C180 Sports Coupe 2006 Auto Box, Heater, Dash Rattles Questions

[sarahbeeny]

Hi All

We have had our car since March, and never had a Mercedes or an auto. Very happy with the car but have a few questions:

1) Auto box, engaging reverse on a hill (car pointing down hill)

Should we expect the car to 'hold' in position when in reverse? If I'm not quick enough onto the accelerator the car simply rolls forward.

2) Only switched on the heater today as it is starting to get nippy. Unless I move both the temperature knobs hard over to the 26 degrees position the heat from the vents is not very warm at all. Is this 'normal' for Mercedes heaters?

3) There is a very annoying dash rattle which seems to be coming from around the top, central dash vent. Are the C Class Coupes known for dash rattles?

The car is under warranty so we will be going back to them but we wanted to get advice from 'those in the know' as well.

Thanks All

 

[television]

Hi All

We have had our car since March, and never had a Mercedes or an auto. Very happy with the car but have a few questions:

1) Auto box, engaging reverse on a hill (car pointing down hill)

Should we expect the car to 'hold' in position when in reverse? If I'm not quick enough onto the accelerator the car simply rolls forward.
On some cars having the sector switch in W can stop this, please try it

2) Only switched on the heater today as it is starting to get nippy. Unless I move both the temperature knobs hard over to the 26 degrees position the heat from the vents is not very warm at all. Is this 'normal' for Mercedes heaters?
This is normal with MB heaters, I often have mine there at the start of a journey

3) There is a very annoying dash rattle which seems to be coming from around the top, central dash vent. Are the C Class Coupes known for dash rattles?

The car is under warranty so we will be going back to them but we wanted to get advice from 'those in the know' as well.

Thanks All

Hi Sara and welcome to the forum, the rattle could be anything and impossible to answer

 

[sarahbeeny]

Yes, its just that the rattle appears to be coming from the central vent so I thought maybe it was a known problem or defect. Thanks

 

[puter]

You have two safe choices when on a hill.

1/ Apply park brake, then gear, then power and release park brake.

2/ Apply main brakes using left foot, then gear, then power and release brake.

Heater and rattle have been covered by television.

 

[television]

Yes, its just that the rattle appears to be coming from the central vent so I thought maybe it was a known problem or defect. Thanks

I think that Type 49 put up an answer to the rattle, see what I can find

 

[sarahbeeny]

What is the 'sector switch'? I have a sport/comfort mode selector?

So the car will roll then, I mean there is no resistance at all, if thats normal then great I just need to adapt, I was just worried that there may be a fault with the automatic box.

 

[puter]

The selector switch you mention has no effect on the engine idle speed and thus its ability to hold the car in position. Its purpose is to give the car a sporty or relaxed feel by altering the setting at where the gearbox changes gear.

You mentioned your car was 2006, do you have the handbook, because there is quite a detailed mention of driving techniques in it.

 

[sarahbeeny]

Television said

On some cars having the sector switch in W can stop this, please try it

I just wondered what that was. I know what sport and comfort does as I mentioned that in my previous post, I thought maybe Television was talking about that selector and maybe on some models there is a 'w' mode.

Yes I have the handbook however I just wanted someone to confirm yes or no that when in reverse there is no 'hold' like when in drive and no pressure is applied to the accelerator. I can then pass this info on when it goes to Mercedes for the other warranty work.

 

[G MAN]

Hello, sorry can't say with any authority on the reverse issue but the heater issue could be the duo valve being sticky due to it being set to COLD for the summer months Try a search on here for>> duo valve << & it might explain. ( got a feeling someone will come on & say your car doesn't have one but ...) Dash rattles though seem to be an unwanted extra for many, could be a biro down an air vent to a loose clip that would take 2 days of hard labour to strip out & find. Often a judicious squirt of silicone spray behind the panels in the general area could be an easy, if only temporary ,fix.

 

[sarahbeeny]

Thanks, I will search for duo valve.

The car has only done 5000 miles and one thing I was not expecting was a poor heater! We are looking to upgrade to a CLK next Spring (or maybe an Audi A5) so hopefully the CLK has a more powerful heater.

 

[W203-C220]

Hi Sarah (will you be the one off the TV I wonder?)

I have the same shape W203 but somewhat older C class saloon with the 5 speed Tiptronic auto. My gear lever will click left and right (in D) to manually select lower or higher gears. Does this sound like yours? If not then this won't help I guess!

