OK, got my car back from 3 weeks of warranty work.
99 C43, 42K miles. The main complaints that I had were down on power; whiney 2nd gear, clunky shifts, not shifting in time and hitting the rev limiter; and various noises coming from the rear end (amongst other smaller problems).

The main reason I am writing is to get your guys input about things that are still wrong, because I am taking it back in on Monday. The transmission still slams up against the rev limiter before shifting, but unfortunately, only intermittently. So this gives the guys free reign to beat on my car. Oh well, gotta get it fixed somehow. The tech said that he will order a new ecu for the transmission and see if it fixes that problem.

But now there is a new problem. When on the power, at higher rpm’s, say above 4K, there is a high pitched whine coming from the transmission. He is not really sure what that is coming from. He said that he replaced most of the parts in the trans, and the housing and shaft were about the only things left that are original. This is really why I am writing, anybody have any clues about this??

It used to have a clunky 3-2 shift, that seems to be better, but the 1-2 shift now seems clunky.

The rest of this will talk about what was done; maybe it can help someone out, or at least add to the knowledge database out there.

Transmission:
The bearings in the freewheel unit were literally falling out – replaced that.
Replaced the front pump and valve bodies while he was there. (Valve bodies have been linked to transmission failure on another mbworld thread). Also adjusted clutch packs. The 2nd gear whine still is the same. He drove another tech’s C43 and said it sounded about the same. (Luckily a tech there has one for comparison.)

Engine Down on power, not running right – Bad MAS, running too rich. Man, I knew it was down, but I couldn’t believe the diff it makes. ½ throttle now is about where full throttle was.

Whirring noise in engine - Someone else had a thread once that said his engine sounded like a weed-whacker. I don’t remember the outcome of that one, but mine had a whirring sound that just wasn’t right. Turned out that the cams were scored. He says he has seen this before. Due to aggressive programming? I don’t remember. But it sounds somewhat better now.

It seemed like the door drain plugs were…plugged. There was water pooling up in the door wells when it rained. He found that there were pine needles plugging the drains coming from the sunroof. Which is kinda weird because I (thought that) I always close mine.

When I would back up, there would be a “boink” noise under load, he replaced the sway bar links and it doesn’t do it now.

The rear seat would not fold down. There are 2 screws that are under the rear deck (inside) that were loose, tightened up.

Bad driver’s side seat switch, replaced.

The fake-*** faux CF B-pillars were fading, (have seen this a lot), replaced.

Replaced pass. side windshield washer, was leaking.

Oh yeah, he found 2 leaks that I hadn’t seen, in the rear diff and in the oil pan, replaced the seals.

OK, that is enough for now, I think… Sorry for the cross posts, but I wanted to reach as many people as possible with my questions.
Thanks for any input.

 

Hey Greg, that's a big list. What did they do to fix the full throttle (after downshift) first to second gear upshift failure?

Thanks,
Greg

EDIT: Nevermind - I see they didn't fix it. Trans ECU, 2000 valve body and engine ECU still haven't fixed mine. AMG and MB said "tough ****" and aren't going to work on it anymore.

 

Well I'm gonna add to the list. When I took my C43 in for warranty work, got it back after 14 days. Here is what I asked.

-There was an oil leak occuring somewhere which caused the oil to drip on the manifold and burn up and smell. Changed some seals and rings. (still occurs) Infact the techs noticed oil leaks last week when took car in for free 20 piont inspection

-AC/ heater lights turn on a second after all other lights. Bad contacts? (Still occurs)

-Rear deck ratteled alot with normal music levels. Charged $125 to securely fasten the cell phone units. (still rattles)

-Front headrest adjustments where broken (Replaced only drivers, passangers still broken)

-ASR/ESP light comes on WAY TOO MUCH. even when driving over a man hole and cause rear of car to shake making the rear feel loose (Still occurs)

-And told them about the transmission delays in shifting, the hard shifting and other points we have all talked about (still occurs)

Every where that i listed still occurs they simply stated that they were not able to recreate the problem. My starmark ends in July so I'm taking her in this weekend with these new problems:

-Windshield wipers sprays dont work anymore.

-Front doors dont close well, must slam real hard as compared to the rear doors

-the outside right door handle coming apart

-the inside left door handle coming aprat

-the front passanger door wood area coming off.

