R KLASSE

Ok, My wife said the trans in our '08 R 350 w/ 34K miles new is bucking and feels like it's going to fall out of the car (According to her) again when she starts or pulls up to a slight hill. It also does this when maneuvering at low speed in and around parking lots and driveways. It's always between the 1-2 shift or vise versa when slowing down to a light or stop sign.

I'm really starting to get unsettle when thinking about the hard earned money I spent to get this great car for my wife. I like everything about it but the bucking Rodeo transmission. I've had it in the dealer once already for this problem, but they said it didn't do it while they had it in their possession.

They took my word for it though and said they "Flashed" & "Updated" the ECM with the latest program or something like that. The trans didn't buck or kick between 1-2 shifts for about two weeks and then has been back or getting worse since. At this point I really want a new transmission but don't know how to get this from the dealer. My car is still under the CPO warranty, and I definitely have problem but can't promise it will do it when I take it in and show them again.

chilledbenz

Try some trial and error on your part. Put the transmission in the C setting which will omit 1st gear all together. If the problem still exists then there may be a bigger problem lurking. Let them try reprogramming the transmission again and if it still doesn't fix it, or they say there's nothing wrong, you can always contact Mercedes themselves. They will send out a local service rep to talk with you and look at the problem and see where things go from there.

1-800-FOR-MERCEDES
(1-800-367-6372)

R KLASSE

Thanks for the info, to answer your question the problem is still there whether your in C or S.

chilledbenz

Sounds like it needs reprogrammed again then. Hopefully it won't result in having to replace the whole trans, but if it does, be thankful it did it now while it was still under warranty.

R KLASSE

Update: Thank god I have the CPO warranty and a great contact at my MB dealer. Apparently my R is going to need a new (Valve Body) for the transmission and on top of that my tech found my slight rough idle I had checked out at a previous service check that was never fixed completely. A bad valve, I can't remember the exact description they gave me but my R350 is getting a whole new cylinder head. I bought this car back in December '09 with 25K miles on it, it has 35K on it now and needs a new head and valve body. I don't want to think what this would have cost me out of pocket.

Anyway the service dept gave my wife a 2010 GLK350 to drive around for the time being.

AirtekHVAC

I had a similar care with our '06. We only had it a couple of months, and it suddenly started bucking between 1-2 upshift. Wife drove it a few days, and the problem went away. Car has 52k on it, and I could find no records showing where the tranny had been serviced, so I took it to a friends garage, and he replaced the filter and fluid, gasket and bolts....we just drove it from NC to FL, no problems so far.....on the way home tomorrow, we'll see....

R KLASSE

Update: Just got my R350 back from the dealer. They replaced the Valve Body in the transmission and it is smooth as butter now, feels like a new car. Also my car needed a new cylinder head as well due to a rough idle, that too is now fixed and the car purrrrrrrs like a Mercedes should. The dealer also looked into another concern I had with an intermittant power hatch that would get stuck or jammed. They replaced a wiring harness and so far so good.

AsianR350

It is good to hear that your R350 got fixed.

Mksgroup

I had the same problem with my 06 R350 a few months ago. The dealership updated the transmission software to stop the "hard shift" at a stop. It was not under warranty, I think it was about $250-$300. Hope this helps

bzliteyear

AFTER 4 trips to 2 different dealers over the past 18 months, the MB dealer FINALLY agreed that something's wrong and agreed to change the Valve Body for the transmission. On prior visits, they always drove the cars and said they couldn't duplicate the issue and also that there was no error code. This time, MB dealer said they were able to pull some mapping data of the shifting and could confirm that it wasn't working right. The good news (hopefully) is that after this Valve Body and TCU reset, the R will shift smoothly...I get the car back next Monday and will update. That said, I don't understand why MB could use this same methodology earlier to assess this problem - I've been asking them about it for almost 20k miles now.

PL

jwratts

Our 08 R320CDI was shifting rough between 1st and 2nd and they flashed in a fix for it. it has been smooth since then (about a month or so ago). This wasn't a reflash of the existing softwarebut a fix for the problem.

bzliteyear

Just got the valve body/tranny job done.
Apparently, they checked the "adaptation" and could see that it was "off" - whatever that means.
Bottom line, it drives very smoothly (for now)...even if it took me over a year to convince them something was wrong.
Importantly, this would have been $2,400 according to my SA, if I did not have extended warranty.
Patrick

will64278

did the update work?

R KLASSE

I don't know about the other guys R, but my jerky transmission actually came back after the adaptation resets and new valve body. I traded my R back in February though, just could not deal with all the issues and my CPO warranty would have been up in a few thousand miles after the repair work luck to all of you dealing with this transmission.

bzliteyear

Bummer to hear about you giving up your R due to this issue. Of ALL the people who own R's, it appears that it's still quite rare. For me, this started to be quite noticeable when we were visiting our in-laws in a hilly place w/ lots of stop signs. Every time we were on a decline and SLOWING to a stop, around the 5 mph mark, the transmission dnshifted from 2-1. This happened in both C and S transmission setting. It got so bad earlier this year(and I was so frustrated) that I sometimes "rolled" thru the stop just to avoid the dnshift. To make things worse, after the downshift, now the R is in first gear and now there's TOO MUCH wasted power as I'm used to taking off in 2nd gear...so it jerks a bit on the acceleration from the stop.

Fast forward now 6 months (and only about 2k miles), the 2-1 downshift is back despite the $2,400 new valve body and transmission ECU programming(thank goodness for CPO). It's not quite as bad as before, but then it always starts this way. I'm going to drive it a bit more as sometimes it's wasted time to go to MB dealer too early until the problem is more obviously.

P.S. I think I can sell my R for close to what we paid in Nov. 2008, but we really do LOVE the car, esp as ours is a loaded $69k MSRP car. IF we do swap it out, the question is whether we try the GL(which is much more common in our area, but certainly not as roomy/practical inside), or just shift over to the ultimate comfort box (ie. Odyssey yikes - but not good for skiing).

PL

listerone

I've had the same kind of experience (in the parking lot,at least).Took it to the dealer and was told everything was normal.When I expressed disbelief the service manager volunteered to take a spin with me,which we did.During this drive I was only capable of recreating the event mildly....kinda figures,the repairman arrives and everything seems fine.

However,the service manager said that the amount of bucking we *did* experience was to be expected and he said that a possible solution was for me to use the "sport" transmission setting.He said that doing so will allow the computer to "learn" how to handle first gear which,it seems,doesn't engage when in the "economy" setting.

BTW...my Bluetec has fewer than 4K miles at the moment.