Forward of the gear lever base on the left is a push button to select either S or W mode.
S (summer?) gives me normal 5 gears and it does easily roll forward on a slope as you say. It worried me too as I also expected it would not roll forwards or backwards in gear but it will. The approach to my garage is very steep, about 1 in 6 I'd say. Never had a problem though... until one morning it seems like I was trying to reverse up out with the handbrake still on! So I stopped trying a second, it rolled about an inch forward then locked like I'd selected Park?
To my horror, it also had poor initial acceleration once in D and I thought the box was going faulty. I later found I'd somehow pressed that W/S mode button on my previous trip and selected W mode. Winter mode makes a few tweaks to the autobox I'd never realised. Designed for use in snow methinks!

1: A higher-geared reverse that WON'T roll forwards at tickover - just like we'd expect.

2: D now loses 1st gear altogether, so you set off in second - hence the sluggish initial response. It upshifts 2nd to 5th normally despite this though.

The tell-tale was the gear selection indicator in the instrument cluster, I had W not the usual S shown above D (or R) so a button press restored normal operation and I was able to breathe normally again too. I can only imagine what a tiptronic gearbox fault would cost and mine is well out of warranty ;-)

My heater is dreadful at warming you up on cold mornings and this appears to be normal too. I think Climate Control is no match for a good straightforward heater on a cold start!
Having said that, if you discover a remedy for this let me know!

Hope this helps in some small way.

 

[sarahbeeny]

Thanks for the reply. No Im not the one of the telly, just my nickname

I have checked both the car and the owners manual and I do not have a S/W selector. Only the Sport/Comfort selector at the base of the gearshift on the left hand side. I do have the ability to manually shift by moving the lever left and right when in Drive.

So I guess this S/W mode is a different model.

The heater has been a big disappointment but at least it appears normal!

Thanks

 

[puter]

My wife has an identical model and she loves the shape and the car in general. I have remembered when she first took delivery we were both confused with the air con indicator light. When the light glows the air con is off, we thought the opposite meaning cool air was flowing into heater reducing its effectiveness somewhat. A very useful feature when condensation is about but on a cold February morning the heater took its time doing its stuff. Another point is the fan speed control needs to turned up quite a lot initially, well into the noisy area.

 

[sarahbeeny]

Hi

When the light glows the air con is off

I'm looking at the owners manual at the moment and on page 118 (Controls) it states:

To deactivate: press the A/C button. The indicator lamp goes out.

To activate: press the A/C button. The indicator lamp comes on.

Which is the opposite way around

 

[television]

Surely the heater can be made hot enough Sara

 

[sarahbeeny]

Only if the controls are over hard to maximum, it is pretty poor below that. I will see what Mercedes say about it. It does not feel right.

If the car was older then I would not be that concerned but at this age and mileage I am surprised. Never having owned a Mercedes before then if the garage say the same thing then I know what to expect with our next Mercedes.

The ride quality is excellent though. A very comfortable car.

 

[television]

Sara try this

http://forums.mercedesclub.org.uk/showthread.php?t=28561&highlight=203+set

 

[sarahbeeny]

Thanks for the info. We are planning on getting it into Mercedes this week so I will suggest that they may want to try and reset the heating.

The air con worked great over Summer and when in air con mode felt very responsive to even minimal moves on the temp control.

I think why I am so surprised is because the screen demist function sounds so impressive and chucks out a blast of hot air that when the heater is in normal operation it does not feel as responsive.

 

[puter]

We must be talking about different versions of the C180C. Janet’s car was purchased Feb 05 and the air con is Thermatic. Car is: WDB2037462A7732402

Handbook: Order No 65150157 Part No 2035840771 EN Edition H1, 06/04

Info is on page 143 and states on switching off indicator lights up. It does what it says because we checked it in Feb 05.

Would be interested to hear what your Merc Man says and wonder if anyone on these boards has more info, although it sounds to me like Merc changed their mind for some reason.

Out of interest conducted a little trial this morning whilst driving some 8 miles. Outside air temp 6C, inside car temp 11C, after 5 miles temp was 20C. Air con off and heater taking in outside air.

 

[Phil D]

Hi Sara and welcome to the forum, the rattle could be anything and impossible to answer

however the good news is that it is covered by your warranty - I had one that I was convinced was coming from the dash until my daughter said it was the rear view mirror - sure enough grabbed it & the rattle stopped - get your dealers to do the detective work - after all they get paid for it, on a more general note I hope you enjoy the car
Phil