps" when changing from 2nd - 3rd gear. The garage told me as no fault readings were showing up on the diagnostic readout this would be a mechanical fault most likely the torque converter. I decided not to continue with the indie but approach MB as this didn't seem acceptable in such a relatively young, low mileage and well maintained Merc.
Needless to say they weren't the slightest bit interested and told me I would have to pay for the investigative work after which they would apply to MBUK for a goodwill donation. I have spoken with a number of gearbox specialists who claim this is a common fault in this model. It has been suggested that the computer needs reprogramming by MB. I am really not sure which way to turn with this....has anybody suffered this "jumping/thumping" gearbox change and found the true cause? - it has been described to me as a "lazy clutch" hence not a mechanical problem more timing

romansroad

2006 CLK 350 with my precious daughter in it.....started having the 1st to 2nd hi rev, no gear, thump into place problem as the weather cooled off. I'm starting to recall why I swore to never have another MB after some wretched S class woes 5+ years ago. NOT happy.

romansroad

oh yeah, forgot to mention. None of my Porsches has ever had anything like this, and when the new Cayman ate its water pump, PCNA backed it up no questions asked. Even Maserati knew its initial F1 tranny was a real problem and they replaced 3 clutches in less than 20k....gratis. How embarassing when the Italians even best you.....so sad

Chris Buffalo

Thanks guys!

All I ask is a quick e mail to be added to the complaint list.

aplguys@aol.com

year/make/model/symptoms and an e mail address are all I ask, additional details as you like.

Rudeney

Interesting. Mine started doing this immediately after I had my timing gear replaced (i.e. The Dreaded Balance Shaft Issue). It was horrible on a cold engine and got slightly better when warm, but was still very noticeable. I assumed that maybe they lost some transmission fluid during the timing gear repair. The dealer did find the fluid was slightly low, but probably not enough to cause problems (but how much is "enough"?) They also flashed the latest firmware into the TCU and all is well. In fact, it shifts more smoothly than it ever has. So apparently, some of these issues are software related and not necessarily mechanical. The TCU flash should take about an hour, so maybe it's worth $100+/- to have that done to see if it helps. Oh, and this will be a dealer-only repair since the latest firmware has to be downloaded from MBZ corporate and they only allow licensed repair centers access to it.

Glyn M Ruck

Mine is the latest version of the 722.9 & perfect thusfar.

Early issues were TCU, conductor plate, valve body related - MB knows which VINs. Numerous other failures have been created by MBUSA's "filled for life policy" & later "change fluid once" at 39K miles - both of which are BS & not adopted in ROW. ROW has a fraction of the issues that NA has. NA has TC, oil pump & input shaft bearing failures. Only ever seen on abused AMG models outside NA.

Transmission going into limp is to protect the transmission. Reboot does not unwarp anything. In fact I've never seen a warped VB. Only conductor plate related speed sensor problems & broken solenoid springs.

jp13

Thanks Glyn, what about UK?

So far MBUK deny there is any issue with the 7 speed gearbox yet numerous blogs and gearbox specialists I have contacted state otherwise. All I know is my FSH, well maintained, 30k miles CLK is driving like a tank!

Glyn M Ruck

Johnand's service thread has the effected VIN's IIRC. UK would also have got some of those early boxes. 2007 production saw some of them. If your car has the new pan & spill tube it's likely in the clear. TCU failure was generally on very early 722.9's & the first thing fixed. Not all transmissions in the range gave trouble.

Please service your transmission - fluid & filter including TC drain - every 39K miles or 60K Km's & your chances of trouble are massively diminished.

jp13

I couldn't locate the service thread you mentioned but have pm'd Johnand.

My car has only done 30k miles so wasn't yet due for trans service which is what bothers me......I shouldn't be having these issues with this calibre of car. I bought it from Merc and have driven 30k fully serviced miles in 4.5 years. The turbine speed sensor has been changed and now these gearbox issues.

whtclk

My car is at about 127,000 kms (about 79,000 miles) and I've recently had this same problem for a couple months. However, it had gotten to the point where it seemed like I couldn't drive for more then 20 minutes home from school or work without it going into limp mode forcing me to be constantly pulling over and restarting the car. Unfortunately I had to take the car into the dealer and heard yesterday that "the speed sensor is not communicating with the control module" and the part is on its way from Toronto and will cost me $1655CAD for parts and labor, plus GST.

Glyn M Ruck

Sorry - top of forum in the stickies.

https://mbworld.org/forums/clk-class...ce-thread.html

What shows as a turbine speed sensor is the transmission conductor plate.

romansroad

I must be dense, as I can't find the VIN list. Seached the PDFs and three pages of posts....no joy. Could you point me in the VIN direction? Thanks.

Glyn M Ruck

No you are not dense. I can't find them but I know I've seen them somewhere. We have had so many transmission threads. Will continue to scratch.

jp13

Took car into Merc who claimed inde had used wrong oil in gearbox and i'd need to replace complete gearbox at cost of £6k!.......rubbish cos the oil and all other parts were bought directly from Merc! Now they won't reply to my emails.They are covering up a major defect with these gearboxes.

Have you guys seen this? ;


http://classactionlawsuitsinthenews....-m273-engines/

Mka77

The link to the class action lawsuit is "old news" and was thrown out of court late last year. Shame.

I just sold an 06 CLK with 53k and never had any issues with the trans. Had the 39k service done as well.

I'm afraid the consumer has no real leverage with these items when they go bad. Maybe the possible good faith 50/50 split. If they feel like it on any given day.

jp13

UK does have Sale of Goods Act which supposedly offers protection but you've got to be willing to take them on.

I've currently got a very well maintained low mileage car that drives like a tank. I look like a teenager whose just passed his driving test bunny hopping down the road because I can't use the clutch properly! It stinks and the number of complaints in online forums shows it's not an isolated issue.

My only options are to either do the work via an inde or take a hit on the resale and never buy another Merc again...trouble is my wife is currently in an ML!!

Absolutely gutted!!

Glyn M Ruck

Write direct to Benz in Germany & raise merry hell. A dealer should reset all adaptions on that transmission. See what happens & then repair whatever shows up.

Benz at one time 2006/7 models was replacing entire valve bodies too often for comfort. Then they realised the main problem was the Siemens VDO manufactured conducter plate. There was then a huge fight between Benz & VDO. They know they had a problem in those years.

Mka77

I have drove nothing but MB's the last 13 years, and decided to step out of brand.

No so much because of issues with MB's, just to try any favor.

I may at some point purchase another MB down the road. Who knows?

It would be nice to see the things that are known to be problematic with transmissions, balance shaft/Idler gears etc.. get squared away where the worry of a failure and massive expense was not on the minds of owners of those models afflicted. Which is in its self is an extremely enormous number.

MB has taken its stand and it is firm with no recalls. Shame

jp13

I have also only had Merc's for last 13yrs. I've always loved them cos they were reliable and classy....they are neither in my eyes now sadly. The company has lost all respect for it's customers and is in my opinion (based on my current experience) producing a sub-standard product. Shame is I had been looking at the new E class coupe but wouldn't risk the money now.....real shame

F1Bobby

2008 CLK550 so far so good!

Chris Buffalo

Make sure you do all required services - the prior owner apparently never did the 39k mile oil change, leaving me little recourse. I am confident the lack of fluid change is not the issue, but the Siemens/VDO referenced earlier in this post.

But if it wasn't properly maintained, I have no way to hold their feet to the fire.

There are wayyy too many of these going bad, for sure.