I have 6speed manual transmission on my SLK.. and I just test drove the BMW Z3 3.0. And I noticed that Z3 manual transmission was a lot softer than SLK's. Is SLK's transmission usually noisy and not soft(hard to shift the gear)?
Sometime when I drive my car with my friends they say that there is something wrong about my transmission, like clutch need to be readjusted or the tranny is lose.... Whatever that means..
I took my car to dealer several times. But they said everything is fine. And I don't trust them since they don't even know how to program the alarm.
Sometimes I can't shift the gear to 1st or 2nd, because it seems like something is blocking the gear.. So I have to skip the gear or force it in. And when I have the gear in 2nd for a while like going 15 mph for 1 minute, and press the clutch then it make weird noise like I am pulling the gear out without pressing the clutch.
Also when I turn off the engine, it make sort of loud vibrations underneath the driver's side... I wonder if this has anything to do with transmission problem..
Can anyone comment on this?
Thanks..

 

Nope, not normal, get the dealer to address the problems. It sounds like it could be bad synchro rings and maybe a few other glitches.

Our non-Evolution C 230 K 6-speed shifts nicely.

 

Maybe your friends were referring to the clutch action. I passed on the 6 speed just because of that feeling. I came from an M3 and got a C -- the clutch on the MB is 10% of the travel of a BMW clutch with about 2% of the resistance/feeling... it was very odd! I didn't like it so I passed on it and got the slush box.

P

 

What you describe does not sound right. The Mercedes gear shifting is normally not as soft as the BMW's or others, but it never makes noises like you describe. What could be a possibility is that the adjustments for the shift lever and the connections to the gear box (via levers or steel cabels) are not set perfect or are loose and then the shifting is not precise and causes the noises, the same accurs if the tranny is loose or not tightly fit to the frame. (could happen if the front part of the muffler has been replaced, since the tranny and some muffler parts may share brackets)
Since the car seems pretty new I do not suggest broken or bad synchro rings.

 

Sounds like a throw-out bearing or clutch slave cylinder problem.