downshifting not smooth, transmission
 

I was wondering if you other picky ML drivers would offer some opinions and observations about your daily drives. I've been noticing lately that my ML500 with 3300 miles has been jerky. Not rude but not smooth. When slowing to a stop I notice a signifcicant jerk as the car downshifts. I've never had a car do this unless I am shifting and was even more surprised when MB told me that this is a normal 2-1 downshift. It's also embarassing because everyone else in the car notices this. Furthermore, my experiences have found that performing a rolling stop is even less enjoyable. The car doesn't seem to know what gear to be in and will suddenly jerk into gear as if I was being too eager on the gas. This is actually after the rolling stop part and more like exiting a rolling stop. I can't seem to ease it back on the road in these situations. Please. Any feedback would be great.

Alot of people seem to have come across this. It is for this reason I have not yet submitted my order. I will be watching this thread with interest.
Time to look at a BMW X3??? :nix:

Sorry to intrude in your ML forum (I own a CLK350), but I experience the same when using the Sport setting on my transmission. Moving it to Comfort makes the transmission behave as a typical car. Have you tried it? I now use Comfort for everyday driving (bumper-to-bumper) and reserve the Sport for highway or weekend drive and only when I am alone. Sport is indeed too jerky for my passengers.

That is actually a good suggestion. My wife has an '06 ML500 that was an early build and had the tranny failure. It is now displaying the rough downshifts that you are describing and I have been playing with finding conditions to duplicate it. Here are a few of the things I have noticed:

It is worst under acceleration from a rolling start, when the car seems to "think" that all is smooth sailing. The down-kick comes accross as very jerky.

I have also noticed that putting the Airmatic in sport mode may have the effect that ahm was talking about. Unlike my E, there is no separate button for transmission modes. I assume that the airmatic sport and comfort modes may also run the tranny thresholds?

Dunno, but I will get it fixed.

To all that are interested to help. Can you please help document the instances of these occurences? I am trying to come up with a sure fire way to ID the problematic cars. What exactly do you do to duplicate this for a service representative. Better yet for my lawyer.

Keep the input coming.

Felt the same as Jangy described, car thinks too much!!! Since my wife and I both drive the car, I might give it a reset to the driver adaptation thing on the TCU, hopefully it will help, if not, taking the car to MB to get it fixed.

Sport, Comfort & Auto settings for the Airmatic have absolutely no effect on the transmission. There are not different modes for it.

Mine has been virtually flawless, with the slightest hint of a jerk under some conditions coming to a stop.

Hi,

After the Valve body replacement I have had two ways to duplicate the remaining transmission problem.

1) Cold weather and cold engine&tranny: Find a steep downhill. On top of the hill have 25-30mph (so that the car shifts to at least 3rd gear). When going downhill, start gently pressing brake to slow the car. Keep the brake pressed. When the speed decreases to 17-19mph, the car downshifts to 2nd gear. Sometimes very rough.

2) Bumper to bumper traffic. When slowly driving in bumper to bumper traffic e.g. in freeway, when the car slows down the tranny sounds loos. There are "loose & heavy" cloncks, mostly when slowing down and at downshifting to 2nd. Also downshifting to first and upshifting to 3rd. No fast accelerator not braking, just letting it slow down. In my 10 mile rush hour traffic back from office (San Diego), this type of hard shift happens everyday about 10 times.

BR:Carl

tranny jerks, 2 to 1
 

This is a well known problem with the new MLs.

You need to take it in to have the Transmission valve changed and reprogrammed. They reprogrammed mine twice and on the 3rd time they finally replaced the Trans Valve. It's been about 1 week and the transmission is very smooth from 2 to 1. Let's see if stays that way.

Good luck.

Welcome to the Club
 

I have an ML500 with exactly the same sorts of problems since new. My transmission problems are catalogued elsewhere on this board, but after several return trips to the dealer I've finally arrived at an almost satisfactory level of transmission performance.

I still get a clunky downwards gear shift from 3 to 2 or 2 to 1 when slowing down. It seems worse when slowing down up a slight hill and with some slight acceleration. But it's liveable compared to the previous problems (severe downshift bumps when nearing a halt and one day when accelerating to 50 MPH the thing slipped into neutral - it repeated this for a few times and I had to drive it in manual mode).

Although the dealer denies it, I believe there might be some link between the suspension sport / comfort mode and the tranmission problem - the problems seem worse in sports mode and less severe in comfort mode. But the intermittent nature of the faults make this hard to prove / disprove. I have the air suspension package and it's an Australian build car. My dealer tells me it is totally different to the US build hence MBUSA TSBs don't apply to my car.

