9 Speed Gearbox - slow take off.

[Steve Roberts]

Hi,

New to the forum, but I am running out of patience with a brand new E 350 coupe. It has the new adaptive 9 speed box, and is just really reluctant to pick up from a standstill. OK on rolling starts (in 2nd), but unless you give the engine 3000rpm, it will give a big pause before taking off, and just jerks away.

Makes it a real nightmare in slow town driving. Also pauses on throttle depression after you've been cruising for a period, which means you can sometimes get a surge of power halfway thru a corner if you try and accelerate through a bend.

All engine / gearbox updates have been applied, and Merc dealership maintain the car is perfect.

Has anybody had a similar experience, and/or suggestions?

Steve

 

[DelDrew]

Maybe you could try getting the dealer to do a software flash on it?


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[flowrider]

Dont these autos start in 2nd normally unless you are in sport mode.

 

[Submariner1]

Hi,

New to the forum, but I am running out of patience with a brand new E 350 coupe. It has the new adaptive 9 speed box, and is just really reluctant to pick up from a standstill. OK on rolling starts (in 2nd), but unless you give the engine 3000rpm, it will give a big pause before taking off, and just jerks away.

Makes it a real nightmare in slow town driving. Also pauses on throttle depression after you've been cruising for a period, which means you can sometimes get a surge of power halfway thru a corner if you try and accelerate through a bend.

All engine / gearbox updates have been applied, and Merc dealership maintain the car is perfect.

Has anybody had a similar experience, and/or suggestions?

Steve

Sounds very wrong!
Take off on mine at an instantly applied 2,500 rpm would be pretty ****** dramatic!
Mine only has 7 gears, when I went from 5 gears to 7 gears, due I guess to lower gearing in first, take off was considerably snappier.
I would imagine moving from 7 to 9 gears would have the same effect.
Go to another Dealer, and dont accept it!

If I had that kind of idiotic sh*t from the supplying dealer, I would simply ask to see the Dealer principle and say if you cant sort this ... how do we go about you replacing the car?
Trust me ... you will defo get his full attention!; if you also hand him at the same time, a detailed sheet of paper documenting all the times you complained and the outcomes, then you will really get his attention!

If you live near Beaconsfield in Bucks pm me ... I can give you a name of a head technician who will definitely know what the problem is, and tell you the truth!

 

[Srdl]

Sounds very wrong!

If I had that kind of idiotic sh*t from the supplying dealer, I would simply ask to see the Dealer principle and say if you cant sort this ... how do we go about you replacing the car?
Trust me ... you will defo get his full attention!; if you also hand him at the same time, a detailed sheet of paper documenting all the times you complained and the outcomes, then you will really get his attention!

Good advice from Sub

 

[Botus]

drive another one....

probably does start off in 2nd (or these days wouldn't be surprised if third on nine speed ... they only get all these wasted cogs to pretend the emissions are lower... then you always start in 2nd puking out more filth than you would if they fitted the 5 forward gears it needs)

is this your first Auto? Throttle response is always lazier than a manual and needs about 3 x the pedal movement for the same response... it takes a month or so to judge when to apply the throttle x milliseconds earlier than you do in a petrol

 

[Submariner1]

My understanding on the 7G Plus is in Sport it starts in 1st, and in C it starts off in 2nd.
I would have thought that pertains to the 9G?

The one thing I dont really like on the Plus version, is if you have been really pushing it, and then if you accellerate off hard and then have to quickly back off the throttle; it kinda hangs onto the lower gear. ( ready to take off again in a nano second ). OK I get the logic, but I personally prefer the way the 7G drops the revs the second you back off. I think it also saves a lot of fuel.

But not a major gripe, as it does "learn" pretty quickly .. like under 3 minutes, if you relax your driving style, and then it adapts and isn't quite so "on steroids"
Personally I dont see the point, as it only takes a flick of the ankle to pile on the performance.

Oh well, I guess it does make it more sporty.

 

[Steve Roberts]

Thanks for the comments - Not a huge AUTO user, but this is my 3rd so must have done about 40k in them and accept that you have to throttle more to go.

Both boxes (7g and 9g) apparently use 2nd for a rolling start, but 1st from a standstill (in either C or S). That's what the mechanic told me. Have now driven about a dozen mercs 220, 250 and 350 and all drive faultlessly. My Dealer (Sandown) don't want to offer me a similar car because they claim they all adapt, and I'd get a different experience. Sounds like bollocks, so will be back in today pushing for that.

My own just bogs down for a brief period before moving on. Not everytime, but enough to make progress a real hit/miss. Mainly that's on lowish throttle - like you do in town. Give it a lot of throttle and it will take off. May just be that the 'adaptive' nature doesn't suit my style -or vice versa - but fell that's a Mercedes problem.

Personally, I'd call it a bug in the gearbox software, but its going to be hard to convince somebody !!

