schorert1

My wife's '12 E350 started acting up the other day, she left the house and came back and said it was driving "jerky". So I rolled my eyes and went out for a drive...holy sh*t...the thing shifted like the transmission was about to fall right out. I brought it home and put it in park and the transmission was so loud and violent I thought the front wheels would leave the ground.m I restarted the car several times, nothing cleared the error or improved the shifting.
The dealer came and took it away on a flatbed(and left a loaner) and the next day could not get the car to misbehave. they did have the error codes so they ran an update on the software and are delivering the car now.

I guess the question is, does the TSB solve the problem, and if they could not get the car to replicate, how long before it starts again?
I told the service manager that if this happens away from home and my wife is stranded that we'll have a serious problem. Is this the beginning of the end for this vehicle (in my wife's eyes it is, of course) or have others found relief from this tsb?

hx_guy

Unfortunately in my experience and many others, a software update won't do a thing. It'll work ok for a bit but then start doing it again. Worst part is that it's hard to duplicate, seems fairly random.

Live Oak

Here is my SPECULATION:

I've had hard shift problems continuously with my 2011 E550 when, at ~20mph, going up a moderate hill and lifting my foot OFF the gas (say, in anticipation of a curve or driveway), I get a super hard shift WHAM!! --- can't tell if it's up or down shift.

Complain to the dealer MANY times: they say they can't duplicate, but INVARIABLY write "customer complains of had shift on downshift" or words to that effect. Apparently MB techs/SAs are taught to carefully NOT listen to the customer.

After these dealer incidents, the car behaves for up to a few weeks. Then starts doing it again.

I'm CONVINCED the techs reset the tranny software, and it's the so-called "LEARNING" the car is supposed to be doing that causes the problem.

I got a blank look when I asked if I could have "learning" turned off.

hx_guy

Our old 2012 E350 Bluetec did a thing where the transmission felt like it was slipping when it was changing gear, but it was also rough/hard when it did engage again and sort of slammed into gear. I recorded it once to show the dealer and they said it was normal...right.

thefisch

Are you talking about how, after the first gear shift in the video, the rpm shoots up from 2500 to 3000 (the slip before the higher gear kicks in) and then down below 2000 again (the higher gear kicks in)? I can see a little of that with the first gear shift but it's not as pronounced as the second gear shift.

hx_guy

Yeah, it does it a little at the 4 second mark but you really notice it at the 9 second mark.

thefisch

no way is that normal unless you are pushing in the imaginary clutch and then dropping it. How harsh did/does it feel when that happens?

hx_guy

It was strange, sometimes it wasn't bad, kind of soft and other times it was a pretty hard "thunk", especially if driving uphill. The weird thing is that it happened mostly after the car had been off for a while, but both with the engine cold (say after a night parked) and warm (like if you were parked for a couple of hours).

I don't believe for a second it was normal...they even tried to say it was part of how the diesel engine/transmission worked and that the RPMs raised like that to warm the engine. Interesting how our replacement CPO E350 Bluetec does not exhibit the same "warm up".