FYI - I've also had the COMAND replaced due to faults with that and steering bearings have been replaced due to excessive steering noise and vibration. I get flat spots when accelerating and I've had the "Visit Workshop" message come up a couple of times for which the dealer cannot find any fault.

Although my dealer seems to be trying hard - I'm a very unsatisfied customer. Maybe I've just got a Friday car - but by looking around these forums MB seems to build a lot of Friday MLs.

mtrandpm,

You mention "transmission valve" to be replaced. Do you mean the Transmission Valve Body?

If yes, that's replaced & reprogrammed a long time ago, but the problem did not go fully away.

If not, I have not heard before that anyone got any other transmission valves replaced. Could you elaborate a bit more?

My MB dealer is talking about a forthcoming tranny SW update that could solve the problems ( I doubt). Unfortunately the SW has been coming "next couple of weeks" for the past 3 months.

For me it seems odd, still obviously there are lot of 7-tronic trannies in 2006 MLs out there that work fine. So either they could update my car with the software the others have or if my transmission is some older submodel than the working ones, then replace the tranny. The later may be a cost issue, but I also think that not replacing the trannies cost them even more (by losing customers)

BR: Carl

I am still experiencing the rough shifting transmission described in this thread, despite four attempts by the dealer to repair, including changing the valve body and performing several shift adaptations. There has been no noticable improvement. If this is the best MB can do, they will definitely lose my business. I plan to look at the new BMW X5 for my next purchase, but definitely not an MB. Has anyone actually had a rough shifting transmission fixed so it now is smooth?

Ml350 (July 05 Delivery). The valve body was replaced and the so called software update was applied approximately 6 months after delivery. The rough downshifting was a defininte problem and was significantly improved. After another 6,000 miles it seems to be creeping back a little but I am giving it some more time before taking it back to the dealer. As you are having no success I would set up a meeting with the service mgr.(not the service advisor), MB tech rep and the gen. mgr of the dealership. No car should have this as an ongoing problem. MB is aware of the problem as they have issued a TSB. Based on reports in various forums it does seem to be more of a problem with the earlier production units.

Carl_CA,

I don't have the work order on my car now, since I am out of town. Once I look into it, I will let you know.

Been experiencing this since day 1. Got a new software update, but not the valve body update yet.. the software helped smooth it out a bit, but didn't eliminate it completely for me. Haven't had time to bring it in to the dealer. Will let you guys know if that solves my problem. I have a 2006, not sure of the build date

The reprogrammed mine twice without help, until the changed the valve body. The 1st reprogramming did not help. The 2nd reprogramming made it WORSE. So, the 3rd (I hope is a charmer) they changed the valve and reprogrammed. It's much better now, but not PERFECT... hehhe..

rough 2-1 downshifts
 

Hi, I just joined the forum to diagnose and resolve this very problem. I have a 2002 ML 320 (I haven't seen any posts referring to this year and model experiencing this issue, but I'm sure I'm not the only one). I drove my ML around in a parking lot for 20 minutes before taking it in for repair just to make sure I could duplicate the problem for the service tech. When accelerating, I get the tach to 1200 to 1300 RPM, then slowly decelerate using the brake pedal softly, and BAM! it happens every time when I get to about 800 RPM. I took the service tech with me, and duplicated it for him several times, but, alas, he couldn't duplicate it without me driving, so it wasn't fixed this time either. The stealer said there were no SW updates for it, and they diagnosed it as a possible valve body "sticking". "Stick this". Like most of you, I especially notice this problem during stop-and-go traffic situations, or when coming to an "almost complete stop" and then accelerating. I don't even have to press the pedal very hard at all to make it slam into 1st gear with a jolt. Hope this helps!!

Hi Guys

Just read through your posts and found it very interrested. Its like your dealers in the US dont know a litle problem with the 7 G tronic.722.9** automatic transmissions. There where faults in the valve body in the first cars, but now it doesnt mater how often they change the valvebody or update it its not gona cure the problem. There is a problem with a disk spring in brake 1 "B1". The disk and the spring has to be replaced. There are new partnumbers for these parts. You can tell the dealer to check the adaptation data for these gearchanges 1-2, 3-2, 2-1 and if the cycles are around +/- 20 after a few adaptations the parts have to be replaced. It only about 1 day work, included transmission remove/install and repaired. This with make your transmissons silky smooth again :)

best regards

Dexel

This thread relates only to the new W164 ML's and the problem has ben with early cars only. My 06 Sept 05 delivery has been perfect, no hint of this problem. You have an 02, W163 and that has a totally different transmission. This has not been a pre 06 model year problem. If you do have a similar problem the cause is likely to be much different as is the correction. The W163 does not have this problem, neither does the 06 and 07's any longer. In fact the problems occurring in W163 transmissions are few and far between. I owned 2 of them and both were fine.

