Things are beginning to open up here. Restaurants are allowed to open for inside-dining today by meeting some pretty strict guidelines. Barber shops, salons, tattoo parlors (?!), etc., as well. Auto parts stores, dealerships, home-improvement stores, etc., never closed, just added "distancing requirements", plastic shields at the registers, etc.

 

Update:

Solved.

I ended up buying a professional ECU/TCU tuner and tuned my TCU to disable lockup for all gears via software. No hardware modifications whatsoever.

Car drives amazing. Transmission has never been so smooth ever before. Power delivery is amazing. Drives better than how it did when it rolled out from the factory.

Thank you to everyone for your help and support. It's been a long journey and I'm glad it's finally over.

 

awesome !
id like to try disabling lockup what kind of tuner did you buy ? Did you do it yourself or have someone do it ? Is it a separate tuning box you can loan out for others to tune their cars or is it always connected to your car ?

 

I bought a ktag, which is used to tune both ecu and tcus. You have to remove the ecu/tcu from the car and open it up to expose the motherboard. Then you connect wires to it through the ktag and to a laptop that has the ktag read/write software.

I did all the tuning myself which was quite the learning curve but it was necessary if I wanted to finally fix this problem because I know nobody else would do it. Not even the top tuners on these platforms like raceiq wanted to touch something like this.

In addition to having no lockup I also now have the M mode that is reserved for amg cars when I press the c/s button. It works as a true manual mode and shifts the gear on command.

If your lockup is working fine I suggest not to tamper with it, even though the car drives substantially better without it. There's a lot of learning to be done with ecu/tcu tuning if you want to do it properly and not brick your car. In my case I really needed to go through that learning curve if I ever wanted this issue to be fixed.

 

gotcha. Yeah I wouldn’t want to open it up . If it was plug and play I might try

 

Wouldn't you want to have the converter lock up in 5th gear at least? That way you get max efficiency on the highway for long trips and such? Looking back now... seems almost like a Duh! moment but maybe your lockup solenoid needs some TLC, or maybe the whole valve body does. A transmission service could probably also help. Anyways, glad you got it sorted out and did not give up. Kudos to you for biting the bullet on the Ktag... I'm thinking of getting one myself.

 

Yes I did actually keep lockup active for 5th gear in my first tune file for the exact reasons you mentioned! But it was still doing the horrible on/off/on/off cycling of the tcc on the highway and it was unbearable, so I ended up just turning it off for every gear. I don't mind the 1-2mpg loss in trade for a significantly better driving experience.

I'm still not sure exactly what was wrong with the tcc system after all of this - it was too complex for me to go about troubleshooting it and it was not worth the money/effort tbh. I did end up buying my own SDS system and using that to troubleshoot it wasn't much of a help. So I just went this route and never looked back.

I recommend giving the ktag a shot if you are interested in tuning, it could definitely be a fun hobby when done right!

 

I recently got DAS/Xentry and it has been amazing! It has been like a gateway drug and now I want more. I eventually want to get Arbrites also so I can mess with making keys and cloning EIS's. I want to be self-sufficient and not have to rely on the dealer for other than parts.
I also have an S600 and it also used to do this funny thing in first when the TCC would engage right before the 1-2 shift but I used DAS to reset the values and re-train the TCC pressures AND I also reset adaptations and that seemed to help a bunch. I don't know if you watch youtube but there's this guy named Alex, his channel is "legit street cars" and he used to be an MB master tech. He did a few episodes with an E320 CDI which has the same transmission our cars have and in one of the videos he ordered and installed a upgrade kit to the valve body to improve shifting. In that video he goes through the whole process and explains a lot. Makes me want to try doing that to my car since they are Torque Monsters like the diesels are. He ends up not liking the upgrade and ops for swapping out the valve body later for a completely different one that ends up working better for him. Anyways, I know I said a lot of nothing but I'm just glad that you figured out your issue and excited to explore my car more and more as time permits. Later!

 

Glad to hear this is sorted out now!

 

MBZ's unacceptable 'can't make up its mind' behavior of the Torque Converter Lockup' function is almost laughable. GM solved this 'problem' over a decade ago. All that is required is proper software code. The torque converter lockup is supposed to engage only when the torque is very small and steady for several seconds and 'lock-up' is to slowly engage. The 'wrong' transmission fluid (having wrong friction characteristics) and/or wrong clutch lining compound) exacerbate to problem. OFTEN the harsh 'lock-up' can be resolved by adding LUBEGARD RED to the fluid. LUBEGARD RED is made to simulate the 'stick-slip' characteristics of 'sperm-whale oil.' which gives much smoother 'lock-up.' It has a higher coefficient of friction during 'slip' and lower friction when very low/no slip. This gives a very smooth 'lock-up and release' behaviors.

The software controlling the torque converter clutch needs a much longer 'wait' period before engaging AND the friction characteristics of that clutch (linings and fluid) need to be changed to give smooth lock-up and 'un-lock' behavior. Apparently, once again, MBZ engineers were 'too proud' to admit others had better solutions, and would not license use of the GM patents. GM's 'hydro-matic' folks have long been 'the experts' in the world in this area, long ago perfecting automatic transmissions. GM engineers and builds perfected hydraulic clutches for all torque ranges--from low (like the TCC in automobiles) to very high (such as earth movers and heavy trucks and even high-horsepower tractors). That the 'friction characteristics' remain constant over the entire life of the clutches, and that their life is very long are testaments to their skill at designing the clutch linings and fluid. DEXRON fluids are far superior to all others for this service.