Has anyone been able to hack the 7-Speed gearbox on a W222 so that it behaves like the one on a W221? I dislike that after manually shifting with the paddles, after 10 seconds it reverts back to D-Auto. The W221 gearbox didn't do that. It's the reason why recently when looking for a W222 I ruled out any of the 9-Speed autos because I've already experienced them and knew that they did that. I thought if I look for a W222 with the 7-Speed, it'd behave the same as the W221 7-Speed did. That was a mistake. It's my only gripe with the car, 4 weeks after buying it - it's rare to only have one niggle with a car. If I could hack it with one of those OBD-2 things, or get some kind of ECU change, I'd be all over that. I know the OBD-2 boxes (like a Carly) generally give more hackability with BMW's than with Mercedes.

 

How would you go back to auto as the W222 does not have the M-mode?

Would be interesting to know why auto-mode bothers you if you first drive on M and then don't change gear for quite some time? Would you like to keep engine rpm for a long time at the red line or for a long time very very low?

 

The W222 doesn't have an M-mode. It has two auto modes - Sport and Economy (startup default). If you change manually with the paddle, it briefly goes into M where you can choose the gear you want to be in, but changes back to D after 10 seconds. So if you feel that you want to be in 3rd at 30mph for instant response, you find that a few seconds after selecting 3rd it'll switch back to auto and you'll be in 5th or 6th. You have no engine braking, you're several gears higher than you want to be in. For spirited driving, being several gears higher than you want to be doesn't work.

 

You see from above, I know the W222 does not have the M-mode. Anyway, I think I can see what you are after although for spirited driving I would not count on engine braking but avoiding higher gears makes sense. Would you mind answering how would you expect the car to go off from M-mode if the automatic change was disabled? Changing drive program or something else? I have not looked at the parameters available via Vediamo or DTS Monaco, the more it deviates from the default, the less likely the alternative mode exists.

 

All I'm looking for is to behave how it did on the W221. It would change up at redline (no problem with that) and it would change down when the gear was too high (e.g. coming to a stop in 3rd gear). I found that if I was driving in a 20mph limit zone, driving in (W221) 2nd gear was perfect - it stopped me going over the limit just by the engine note - not needing to look at the speedometer or use cruise control - it just sounded and felt right and taking the foot off the gas pedal if you found yourself at something like 25mph and you'd quickly get back down to 20mph. It was perfect. Same deal for 30mph zones with 3rd gear. I wouldn't do that if I was cruising at a constant speed over a long distance - I'd be fine with it using a higher gear. But if you're on narrow roads with a lot of turns and a lot of parked cars that you're moving over to get past. It's ideal to be "the right gear". You barely need to touch the brake pedal when it's right.

So I'm not looking for anything weird or unusual, just consistent with the W221.

I'm gonna go google those things you mentioned - Vediamo or DTS Monaco.

 

It looks like I'm not alone :-)

"we also offer the activation of the manual mode ("M mode"), with which manual shifting (using paddles or selector lever) is possible without constant intervention of the gearbox"

 

I didn't think about activating an additional drive program, that might be a relatively easy coding option. Maintaining the current auto mode with temporary manual mode and a new manual mode like on older models.

 

My 2015 S-600 does not do that. I have a 35 MPH 45 second downhill "hill" in my neighborhood, I can flip the paddles and until I touch the gas pedal, it stays in the lower gear.

As to getting back to auto--this happens when you push the gear select lever down (as if going from neutral or park to drive.)

On the other hand, being auto almost of the time is commensurate with being an s-class (not being a sports car).

 

Yes they stay in the manually selected gear if you don't touch the gas pedal. Next time you do that, try applying some gas just for a second and you'll see the green up-arrow appear. That's the sign it wants to change up and if you continued keeping the gas on for another second or two it would change back to D and within a couple of seconds you'd be in 6th rapidly gaining speed as you lost your engine braking.

That's one way. Another is to apply some gas and it'll auto-switch back to auto. At least on the S500/S550 it does - I can't speak to the S600. It's going to be a different gearbox so might well behave like the W221 gearboxes did.

So I shouldn't be racing it in my local GT3 series?

 

My 15 550 has a true Jeckel & Hyde personality. When switching from E easy S class driving to Sport mode and start applying aggressive pedal, all hell breaks loose and it truly becomes a beast. It does hold gears longer and in the case of using manual down shifting and up shifting, it works predictably as I would expect. It's fun to know this monster can do this but that's not why I bought an S class. I have a twin turbo BMW Z435i that I can blow off steam when needed.

 

I don't use Sport mode either - it's too aggressive. It's not a sports car, I don't want it to behave like one.

 

I didn't say I dont use Sport mode, which I do half the time if and when I'm in Lewis mode not chuffer mode. There ARE times when starting in first gear and having a little extra power and get up and go are preferable to smooth quiet non eventful motion...WHAT A CAR !

 

While I do not use the paddle shifters in any car I own (they are a gimmick unless you are corner carving), I do agree that it is silly that MB would put them in an S-Class and not have a dedicated M mode like every other model does.

My biggest frustration, however, is that the car does not remember transmission modes (C/S) once turned off. Thankfully there is a remedy for the Eco mode, but there is not one I know of for the Sport/Comfort transmission settings.

 

Setting memory can be obtained by programming via tools. It can remember your eco/sport gearbox mode, auto stop/start mode etc. I haven't found out yet where I can get such things done. They are possible for some Mercedes models. I'm not even sure if W222 is in the list of models that can have it done. This is where I found that info. If you let chrome translate it to English you can see the kinds of things companies like that can do. I'm trying to find a company near to me that offer the same thing.

