My wife has recently been complaining more and more about rough shifting on our W222. The harsh shifting happens on inclines and when coming to a stop and at low speeds (stop and go traffic). She only drives at C mode. The trans service was done 24k miles ago about a year and half ago.

I don't notice it much when I drive it besides on certain inclines and certain stop and go. For me it does not happen all the time. My wife said it gets worse on some days and often it will go away for a bit.

There seems to be a bunch of information about a handful software updates, custom software updates where the diagnostic computer is used while driving/shifting. I was also thinking of doing another transmission service.

Let me know your all thoughts?

 

Could be anything from Adaptation to Trans plate to Updates in order to fix
Xentry would clearly show what is wrong

If you want to maintain or at least check before bring it anywhere for a fix so you don't get ripped off
feel free to visit our website and request info

We do updates too

 

@simandang , this is a very very common and known issue with pre-facelift W222 with the 7G-Tronic transmission (basically all pre-facelift years except MY2017). I would not recommend randomly doing a transmission service (oil change), random updates. 9 out of 10 what you are experiencing is just the same that majority of W222 pre-facelift owners concluded you need transmission shifting manual adaptation, also known as "Forced Adaptation" or "shift normalization" in technicians slang language at most dealers. Along the way you the shop Forman will check for any applicable upgrades/updates. You would go to your dealer and ask for "Force Adaptation". A tech would drive your car, 2nd tech in passenger seat with a PC/Xentry/equipment connected live to the car and would perform the Force Adaptation while vehicle is being driven (cold, medium and high temperature values). Should cost you 1 to 2 hours of labor time (I got a call back after 5 hours only from dropping it off). Update: This is also coming from one of the most reputable resources in this forum, @konigstiger: {“..speak with shop foreman, who will should normally check for upgrades, and request "forced adaptation"..”}

I have already posted about this in a very popular and well known thread (link below) nearly 4 years ago, in 2019!. Several forum members here tried it, printed my service record in that thread, went back to the dealer and got the problem fixed. I can save you the time instead of reading all the 7 pages and 166 comments --> read post #1, post #64, post #105, post #108 and #129.
https://mbworld.org/forums/s-class-w222/760220-finally-fixed-common-transmission-rough-up-down-shifting-w222.html

I know folks have replaced transmissions, flushed transmission, replaced transmission internal transmission components, updates... all without improving this condition. 9 out of 10, it is not a mechanical issue but rather a torque calculations between the ECM and the transmission. The statement is known by Cory Sarver, Sergio, Germany that have fought through this technical issue including back and forth finger pointing between German transmission vs engine engineers. Forum member MichaelinATL can tell you more about that (he also followed the same process and reported success). Even Force Adaptation may not fix this problem, but most those who tried Force Adaptation ended up with great results including myself. A few members and myself here used to form a group exchanging test messages all together, helping each other, and most of us were successful in getting what we needed done by our dealers. I still get thanks notes from time to time in private messages on the forum here for that post.

Back in 2020, there were some discussions about a solution that MBenz is developing but it requires repeating their emissions certification application process. Ask your dealer if this has been done (but again, Force Adaptation will hopefully fix this issue anyway).

Also, printer this paper and present it to them. Good luck : ) --> Software update alone is not enough, as indicated above, ask for the Force Adaptation as well.

 

We said, update and adaptation
Thank you for repeating but there is no such thing as "force adaptation" that does not exist, it never existed.
Feel free to sign up to the club to get some lessons. that's is what the club is about. ask for "Force lessons"

but replacing the trans plate remains commun

 

so you are saying Force adaptation doesn’t exist? Well here you go. Lesson is finished.
Second, This is all coming from one of the most reputable resources in this forum, @Konigstiger, serving this great community for free since 2003:
Konigstiger: {“..speak with shop foreman, who will should normally check for upgrades, and request "forced adaptation"..”}
Third here is a part of an email that a service advisor in a Mercedes dealer forwarded to one of our members here in this forum: "The low value of 11.5 is actually good comparatively speaking regarding other like models. If this client insists that we do a forced adaptation the results are typically that the 11.5 value will trend to 15.0 to 17.0."

Last, and as a courtesy and since you highlighted a part of my response “as indicated above”, I want to clarify: The sentence "as indicated above" is meant to be a leading sentence to the subsequent sentence "ask for the Force Adaptation as well." The sentence "Software update alone is not enough" was only the first part of a 3-part english sentence, and the sentence "as indicated above" is a leading sentence referring to the following 3rd part, which is my own sentence also above "ask for the Force Adaptation as well.". Hence, the "as indicated above" does not refer to your comment. It's still up to you, however, to understand which part of the sentence the phrase "as indicated above" is referring to, it won't matter for me. I didn't even bother to read your response, so there was no need for you to jump in and accuse me of referring to yours.

