E320 shifts hard, sluggish

Aug 8, 2007 | 05:00 PM

cagefighter

Thread Starter

Newbie

Joined: May 2007

Posts: 3

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E320 shifts hard, sluggish

I have an 04 E320 with 50k miles that I recently purchased certified pre-owned from my MB dealer. Although I am incredibly pleased with both the vehicle and purchase price, there is one issue that is of some concern. The transmission shifts very early (I drive in S mode) and frequently needs to downshift to accelerate moderately. The transmission keeps revs at or below 2K rpm when cruising and seems reluctant to downshift. It almost feels like the torque convertor is locked all the time. In other words, when I give it gas at say between 20-45mph, the tach needle does not rise freely but rises with road speed. My 540i(124Kmi) and GS300 (37k mi.) both shift like butter and seem to always want to go (gs power is on par with E but feels more responsive). Don't get me wrong, The E is far and away my favorite but shifting just feels sluggish. I've done the sneaky ECU reset and noticed some improvement and I'm aware of the glycol contamination test. However, my issue isn't really low speed jerking but rough, reluctant shifts. Is this just the way its supposed to feel or is there a problem? any ideas/thoughts? Looking forward to hearing your thoughts. Thanks.

Aug 8, 2007 | 08:02 PM

SZMB

Senior Member

Joined: Jul 2007

Posts: 421

Likes: 14

From: Bay Area

2004 E500 CLK320

I just recently bought a 2004 E500 CPO. I've driven BMWs (both 3 & 5 series) for a long time. The E is not shifting as smooth as the Bimmers, sometimes it's a little jerky when shifting up/down the gears. I noticed that it's especially jerky when driving in the manual mode. When you down shift hard, it's very jerky since the transmission does not match the rev very well. In the Bimmers, the engine and trans rev are matched quite well, thus a silky smooth transition. I've recently test drove the 07 C320 and the 08 C350, MB has improved a lot in both the engine and transmission. It's much less jerky in these two new models, and the performance is more like Bimmers. Even with 302HP in the E500, it does not feel like "power at your finger tips", you can't cut in and out of traffic with precision. But in the 225HP 530i, it's like power at your command... But the MBs are more comfortable and more luxurious.