 

Not sure if this is mentioned yet but have you went into individual settings and set gearbox to manual then drive in individual drive program instead of comfort or sport?

 

My W222 doesn't offer individual settings / individual mode. I know what you're referring to - I was able to do that in my previous car (an S213 E-Class). Even though it didn't have a pure manual mode of it's own, you were able to configure the Individual mode so that the gearbox mode was manual. I was initially happy to find that - I thought it would give me my comfort manual mode, but instead it was a Sport+ manual mode. So not only was it aggressive with shifts, it also gave the fake engine noise into the cabin and the fake pops/cracks popular with automotive youtubers.

 

Sorry to hear that then hopefully someone else chimes in.

 

Finally got my S500 "coded" to have a manual mode (instead of Sport and Economy, I now have Sport, Economy, and Manual).
also got the memory turned on for the Automatic Stop-Start feature. It now remembers what setting I had last time I drove the car.

So anyone who wants either of these, it can be done. I doubt your Mercedes dealer will do it for you. You just need to find someone who'll do it. Mine was a guy near the Stuttgart factory.

 

Thanks so much to the OP for following up on this! I am also very interested in the manual mode activation. What year is your S500?
Would you please elaborate on who did this for you and what you know about how they did it? Did they access the TCU? Performed in person or remotely?
Anything you can offer would be appreciated. Like you, it has been on my wish-list for a while. Good for you in getting it accomplished!

 

Mine's a 2016 model year (born November 2015), it's the S500 4Matic short wheel base. I found someone advertising on ebay marketplace that they do Mercedes coding. I met up with him near Stuttgart (surprisingly close to the factory so infer from that what you will ). As for how he did it, he had a silver box about the size of a VHS cassette that plugged into the OBD port at one end and into his laptop on the other end. He was setting it up for around 10-15 minutes and then we went for a test drive to confirm it was behaving correctly (after first confirming the auto-stop-start memory was working across lock unlock sequence). I've heard people offering to do these things remotely - I guess you'd buy the device yourself and plug it in and the person would use something like TeamViewer and do it that way. I didn't want to go that route, I preferred meeting up in person and taking out the risk of something going wrong and my transmission being bricked. A braver person might do the remote method.

As for how it works, which was something I was interested in. There were many ways I imagined it might work, but this is how it does. A new mode is enabled from the S>E switch in the centre console. Normally you can toggle between Economy and Sport and a third press takes you back to economy. Now I've got a third mode which is Manual. It doesn't show up on the screen as M because the screen isn't expecting an M mode, instead it shows up as blank. No light on the S>E switch and no letter on the screen where the S>E is normally shown. It does show the M though in the place where the M normally lives during the temporary 10-second M mode you're used to having. It doesn't time out now, it stays in M as long as you like (which on the drive home for me from Stuttgart was nearly 2 hours). It doesn't shift up, despite showing the green "time to upshift" arrow. I imagine it probably shifts up at redline but I haven't tried. I imagine most people think I want this M mode for super spirited driving but no, I just prefer to be in the right gear at the right time. As for shifting down, it will do so when the revs get as low as idle. It doesn't want to let the engine stall. But if you're as low as say 1,000rpm, it's fine with letting you stay in the gear you've chosen. When you want to go back to normal non-manual you can either hit the column shifter into D or you can press the S>E switch and it'll go into a regular sport or economy mode. One thing that's slightly unusual and unclear at the moment is when you come to a stop, like at a traffic light, if you were in 2nd gear sometimes it shifts down for you to 1st and sometimes it lets you stay in 2nd. I'm not sure if it's related to how slowly you came to a stop (e.g. in limo driver fashion to be super smooth or if you did a harder braking and the car thought you're a little more aggressive and probably want 1st). I'll try things out to find out what the deal is there. While you are stopped you're free to shift up to 2nd though so you can still set off in 2nd even if it did downshift for you. I'll add a comment when I figure out what the logic for that is.

What's my main reasons for wanting a manual mode? They are numerous. When I'm in town and it's a 20mph speed limit in auto mode it's very easy to find yourself going too fast - you can't stare at your speedometer the whole time (even the head up display one), that's dangerous. I find that being in 2nd the engine note lets me know I'm going too fast and it offers that light amount of engine braking - it's just so natural. Similarly for a 30mph zone 3rd works like that too. I'll drive around the whole time switching occasionally between 2nd and 3rd and back to 2nd and I'm in the right gear for slight engine braking and remaining within the speed limit and I'm also in the right gear to have instant throttle response without a downshift. When I'm on the freeway/autobahn I use 5th gear (which remember is final drive) when the road ahead is clear and when I'm forced to slow down because I'm behind other cars I'll drop it to fourth and the light amount of engine braking means I'm not going for the brake pedal when the speed of the cars in front varies quite often. These are all things you do naturally with a manual mode but are taken away from you when you don't have one.

Saying all that, I do also often use the adaptive cruise (especially when there's a speed limit on the section of Autobahn) and in that case I'm not in manual mode.

 

I guess I'm the lucky one. I have to go down a steep grade for a mile everyday in my car. I downshift to M4 after I'm at 55 mph and the gears never change until I'm at the bottom of the hill. Same thing with my Audi S8.

 

Mine avoided switching back to D for a longer time too on a steep grade, presumably it's got sensors that detect the angle of the car. I never had one that was a whole mile long though.

 

I live at the top of a mountain and no matter which way I go (north or south), it's a mile down until the first intersection. I get to 55 mph and then place it in M4 and it holds me at 55 mph the whole way down.