Jim Brady

I recently noticed that my right up shift paddle was not upshifting and appeared to be loose. Others have reported the problem. Apperently it is more wide spread than I thought as there is an updated repair kit to fix this glitch. Just wanted to let the board know.

Jimmy

LZH

Thanks Jimmy - I'll keep an eye out although mine seem ok thus far and I only drive my car in M so they get quite a workout

Jim Brady

I wanted to add, if your upshifts and downshifts are slow, good chance you need the updated paddles.

Jimmy

JDB

Hi Jimmy,

Do you have any more specific details regarding the updated paddle shifters, such as part numbers or a bulletin?

JDB

LZH

Well that changes things a bit. My upshifts are neck snapping quick but the down shifts are very slow. You think this is normal ?

Jim Brady

Part number 171-267-00-46 Rocker Switch.
Test to determine 541011, Perform 5225 W67.
Repair order says "Removed and replaced right and left paddle shifters with Updated Repair Kit.

Repair requires removing air bag. Be sure and remove battery ground before removing air bag. If you try this at home.

Jimmy

JDB

With the car stopped, and the engine off, take a look at the backside of your steering wheel and look at how the paddle shifters are mounted into the wheel. On my car, it was very obvious that the mounting was broken, because the paddle shifter assembly seemed loose in the steering wheel.

The symptom that first made me question that there might be a problem was that I began to notice that my car would not upshift when I would pull on the upshift paddle. Downshifts were fine. At first I noticed that, it would upshift, but irregularly. Sometimes it would upshift, then other times it took several tries on the shifter paddle to get the shift to occur. (Reminded me of bad contacts on an electric window switch). I found that if I used the center console gear selector to manually shift the car, the upshifts were precise and immediate, as you would normally expect.

The problem was easily fixed. The dealer ordered a new set of paddles and switches and the replacement only took a couple of minutes. By the way, it turned out that both switches were failing. Both had cracks running across the area where the screw draws the switch assembly into the steering wheel.

JDB

Jim Brady

LZH,
Check your gear selector lever position indicator for the gear range that appears in the odometer desplay. When downshifting, the gear change indicator number should be immediate. If the indicator isn't immediate then your downshift paddle isn't working correctly. If your downshifts are slow, your transmission ecu isn't getting the signal to downshift or it doesn't want to do something stupid like going from 100mph into 2nd gear.

Jimmy

JDB

Hi Jimmy,

Thanks for the details.

JDB

LZH

Likewise - thank you both for the info, much appreciated.

MB_Forever

I'm sorry to revive such an old thread, but I have the BS steering on my E63, and I started having the exact same problem as you described: my right paddle shifter would not upshift sometimes and feels sluggish. My downshift paddle works perfectly everytime

Did the updated kit fix the problem permenantly? Did the problem ever return?

MMC2488

On my second set of paddles. Hope these break so I can get the updated ones.

toddturbos

Thanks for the information, mine has always been slow when downshifting, upshifting is very quick.

Todd

Eitan1

Mine is also quick on the upshift and slow on the downshift. I think this has nothing to do with the paddles, and everything to do with the actual ecu / tcu tuning from the factory.

LZH

Exactly - and the way to test if the paddles are not working properly is to use the gearshift and see if there is any difference.
If we could just get that damn Speedshift Plus software....

spr

Why not just flash with c63 tcu soft?? Should work just fine no? then you get the blip.

DFW01E55

The C63 ECU is also de-tuned by 50hp or so compared to the BS.

spr

Tcu not ecu. Unless they are somehow together now. My understanding is that they are seperate units- hence the flashing of TCU v. ECU. For this reason I want to flash my tcu for instance with the clkdtm prog as it is the "M1" prog with lighting shifts.

DFW01E55

DOH!
You did say TCU, my mistake.

Any possibility of that flash happening?

spr

Hehe np. Yeah I don't see why not right? This is a backdoor way of getting what you guys want when MB won't. I would believe that the modules are the same and 7g trannys as well such that there is no difference whatsoever in doing so it's just a simple flash. Just find a master mechanic you can throw a couple of cigars at

LZH

Not possible guys as the TCU and ECU are both VIN specific. I've been bangin my head against a wall over this crap for a year now...

spr

Is that because the MB STAR computer won't let you do it or what? Usually software isn't too much of an issue. If so, a work around would be to swap in the tcu from a c63 with the flash already on it no??

LZH

It's because the newer Speedshift Plus ECUs and TCUs will only mate with cars that have corresponding VINs. If you tried to code a Speedshift Plus ECU or TCU to a BS it wouldn't work. If you were to try something like this, the newer CLS63 ECU/TCU would be the way to go. It would require taking them out of a CLS and then coding them ia STAR to accept a BS VIN. Or something like that...I've been round and round on this topic and Powerchip was going to help if we could get doner ECUs as a starting point...

kiamcoj

Anybody have some broken/spare paddles that they want to let go of? I need some to play around with for an upcoming project. Please PM me if you want to help a lower class CLK driver out . Thanks!

Jon

rage2

Here's what a broken downshift paddle looks like. I had mine replaced under warranty a few weeks ago, and got to take pics of the broken piece. Shifts are instant once the piece is replaced with the updated piece that's stronger.