 

[Frosty149]

I have some sympathy here, that pause used to worry me too, however, I chose to remap, which also reset the adaptive gearbox and made the car far more responsive.
Not looked back.
The car needs to learn your driving style and you need to learn it's characteristics too.
I was advised to drive 'normally' (after the remap) to allow the gearbox to adapt.
With the performance gains and hindsight, I wouldn't hesitate to repeat on another 350....

 

[oigle]

You haven't said if it is diesel or petrol. If diesel, then as Frosty said, a remap will fix the issue. I had similar issues with my 270 diesel. Once mapped, takes off as well as a petrol motor. Shouldn't be necessary but in these days of seeking max economy, the fuel input off the mark is just not good enough.
If petrol engine, something defo wrong.
Ian.

 

[Steve Roberts]

You haven't said if it is diesel or petrol. If diesel, then as Frosty said, a remap will fix the issue. I had similar issues with my 270 diesel. Once mapped, takes off as well as a petrol motor. Shouldn't be necessary but in these days of seeking max economy, the fuel input off the mark is just not good enough.
If petrol engine, something defo wrong.
Ian.

Its a diesel, and although I'm sure a remap would work - its a brand new car and probably invalidates merc warranty?

I've done the 'drive normally' bit and had 2 gearbox resets. Drives perfectly on collection each time, but the adaptive software then screws things up. Must be me because the dealer says the car is great. Popping in there later today for serious chat

Seems there's no way of doing a reset without going to the dealer, unless anyone knows a trick...
Steve

 

[oigle]

Don't know about later cars but earlier ones were able to reset trannys by disconnecting the battery for a bit. Maybe you need to drive more vigorously

 

[Frosty149]

My motivation for the remap was about an extra 50hp and big torque jump plus a few extra mpg, not gearbox concerns.
Your point about warranty is absolutely correct and I understand the position fully.

Although, I would point out that the remap is completely invisible, to both dealers and any other mechanics, that work on the vehicle, unless they are interrogating the ecu maps specifically

 

[Headhurts]

There have been a few threads on this or similar issue.

I have an E350 S212 2016 model with 9 speed auto.

It is a very nice box and I always have it in sport mode.

It always uses first gear from standstill but changes quickly to second and will only change from second to first when stopped.

I too have been caught out with this pause in acceleration, say when wanting to nip out at a roundabout you approach it slowly see an opportunity to nip out into traffic apply a fair bit of throttle and nothing the car just pauses before moving out.

I have experienced this on my last car a 2014 7 speed also which was worse than my current car.

It seems to be a trait or related to driving style.

Trouble is it does not do it often and I cannot replicate it, maybe to do with my driving style?

Does the car adapt to each trip? If so most of my driving is not spirited so maybe someone jumping in my car and using more speed would not have this issue.

Robin


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[Blobcat]

I have the 9G in my E220, I drive in eco or I (set to eco) it sets off in 1st most of the time and goes as well as I want / need. I used Sport+ recently whilst sat besides a Seat Leon Cupra R thing and he didn't get to the other side of the junction before I did...

It is a much better gearbox than the 7G in my experience, much smoother. My only issue is that it doesn't get into 9th as quickly as I'd like in Drive. In Manual I can select 9th and it will stay and revert to Drive but it tends to stick in 8th more in Drive.

 

[Naraic]

Could be a duff pedal sensor.

 

[Steve Roberts]

Following a visit to another dealer earlier in the week - they sent a full diagnostics pack off to MB in Germany. Now MB have released some smart codes to the dealer to let him delve into the eProm as they suspect there is some engine pressure sensor that is giving a false signal to the cpu in the gearbox which is contributing to the lag.
Booked in for next week, so will see if they find anything useful. Agree re issue pulling out on roundabouts -nearly got caught with that one today (again) !!

Bit different to just cleaning the plugs when I was a kid !!

 

[Botus]

would like to hear from someone specifically reading owners manual on 9 speed set up

7g

always starts in 2nd if in comfort
always starts in 1st if in sport

if you stand on it whilst in comfort it will start in 2nd and very quickly drop to first with a messy change... as you are usually already exceeding the speed limit / passengers screaming you then back off and get a 3 for the price of 1

I expect 9 speed is exactly the same...

 

[Botus]

just read owners manual for a current C class. Page 166 and it doesn't say how many gears it has and couldn't see this data at the back of the manual either.

all it stated was in
Individual / Sport Plus / Sport - it pulls away in first
where as in
Comfort / Eco - its pulls away more comfortably

 

[Naraic]

Strangely, I find at the traffic lights grand prix starting in second is more than quick enough for most situations and less embarrassing than it could be when you shoot off into oblivion only to realise the granny in her Morris Minor really wasn't looking for a race after all.

Otherwise I use standard and start in 1st.