 

I had the hard shift issue on my 2015 S550 and it didn't get to the point you are describing. It did give quite the downshift occasionally. I've since sold it so can't give direct experience in fixing it, yet I would take info from post #3 and #5 to your dealer or independent shop. I think it's important to maintain a relationship with local shops as they can step in quickly to help when needed. I have a really good independent shop fairly close and they've helped me on short notice.

 

I suggest to stop bickering here.

If the term forced adaptation is a term used in the service department or in documentation referring to a task, then it is valid.

Nobody should care if this an Xentry term or not…

 

Agreed 100%. I have used the term exactly as cited when I spoke to my SA, as cited in my first original post leading and citing Kingester's post by the number, and a few members reported that they passed the term "Force Adaptation" to the dealer and it was well-received and understood by the SA. Whether it is Xentry or not, nobody should care, it is well understood by service departments. It is also formally included and written in the service manual and bulletin created by other 3rd party companies selling/upgrading Mbenz transmission components such as Weistec. The screenshots post #2 and screenshot in post #5 should also take care of informing the SA in case he's never heard of the term. A well informed shop forman is all what matters in the end I guess.

 

I am still waiting for someone on here to post how many labor hours are required to perform a 'forced adaptation'. Among other things, this thread suggests it's a two-person job.

There's definitely a limit to how much I and others will pay to improve their transmission behavior ...

 

I have the service records from a successful service I got indicating the time. This may vary from one dealer to another, so don't take that as a 100% accurate number: but 2-hours was reported on my receipt. I dropped by car and got a call back after 5-hours according to my original thread (of course I don't remember today). My papers shows 2-hours, but I did not pay for them as the dealer waived them on goodwill basis that the issue also existed well before my warranty expired. Reason is that I reported the issue before warranty expired, they did not have a fix, once I got a copy of the bulletin shared in the original thread (see link in my post #3), or see post #3 and #5 here, I took them to the dealer and got the service done and issue completely fixed.

 

No and with all due respect, Auto-adapt or simple "reset" might not work, most of the times, based on previous reports on this forums. I would still try it though (a DIY link below on how this can be performed), it won't hurt. This is basically transmission "learning" reset. See how many folks reported (no-good) results after the quick shift "learning" reset. in the original thread I posted in post #3..

What is likely needed is the forced "manual" adaptation. Reset might work, but for most folks it worked for a few days or a few 100s of miles, and transmission will again start doing hard downshifting later at some point. This was already reported by many others as well as me in the original thread. A few of us reported success when we first got the car after a quick reset, and came back with same issues later.

• From my post on Old 10-24-2019, 06:30 PM, post #7 below: No, it's not a transmission reset. We tried that last week and didn't work. link: https://mbworld.org/forums/s-class-w...ting-w222.html
• Another forum report around that time: "I hope they didnt just do a transmission reset and that problem will recur shortly." It was a well-known issue we all tried at that time. Reset did not work for most of us for more than a days or 100s of miles. Once the transmission re-learned the same previous values, issue comes back. Another comment: "A ((""MANUAL") shifting normalization. The trick according to him was not to allow the software to just automatically chose the new shift points, but to "MANUALLY" adjust them while driving the car around and adjust them for values that the software has chosen based on his judgement on where they need to be to make shifting smoother for my case.".

The ultimate fix was the Forced Adaptation, by connecting a computer, two technicians in the vehicle, one driving and one with a PC (or one who is a risk taker), then the shift points of the transmission were adjusted manually on the go and while it's being driven (the technician I spoke to also called it a -transmission shift normalization-, and it is also written as such on my receipt which I shared in 2019). I reported at that time the after my 1st visit, the quick transmission "reset" failed to address the issue permanently. In my 2nd visit, with the new service bulletin instructions and the "Forced Adaptation", problem was fixed forever (at least for more than a year until I sold the car). This forced adaption procedure while car is driven also matches some notes I found at that time by WeistecEngineering service instructions : "For the best shift quality and performance of a transmission ..//..The Mercedes Xentry Diagnostic Tool can force shift adapting while driving the vehicle on the road."

Note: I think it is not a bad idea to at least try the quick transmission reset yourself, nothing to lose. I don not know if these steps will work on a W222 and am not claiming they will, but this article says it will, and it can be useful so u can do it yourself if you chose to. If the quick reset does not work, you will need the force adaptation for sure.
DIY Reset Transmission Adaptive Shifting – How to Programming Instructions DIY: https://www.mercedesmedic.com/reset-...-instructions/

 

"This is why also workshops are BenzNinja Members"
No kidding, I would know we have such "member" I'm starting to debate if I should get rid of my Mercedes dealer and use you.... man....you are really modest !

 

Hi @Wolfman shouldn’t this thread be cleaned up like the last one… favorite upgrades where “Sponsors can promote their services in their respective threads.”