Same Crap as your car.
 

My car does the same thing and no you are not being picky. I purchased an 08 with only 9,000 miles and have been to the dealer 6 times with the same problem. They all acknoledget the fact that it is shifting problem on 3-2, 2-1, and 1-2 but are classifying it as a condition of the vehicle. I've had MBUSA involved to no avail. This car is horrible. My Uncle drives a tractor trailer that shifts better than this. The only reason I haven't done the lemmon law is because you are not allowed to lemmon law a pre-owned car in Florida. I'm now forced to trade it in and take a bath on the car since I refuse to drive a car with a transmission such as this. With my luck it will finish blowing up the day after my warrranty is over. I'm considering a pre-owned Q7. Any other suggestions are welcomed.

Anybody reading this, stay away from the ML if you really want a luxury SUV consider everyone else except this car.

You really went back some years to find this thread!! I have had 2 W164s now and both have been flawless. The problem you say you are experiencing with a used 08 you purchased is not any longer a common issue. However I would guess that its either a bad valve body or a software issue. Both are easilly corrected. If you can't get any satisfaction out of the selling dealer go to another. Its quite easy to correct and your ML is still under warranty. What I do not understand is why you are trashing a series of wonderful very safe vehicles because the used and possibly abused one that you happen to purchase has a minor issue. Perhaps your dealer has had too much of your attitude and its his way of asking you to go away. And from the little bit of see of you here I can understand that.

I"m glad you have had success with your ML's. This is my fourth Mercedes and the only one with a problem. I have gone to three dealerships and they are all washing their hands with the problem. The car has been in the shop more time than it's been in my garage. You mistake my frustration with a bad attitude and you don't even know who I am so therefore have no right to judge me. I have been nothing more than cooperative, proffesional and pleasent with everyone at Mercedes and it has made no difference at all. If your car is running fine than this is not the thread for you. The way I understand the concerns here is for other peple to know they are not the only ones having this problem. Apparantly you are one of the lucky ones because everything I read and hear says that all 07's and early model 08's have the same problem. The reason they don't want to fix my problem is obvious, if they fix it, they will be admitting to the problem instead of writting it off as a condition of the vehicle and this will most like result in a total recall for all 07 and 08 ML's which I'm sure will hurt the company stock. So yeah 4th Mercedes and the Last one I will ever purchase because to send me away with a car that has an obvious transmission problem, that is still under factory warranty, in order to avoid the expense of repairs on my vehicle and others like me, is a pure lack of customer service by a company who sells itself as a flagship brand in the automobile industry. No one is telling you to stop your loyalty to the brand, I lost mine last week when yet another MB employee has the audacity to tell me that my transmission problem is normal.

Lore,

I feel your pain. I have a certified pre-owned '08 myself, with the same transmission occurrence. It feels like it chokes up right when you want it to go. Sometimes it revs way to high before shifting.

I have been to the dealerships and they performed the software reset to fix. The ML did work better after the reset, but only temporarily. They tell me that the ML needs to "learn" my driving habits…lol.

So I guess they tried to make a car to better tend to my needs, but…. between you and I….. my ML still needs more time to get to know me. :)

Have you tried doing this??

Link:
http://www.benzworld.org/forums/w164...ox-memory.html

How to reset the transmission instructions from that thread:

"According to one of the German forum's this is the way to reset the 7G-gearbox from MB:

1.) Turn ignition key into position 2. Do not start engine.

2.) Puch accelerator all the way down to KICKDOWN position. Keep this position for 5 seconds.

3.) With foot still holding accelerator down, turn ignition key back to position 0.

4.) Wait for approx. 2 minutes until the gearbox has reset.

The gearshifts will seem agressive to begin with. This is normal until it has learned the new changing patterns. "

pharaoh,

I believe this would be the same as a 'software reset'. I have had the reset done and it helps for like a week. The car feels solid and tight, but then the car goes back to the erratic shifting and high revving.
Need a permanent fix here.
Thanks,

Hi all,

have ml 63 amg in w164 and have same problem, after 8 years is there any fix for this? maybe anybody knows if I will replace control unit of a transfer case to last A1645406701 maybe it will helps? software updates helps only for 1-2 weeks