PeterUbers

update: SA states new valve body is in, smooth shifting at this point in all gear transitions, will drive it cold tomorrow morning after it sits overnight and if ok, deliver the car back to me.

K-A

Can't believe these things still need valve body changes. I had to go through that with my '06 E Class. The 7G tranny can't go bye-bye fast enough.

PeterUbers

update:

Problem SOLVED.

Received the car this morning -- smooth shifting up and down -- so THIS is what you all are experiencing .. I never knew a benz could shift this smoothly - guess I'll need to get used to this.

Also -- shocker -- the alignment has been made perfect, despite the other dealership telling me my car inherently pulls to the right. The car was delivered to me brand new with perfect alignment, and then the steering column was replaced, and then it pulled aggressively to the right. Yeah, ok, it inherently pulls to the right.

Kudos to this new dealership to stepping up to the plate. Time to hit MBUSA for some compensation for this significantly inconvenient experience.

Thanks to all for listening to me ***** about this, and for your thoughts/opinions.

Oh and the software update 10/31/13 helped totally smooth out all other shifts -- I strongly recommend all you 212 owners consider if it's a possibility for your car to receive this update.

Regards.

faz999

Great news everything worked out
It always a stressful time but at the end you can now enjoy the car

- mind i ask you which dealership you went to ?

I use Loaber Motors

Thanks

PeterUbers

hi faz --

I went to Naperville Mercedes -- they fixed it. St. Charles Mercedes was who I bought the car from and who I purchased it from. I still respect st charles from the sales side. They were great, however their service department was unfriendly at times and made me feel like I was a nuisance.

PeterUbers

It's interesting .. the 2013 C300 loaner I had for basically 2 weeks now, had super smooth shifting while in ECO (I only drove it in ECO) .. warm or when totally cold.

In the last day I switched to sport mode and it had a rough downshift into 1st gear 50% of the time, nothing as rough as my 5th to 4th gear shift.. but there nonetheless ... I guess this 7 speed really needs to just go... wonder what problems the 9G tronic will bring to the table?

david55838

Hallelujah! Glad to hear it. I still need to give mine more time, but if the cold shifting issue doesn't improve, I'll suggest the valve body to the dealer folks.

Dema

Cool, I am glad to support MB with $$$ keeping guys happy

ImInPA

Peter: These really are great vehicles. Forums are always skewed with internet-literate-folks that are having problems or looking for information. I hope you will enjoy your vehicle as much as I enjoy mine. Regardless of what some have said, it is a good transmission, however, REMEMBER TO DO ALL OF THE transmission fluid changes (every 40K miles). Glad you are now receiving the real experience.

K-A

Yeah, I've experienced it all with the 7G. My '06 was a nightmare. People suggest "just go change the valve-body" but I had to go to the dealer like 5 times because they "couldn't reproduce the problem", I was lucky it even happened once during their drive (of course on the way there it's doing it constantly, then when the tech drives it, it typically stopped.... until I left the dealer again, lol). Even after my valve-body change, it wasn't perfect, though improved.

My 10/11 E350's were better, but not perfect. The 7G is just harsh in Sports Mode, and you don't experience the issues nearly as much in Comfort.

The 7G has been a weak spot on M-B's since it came out. Not a very good tranny at all, IMO. I admire M-B trying to keep their tranny exclusive and "in house" in a day where everyone shares everything with everyone (M-B very much included.... though the one area they probably should is with tranny's it appears), but if it's holding back the cars, which to me it is (most noticeable in the new 550's with TT V8's who clearly seem heavily held back by too slow and lethargic transmission which could benefit from an extra gear as well), then just do what everyone else does and buy the ZF trans, which is a remarkably perfect transmission.

We'll see what the 9 Speed holds. Hopefully it doesn't introduce its own issues. It sounds intriguing.

PeterUbers

K-A:

Interesting points. Drove the car two hours (to and fro work) tonight -- while it's remarkably much smooth and that notorious (for me) 5th to 4th downshift clunk is gone -- it's still occasionally mildly harsh in up or downshifts -- but barely noticeable now. As you said, the valve body improved things significantly where I can not be anxious about the shifting, now I can focus on the drive and enjoying the vehicle -- but it's not by any means a perfect transmission -- it leaves something to be desired. I believe that some drivers are more or less sensitive to the quality of shifting.

I think the 9 speed will be even more confused about which gear to be in and the dealers will rely more heavily on "adaptation" resets, etc, etc... but what do I know...

ImInPA: thanks for all your support!

David: best of luck, and I hope this may help you in the future if you continue to have some rough shifting. Again, my shifting isn't perfect .. a little rough when cold, but quickly smooths out and no more downshift roughness....significant improvement for sure.

BenzV12

Great to see your problems are fixed and you're now a happy camper
May you be happy with your car as you rack up the miles ,kilometers

david55838

Thanks Peter. I'm so glad it's much improved. It's interesting that you say the shifting is still a little rough when cold. That's really all I can complain about at this point with mine after the TSB and new adaptations were applied. So, maybe this is the best I can hope for. I guess MB should have grabbed the 8-speed ZF box like everyone else.

Since I'm only driving the car twice a week, I'll give it some time.

Arrie

Just curious- You say you drive your car only twice a week. What else do you drive, what is it and how does that shifting compare to your E?

I almost miss the little feel between the gear changes. I don't feel any of it. It is almost like too smooth...

PeterUbers

You wouldn't miss THIS harsh shifting I was experiencing... I promise.

