C43 AMG Gearbox question

[vtwin]

I've owned my C43 estate 1999 for 2 months now, she has 55,000 miles with full MBSH.

Sometimes the gearbox seems to get its knickers in a twist when accellerating hard. For example if Im dawdling in traffic and suddenly see an oppertunity to get a move on the gearbox can sometimes be undecided whether to change down 1 or 2 gears and sometimes makes the wrong choise ie only changes down one gear when i would prefer 2 etc.

Is this a common symptom? I read an american forum which aluded to what i've tried to describe. The gb is very positive when i am driving on an open road with no traffic but when theres traffic around and im on and off the gas is when the gb is less positive.

Does anyone have an idea?

 

[BlackC55]

It will need to adapt to your driving style firstly. If you drive it fairly hard on the open road this will affect the way the box changes at lower speeds as it will expect you to drive it harder. I hope this makes sense! I doubt you have a problem.

 

[vtwin]

Thank you for your reply. How safe is it to manually shift the gb? I mean sensibly like changing down at say 2500rpm and changing up at say 5000rpm and insuring that a no time the red line is reached. This is such an amazing car, to be able to shift between 3rd & 4th manually would make a road driving an incredible experience. Just wondering what the wear 7 tear on the gb might be?

 

[vtwin]

MB world Brooklands have changed my GB oil & filter and the diference is noticable. The shift is much easier to engage and the gears shift much less noticibly. My C43 Estate has done 55,500 miles and the engineer said the old oil was quite dirty so was worth doing

 

[Xtractorfan]

Manually shifting the box will have no bearing on the wear n tear of the box, the only real problem with manual shifting is remembering to change at times, better to let the auto box do it..

 

[vtwin]

It was really only to down shift from say 4th to 3th or 5ht to 4th to enable more controlled overtaking manouvers. Glad its safe to do so. Will remember to upshift of course

 

[Blobcat]

If you hold the lever to the left it will change down to the gear most suitable to overtake. I use this function regularly so that when you want to GO you GO. Just pull the lever back to the right once your tired of the yellow idiot light flashing.

 

[grayb]

If you hold the lever to the left it will change down to the gear most suitable to overtake. I use this function regularly so that when you want to GO you GO. Just pull the lever back to the right once your tired of the yellow idiot light flashing.

Not all C43's have Tiptronic. Ours was Feb99 and didn't...

 

[Veridian]

MB world Brooklands have changed my GB oil & filter and the diference is noticable. The shift is much easier to engage and the gears shift much less noticibly.

Hi vtwin, MB World is also my local Stealership - as I have a E430 with 120K on the clock, I guess my auto oil/filters need changing. How much did they charge you for this?..
Mines changing lovely but I notice a few times recently if when waiting at lights I put it in neutral and then in Park (if its a long old wait.. ala Walton HWM lights) then quickly put it into Drive - it forgets whats its supposed to do, and takes 3 or 4 seconds to pick up drive. If its stupid money I may try T&M Motors in West Molesey who I hear good things about.

Cheers

 

[bigasotonuk]

Hi vtwin, MB World is also my local Stealership - as I have a E430 with 120K on the clock, I guess my auto oil/filters need changing. How much did they charge you for this?..
Mines changing lovely but I notice a few times recently if when waiting at lights I put it in neutral and then in Park (if its a long old wait.. ala Walton HWM lights) then quickly put it into Drive - it forgets whats its supposed to do, and takes 3 or 4 seconds to pick up drive. If its stupid money I may try T&M Motors in West Molesey who I hear good things about.

Cheers

Hi,
Get Olly (BlackC55 post 2 in this thread) to do it, he did mine, thoroughly recommend him cheaper than main dealer too.
Whoever does it make sure you only use genuine MB Gearbox fluid.

 

[vtwin]

I'm not too sure on what they charged as I had a bunch of other stuff done too like ball joints and had the whole car health checked. they had some problems getting off the gb sump 'cause 2 of the hex nuts siezed and broke and the gb drain plug was siezed too so all that added up. Their labour fees are like £90 ph though as a guide