So for those of you with the 7 speed Speedshift, are you experiencing any of the following?

Rough jerky downshift from 3rd-2nd (not nice in comfort mode when driving around town)
Unacceptably harsh downshift from 2nd-1st (not nice at all and makes the car feel broken)
Jerky upshift from 2nd-3rd and 3rd-4th
Slight delay in gearshift when WOT and a big jerk in your seat when doing the 1st-2nd shift or 2nd-3rd shift in Sport+

I was ^^^ and took the car to Eurocharged UK for an oil change, wishfully thinking that it would solve my problem. The guys were really nice and extremely professional (very rare in my experience from a car tuner). They drove the car and said it's highly unlikely that an oil change would solve the issue. The plugged in their Star tool and said that there was an issue with one of the solenoids inside the transmission.

I booked the car in and they replaced all 8 solenoids for new MB components (I probably should have opted for the Weistec upgrade for nearly the same price, but I was in a rush to get the car back and couldn't afford the downtime of sending my valvebody to the USA etc).

Upon first driving the car once the repair was carried out, the downshift into 1st was notably better, albeit still not perfect. The rest of the shifts were still a bit..well....not entirely great. I was assured that it would get better the more I drive the car.

Oddly enough, for a good 6 weeks, I tell you, the shifting felt the same and frankly, I was very disappointed that it didn't make all that much of a difference to the feel of the shifts (lol, I was even contemplating buying an M5).

However at the start of last week...Lord only knows what happened but it's almost as though something in the TCU clicked into place and it just magically started shifting super smooth! Ok, not super smooth like a conventional auto like in the W211, but driving around in C mode was a joy and I could only slightly feel the upshifts, while the downshifts from 4th-3rd and 3rd-2nd were barely noticeable (in many cases, not even noticeable at all!). WOT shifts are faster and just a seemless surge through the first 3 gears. The overall car now feels the way an MB should. Sport+ and M are still harsh and rubbish on the downshifts, particularly into 1st gear, but I'm told that those will always be like that. Sport mode is generally ok too though.

Quite why it took so damn long for the car to make good use of the new parts and start shifting nicely, I'll never know

SO there you have it. If your tranny is harsher than you feel it should be...it's probably the valvebody solenoids.

 

Strange story and first I have heard of, glad it worked out for you in the end though.

Maybe try the trans reset?

 

Tried it numerous times man. TBH when I went for the tranny oil change, the guy at Eurocharged was nice enough to reset the tranny adaptations for me to see how that worked out - it didn't make a difference for me after driving around for a couple of months. However he did say, according to his computer that one of the solenoids was showing that it was out of range by a good amount apparently, although i can't remember the exact specifics anymore.

 

Are you out of warranty?

Valve body and solenoid issues are more common in Benz 7spd transmissions after 60,000 miles

Other than the wet clutch the mct is essentially same as 7-spd in non amg Benz models, perhaps a bit more robust

 

Yeah I'm out of the all-important MB warranty. I do however have an after market warranty and they paid out on the repair of the transmission.

 

^ how many miles on the car when the "rough' shifting started? (I didn't pay attention to your original thread, sorry)

 

I've had the car since 67k. It's kind of always been doing it since I've had the car, but I noticed it a lot more around...August last year, say...73k on the clock. It's on 78k now.

 

I'm wish they changed out your valve body as well

That warranty just paid itself off

 

To be fair, they did want to do the Weistec valvebody swap (very similar cost to the oem solenoid swap out) but I couldn't afford the additional 10 days of downtime.

Yes, I do wish I had done it now though....ahem...