PeterUbers

Hey guys --

In a further effort to help out, another member asked if I would post the part numbers of the items replaced:

here goes, right off my service invoice:

274989 Electrohydraulic controller unit of automatic transmission, remove/install veh. with transmission 722.9
6310 WM8
1 231-270-05-60 CTRR. UNIT ELECTROHYD.
2 220-271-03-80 GASKET
6 004-990-35-12 SCREW
1 007603-012102 RING,GENERAL,METAL
6 001-989-78-03-09 ATF-OIL
10 004-990-75-12 SCREW W COLLAR A DRIVE

540991 CONTROL UNIT
SOFTWARE INSTALL (AFTER QUICK TEST)

Most importantly, this is TAC case# 000039053

Here's the summary in the TAC case:
perform road test and found 5-4 shift rough. ran short test - no codes found. check adaptations- values ok. check for software update. perform update of Me. road test after update and found rough shift still there. create tac case and was told to perform shift adaptations of every gear up and down. perform adaptation on a 25 mile test drive. 5-4 shift got worse after adaptation. was told to install patch on one of the computers and update trans software again. no new software found. was instructed to perform 2 more complete shift adaptations. perform shift adaptations and 5-4 shift smoothed out. after sitting overnight hard 5-4 shift was back. replace valve body per Tac instructions and adapt trans on more time. no more rough shift 5-4.

The latest software was listed by david in this thread.

Best of luck everyone and please NOTE! --> THERE IS STILL AN OCCASIONAL HARSH UP OR DOWNSHIFT -- it's very infrequent and not nearly as rough as the initial issue. I did experience one down shift from 4th to 3rd that was rough, as rough as the initial issue, but the car was cold, and I have not had that since in 50 more miles. Will continue to drive and update.

Overall, I'm much impressed with the improvements -- very let down by mercedes and the quality of this transmission in general.

*****

Just went for a cruise (car sat in cold garage overnight) this morning:

upshifting is all very smooth, never really had a problem here. I did experience a "perceptible" 5-4 downshift, but it wasn't a "thud" like it had been -- however, it was the only perceptible downshift that occurred about 3 times, and then not again. Once the car was warmed up, it seems that all up/down shifts were very imperceptible.

I still do not recall experiencing any perceptible downshifts on the other 2014 E550's I drove on the lot, and I'm still not sure why on my car 5-4 is the most affected shift ... that tells me that there is still some hardware issue with the vehicle's transmission.

Will continue to monitor as I put on miles this week and as the fiftieth adaptation takes place, LOL

david55838

I have nothing else in the 'fleet' to compare to this 7G. The '84 280SE is a 4 speed auto which, after the first shifts of the day, is flawless, but it's not buttery smooth as these transmissions are 'supposed' to be. The Toyota truck and VW Golf are both manual - so no comparison there.

PeterUbers

I really don't see how an MB built 9G-tronic is going to improve shifting quality -- I can totally see how it will improve efficiency, acceleration --- but mo' gears, mo' problems as far as I'm concerned.

ZeroMB

I just got a 2014 E550 4matic as well. Shifts seem fine to me so far in either direction through the gears. Then again, I just got out of an M5 with SMG so anything's better than that. Of course, different types of transmissions but boy was that thing harsh.

PeterUbers

Zero --

Of course there is no way I can determine what "shifts seem fine" means to you without driving your 550 and comparing it to mine.

That being said -- I think everyone has a different level of sensitivity and it's very hard to know if there are perceptible shifts on every 550 to some degree, or just a few, and what constitutes a "bad transmission" ... i.e. "within normal limits."

My comparison is the 550's I drove other than mine (2014) and my Infiniti g37x with a 7spd, and my wife's G35 with a 5-spd... the infiniti transmissions are butter smooth up and down, totally imperceptible shifting, but the 7spd infiniti has a "rubber band" feeling in lower gears as you're slowing down .. like you felt the engine breaking slightly -- was difficult to drive in bumper to bumper traffic at times, luckily I never did.

No transmission is perfect, however I think the G35x 5-spd is about as bulletproof as it gets -- very smooth, reliable 5-spd transmission. Nothing spectacular about the speed of shifting, but so imperceptible with shifts that you can totally focus on the rest of the vehicle and the drive itself.

david55838

I noticed that 'rubber band' effect when slowing down in mine, but I also noticed it in the A6s I test drove with the vaunted ZF trannys.

ZeroMB

Peter, absolutely. I wasn't trying to down play your situation. I am glad they resolved most of it for you. I was just chiming in that so far I have been lucky with mine and hoping it stays that way. And also that my m5 was horrible

PeterUbers

Zero -- didn't think you were downplaying it all, rather I appreciate your input.

Sadly, I took the 550 for another cruise just now and the 5-4 downshift is still harsh when slowly coming to a stop and it's as harsh as ever. I think I have a bad transmission, that's about the only way to figure this out. I will say that most of the 5-4 downshifts are much better now, but with only 1800 miles on the odo and the money spent and time and frustration, time for a new car -- not gunna be happy with a transmission replacement.

Will update further when I talk to MBUSA monday.

<sigh>

ZeroMB

Good luck Peter.

HBerman

Are you in E or S when this happens? 1800 miles is not even close to break-in for these transmissions. Here's what I did to smooth out my 2013 E550:

Drove the car in S mode for a couple of days. The transmission shifts very differently in that mode. Then, I switched back to driving in E mode. The shifts up and down were now smoother than before. I've never had a 5-4 downshift issue at a closed throttle, but the car is now a year old with over 13,000 miles on the clock. The engine will be idling at a higher RPM for the first 2000 miles to compensate for the initial tightness. My current idle RPM is 575.