F14ZZZ

Hi all, hope you keeping well and studying safe given the current situation. I was wondering if someone might be as to help me with a transmission problem?

It all started about a year ago. I went in for my usual service and they recommended I have the transmission fluid changed. Upon doing this they discovered that the fluid was black instead of the red colour it should be. Upon further investigation they said I should get then valve body and the torque converter recycled/renewed.

Having done this everything was fine.

Until a few months later when the car is cold (starting it the next morning) changing gears would feel kind of rough and at one point when it changes from 2 to 3 (I think) the RPMS would drop a bit and there would be this noise I can only describe as when you try to stick a gear in with the clutch not fully pressed. When the noise happens I left off the gas and then reapply and it’s fine. This problem only happened when the car wasn’t up to operating temperature. Once the car reached its temperature everything seemed fine. I took it to the mechanic who then replaced the fuel pump, checked it and had the 4 fuel injectors checked.

Again everything was fine, until the same problem resurfaced. This time they checked it with the computer and found an oxygen sensor was faulty, some glow plugs and said I need to also change the clutch packs along with the transmission oil. Quite a costly job I agreed. When I got the car back they said the car works alot better now and has a lot more power. They also said that apparently before the car was operating with only 3 gears?!?

Now just a few weeks later the same problem is occurring. But I’ve also found it seems to be happening even if the car is up to operating temperature. For example sometimes I’ll drive (comfort mode) and if I don’t apply gas the RPMS will drop as they should, but when I apply gas it seems to make a noise as if the clutch and the gears are trying to engage but can’t then I have to give it more gas and it settles. In sport mode it seems a little better but then when there’s traffic it just struggles as to what gear it should be in and the noises still occur.I was wondering if anyone has experience in this problem or maybe could advise me on what it could possibly be? I was wondering whether to try and reset the “transmit adaptive shifting?” The problem is the car isn’t showing me any lights or any warnings just strange noises.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, I’m really in love with my CLK and often get compliments but if it can’t be resolved I think I may have to move on from the W209. I’ve at least put £3-5k in maintenance on it in the last few years as my first Mercedes it’s been a dream despite its issues. But I don’t know if I can go on any longer.

Thank You (P.S sorry for the long post)😅

For reference: W209 2008 CLK 220CDI 5G-tronic (my mechanic was surprised and said it should’ve been 7g). I’ve attached the VIN in case that helps: WDB2093081F239857

nkx1

I'm not an expert, but you may want to look into the TCC solenoid issue for the 5-speed transmission. There are at least a few threads on MB World about it (for various models with the same transmission), whereby some people have solved their rough 2-3 shift issues by replacing this component. Of course, it could be some totally different problem, but I just thought I'd bring that to your attention in case you hadn't heard of it.

F14ZZZ

Thanks i will definitely look into this.
Hopefully going to take my mechanic on a test drive soon and maybe he will understand my problem.
When I called him about it, he said it works absolutely perfectly. Hopefully I can replicate the issue