Took delivery last night of '15 , ordered late Sept. Diamond White, white interior, night sytling pkg. Turned in '12 model. On way home , tried out manual mode, and went up through gears and back down. 4th down into 3rd, I was shocked to feel a strong clunk when it engaged! All other gears smooth . Tried it a few times, and both upshift to 3rd, and most noticeably downshift into 3rd, clunk. Not a happy camper. Comfort mode shifts fine, since that is a smooth, slower transition through the gears, s, s+ and manual, all reveal the issue. I don't think I have ever even heard of this happening, never mind experiencing it. Almost afraid to drive back to dealer, not wanting to do any damage to transmission. Unfortunately, the ride home was my first drive of the car, which had 13 miles on it when I took it home. Icy conditions in NH this am, so this is going to be an adventure....

 

If you have the OE tires on the car, and it's icy, and the car is not otherwise immobile, then why would you drive the car immediately back to the dealer and risk a poor outcome on the road?

Thinking big picture here.


$0.02


Without you offering more information about the throttle application during this issue, I would venture an uneducated guess and say that this might be the adaptive systems waking up and being a bit cranky. I didn't operate my car outside of "C" mode for the first 1K miles and did not boot the throttle even in the slightest during that period. Shifts were always smooth. And now, with 12K miles the shifts continue to execute quite well.

If you're doing full throttle kick downs and upshifts, then yes, there is a very noticeable difference between shifts in "C" and the other modes. I've never driven a pre-facelifted W212 E63 to know if the behavior is the same or similar.

 

The transmissons from my 12 and this 15 are not that dissimilar, at least in my experience, and of course, I am adhering to the breakin requirements. Nothing wrong (imho) with using manual, and these are not shifts over 2500 rpms. The problem here is solely with 3rd gear, and as noted , it happens in every transmission mode, and after just driving it, now even mildly felt in comfort mode. As for the road conditions, certainly caution is to be exercised. I am waiting for callback from service manager, since they tell me they have no loaners. Despite this (hopefully temporary ) setback, car looks outstanding and drives sweet. The awd is barely noticeable, which I like.

 

I would give this at least 200 miles to let the trans adapt and if still a problem, take it in

I had hard clunk into 3rd gear on two e550 transmissions and that turned out to be bad transmissions and valve bodies... But I worked patiently with Benz for 6 months going through all the motions

 

I know exactly what you're talking about. It isn't a normal downshift, it's a clunk, a kick in the back of the head almost.

Suggest you bring it to the dealer immediately. Just doublecheck the breakin procedure to ensure it doesnt say "do not downshift" or "stay in C/S" so that you arent incriminating yourself in the way you convey the issue.

 

I checked owner's manual for any setting restrictions on breakin - did not notice any. Regardless, I have owned 2012, driven 2014, and now own 2015, and I know how they shift. Right out of the box, it should be smooth, precise, and positive. This model seems to engage faster than my 2012 (a good thing for sure). However, something is radically wrong with the 3rd gear "gear" , be it clutch packs or housings or whatever. I am no expert, but this is a bad clunk. It is consistent, repeatable, and very disconcerting. I am confident it will be resolved, just unsure exactly what it will take to do that. Still awaiting callback from service. Tomorrow, I contact sales.

 

I hope they make this right the first time ... It's unacceptable based on what you describe

 

I also just picked up my E63S. Mine did the exact same thing when I tried that on the way home as well. The next day I tried it again and it didn't happen. I have about 200 miles on my car know and it hasn't happened since the first day.

 

update - after 2 days at dealer, problem resolved. Transmission adaptation software program fault. With Mercedes Technical guidance , the service mgr ran (and reran) the adaptation software several times while driving the car with copilot and diag tool . 40 miles and many readaptations later, car now shifts like it should have from factory. Amazing how a software(firmware) malfunction can manifest itself in such a purely mechanical way. According to Svc. Mgr., Mercedes reported this had happened to 2 other e63 vehicles since 2014, though their problem had been revealed through the use of s and s+, whereas mine originally showed up on manual. So based on my experience, I would recommend going through the gears in manual on any test drives, making sure car is fully warmed up. Now I can enjoy my car ! Suprising how well it goes in winter conditions, even with the pirelli p zero "hockey pucks" at all 4 corners!! I will not be driving it in falling snow however. That is why I Ihave SAABs and Silverado plow truck. Regards-

 

glad it worked out. thanks for the update!

 

So if you do the reset adaption will it readapt correctly? Each time before/after tracking I reset my tranny.

 

I am not familiar with what you are referring to. From what I gathered, the adaptation software program was driven by and loaded from their diag device, not something available to me. What exactly do you do when you reset your tranny?

