LostKiwi
Senior Member
- Joined
- Aug 25, 2006
- Messages
- 31,349
- Reaction score
- 21,606
- Location
- Midlands / Charente-Maritime
- Your Mercedes
- '93 500SL-32, '01 W210 Estate E240 (RIP), 02 R230 SL500, 04 Smart Roadster Coupe, 11 R350CDi
Unusual for a manual gearbox to have a pressurised oil feed. Only one I've hard of was used in Land Rovers (LT95 4 speed).A much older car, but my 2004 w203 6 speed manual on a C320 V6 petrol was just the same when cold.
New gearbox oil made virually no difference.
Further reading suggested that when testing the gearbox during design, it worked fine in a factory (at 20°C), but alas, not when cold and outside. In the summer months it was fine.
I think it was an oil pressure relief channel to do with the 1st and 2nd gears. 1st was particularly bad when cold if moving at all. When all up to temperature it was fine.
There was an upgraded part issued for the gearbox that resolved the issue, but that would require a gearbox strip down to install, so not something I ever had done. I enquired about this part at my local Mercedes dealer, and they were surprised that the system showed they had sold hundreds of this part in the past year, and therefore concluded this was a common issue.
Thankfully with the torquey V6, I could get round this problem by setting off in 2nd gear if facing slightly downhill and by being gentle on the clutch, or if uphill, go from 1st up to e.g. 3-4k rpm, then change straight to 3rd. A bit of a pain, but not as painful as £1500 on a gearbox strip down and new clutch.
It sounds like a very similar issue, although I'm sure the gearboxes will be significantly different.