-sunroof sometimes wont close and returns to open position.

Yes i know long list. wish me luck

 

Good luck. If you want to know how to recreate the transmission upshift problem, PM me for details. I can do it 4 out of 5 tries.

 

Thanks for the response! With mine, I was talking about strictly an upshift, but I guess it probably has done it during kickdown, too. Good point.
Hmmm, that not good... The trans ECU was the next thing he is going to try.

Hey, were you the one that listed the steps the dealer had done to supposedly fix this prob? I guess it's a moot point now if it didn't fix it afterall...

Sorry to see that yours has had trouble too
Ya! Very interested. I think that it has something to do with the trans changing states between mellow driving and flooring it? I drove very mellow for like 2 days, then punched it with the tech in the car, and of course it didn't do it...
The tech did hear the (new) trans whine though..

 

Hey Slvr, man, your list is longer than mine!
Maybe I can respond to a couple of those...
- The lights - mine does that too, never really noticed it. hate to say it, but maybe that is "normal"?
- Charged $125 to securely fasten the cell phone units.
They charge you for stuff with the Starmark warranty? That sucks...
- ESP on too much -
If it had an adjustment, I would say the sensitivity is too high..but I don't think it does. How bad are your tires? I know when my rears were way down (waaaaay down), the light was coming on all the time. I bet they probably said something like "you drive too aggressively" or "put it in W mode". I know that if the ESP catches during a slide during a turn, the clamp down can be most disconcerting, almost harder to control than just letting it be...
- Delay in trans shifting -
Is this similar to what I have described?
- Front doors dont close well -
For me it is the rears! They have adjusted them but not much diff...
- sunroof sometimes wont close and returns to open position. Maybe something blocking its way?

>My starmark ends in July
HA! At least you aren't waiting till the last minute like I did... Hey, I was busy

That reminds me... I guess it is too late to get the extended warranty after I am out of the original? Mine ended 2/10, while the car was still in.

Good luck, and let us know how it turns out.

 

The whirring weed wacker sound is an unfortunate byproduct of cheap parts, most all MB's with the modular V8's 4.3's and 5.0's have this sound...its due to the cams and not from scoring but a poor finish of the lobes. Apparently MB can order the same cams of a better quality...this was told to me by a shop foreman and MB will never admit to this, and it will cure the problem. I've had this noise on my 99 00 01 03 and now 04 CLKs. I've just lerned to live with it.

 

well the $125 charge was becuz the cellphone unit was about to fall off. Thats cuz I tried pulling it out. So there was some labor and 5 zip ties used...end result $125!

Tires are still good.

snrf nothing was blocking it, but it hasnt occured every again.

Transmisson: goes into neutral on hard and fast acceleration, and while driving if I want to do hard acceleration, the rpm will rise to red line, you can hear the engine wind up but the cars not going any where, then BAM you are like sling shotted into space. Almost like the engine is in neutral and not transfering the power to the wheels.

 

Ewww, that doesn't sound good. IT does sound like what others have experienced before the trans going out... Get it fixed while it's still in warranty!!

So here is the rest of this story...I brought the car back in Monday. The service writer I had been dealing with was out sick this whole week. I knew it was a bad sign, when this other writer said "So....is this car Starmarked? It's out of warranty..." I contained my rage well enough to tell him the story.

So today, I go down to Park to pick up the car, they found nothing wrong...

Elliott, (the tech) bless his heart, stayed over and worked on my car after hours, because the service writer apparently said, it's out of warranty, we aren't going to do anything. Elliott said that he took the trans apart (again...) and didn't see any funny wear that would cause a noise. All I know is that it wasn't making that high pitched whining noise before, and now it is.

In re: the over-rev problem where it hits the limiter, he drove another tech's C43 and said that one did it too. Well, just cuz another one does it doesn't mean it's right... It looks like the tech certainly went out of his way to try to make things right, despite MB being the typical A - holes that they are...

So that is where it stands today, out of warranty, and now I feel like I have to baby it so it won't bust. Or I could just say screw it and drive it normally, if it busts, it busts... Or do like I did with my 993, it's out of warranty, get rid of it quick! At least the 993 still had some value to it when I sold it...