 

https://mbworld.org/forums/e-class-w...ton-start.html

 

Interesting, never heard of that procedure. That sounds like a clear/reset/reload of existing program. Actually can't be anything else. The service guys did mine in moving vehicle . Continuous driving, loading, reloading, rinse and repeat, from their diag device. They told me the software I had from factory had a fault, which caused the bad behavior. Nonetheless, I am very curious how the car passed post assembly shakedown, with this painfully obvious fault. This should not have happened to me , imho. regards-

 

Glad it worked out!

The tech tried this over and over with my clunky e550 transmission and manually mapped the shift points and shift tolerances and never got it to shift without a clunk. Therefore they then ripped the transmission open and started replacing the valve body then the clutch packs ... Finally resolved it

Here's the tech notes:

Road test vehicle and found 5-4 shift more noticeable than other downshifts. Connect sds and run short test - no codes found. Check adaptations and all adaptations in spec however B2 was near the limit. No newer software found. Perform extended road test and perform shift adaptations. Adaptations for B2 moved out even further. open ptss case and was advised to remove trans and air test b2 (case #000043254) remove trans from vehicle. remove transfer case house and torque convertor housing. remove b2 and air test - air test was ok. remove every clutch pack and inspect for damage. all seal and clutches appear to be ok. ptss advised to replace b2. replace all b2 and reinstall trans. add 9.5qts of trans fluid. perform shift adapation and found adaptations for b2 lowered into normal range. 5-4 shift was also smooth.

 

Problem free and enjoyable 500 miles driven since service did repeated reloads of adaptation software which seemed to resolve the issue. All of a sudden, exact same symptom - shuddering clunk on downshift engagement of 3rd gear - returns. Not a happy camper. Notify service dept., and they re-open technical case with mother ship. That was yesterday, I am waiting for callback. This hard clunking cannot be a good thing for a transmission. We shall see how this progresses... regards-

 

Ugh.. Oh man, sorry to hear. This reminds me of the clunk I got with my e550. Hope they don't have to replace the trans

 

After not driving much since Jan.(NH winter one for the record books) car is back to dealer, with same symptoms as when I first got it back in Dec. 1600 miles on it, and clunk on manual shifts is now into and out of 5th as well as original problem gear (3rd) . Next item on repair "tree", since adaptation clearly was not the fix, is a new valve body for transmission. Part will land next week some time. Meanwhile, I am debating whether to have the LSD gear oil changed while it is at dealer. Anyone have this done earlier than the recommended 2 k miles? Hopefully, valve body proves to be the fix,,,,!!! - regards,

 

Pretty sure that diff oil change is the same as on my C63 507, 2,000km == 1600miles. So you are due. I got mine changed @1800 miles, if that helps. Unfortunately, that seems to be the least of your problems -- I hope these guys fix the trans issue and make things right for you.

 

I wonder if your eligible for lemon law

 

IF they can fix this now , then I would be ok with it, since I have had it to them only 2 times. I ordered the car, s model(P), diamond white, with the platinum interior and black carpets and headliner. Night styling , distronic, surround camera. Got a super deal, so I can be somewhat tolerant of this for now. Problem appeared on way home from pickup at dealer, so it has been evident from purchase. If you drove this car in comfort mode, and did not push hard on the go pedal, you may not even notice this problem. It behaved ok for several hundred miles after the initial dealer visit , during which they did extensive adaptation while driving it. But unfortunately, the clunking surrounding 3rd gear when manually shifting came back, and was essentially the same as it had been. Worse than that however, was the added issue of 5th gear behaving badly. 3rd was bad enough, but 5th is whole different kind of bad, with speeds and gearing much higher. If the valve body does not solve the problem, only thing left is replacement transmission, and that would be a crying shame! We shall see....regards

 

Ugh.... More than anybody... I feel your pain... And literally have been there and done that

Good luck and let us know the outcome

As you may know, I forced Mbusa to buyback my newly ordered 2014 e550 for exact same reasons, valve body didn't solve it nor thousands of adaptations. Then the new e550 they replaced it with did the same thing but worse!!! They let me cash out for 100% of my money not a penny loss to me

 

I've searched and can't find whether there were similar "clunks" on the 2012 E550 ??

Peter, that's some experience you had with 2 buybacks. Yikes!

Happy Holidays all !

 

I've had my E63S for about a week now and there have been 2 days where I've noticed a clunk in S+ mode when decelerating. Glad to hear they have a software fix so if I do need to take it in I can reference this thread. Thanks for the report!

 

I too have this problem. Brand new car and just going through the gears and Breakin cycle. Noticed very hard jerk in downshift into 3rd at speeds under 35 and low ROMs regardless of what mode. Shifts a little better at higher speeds, but even an upshift there is a jutter. I told my service guy when I first saw this post. Figured I would break the car in and see if got better. Which it certainly is. Let's see in another 300 miles or so how it's doing.