Auto Gearbox

[Nic_s81]

Good afternoon all, my 2000 CLK 320 my autobox only seems to have 4 gears but it’s supposed to have 5. I’ve spoken to a few people and they say it might be a valve press?

 

[Tony Dyson]

I have a 7 speed box but my dash indicator never indicates the top gear when changing up or down, it goes from 6 to D and vice-versa. I resolved my original suspicions by manually changing down from top gear into an indicated 6th while identifying the engine note change confirming I did actually have the 7 gears as advertised!

 

[LostKiwi]

It's down to the way the gearbox logic works.
If you select 3 for example it will allow use of any gear up to and including third. Likewise 4 allows up to and including 4th.
When you select 5th (D) or for 7 speeds 7th it's full auto so doesn't warn you there is a restricted gear range in use.

The exception is those cars with an M mode.

 

[Nic_s81]

That would make sense I never thought of doing that, but it does make a lot of sense since pulling off you are in 2nd with a auto

 

[LostKiwi]

The 5 speed will only start in second if it's in W (Winter) mode. If it's in S (Summer) mode it will start in first.