Whats this tip tronic and how does it work

[Stulc]

On my C280, and as I dont have the tech part of the owners manual I dont know....all I have at the lever is P,R,N,D and of course the S and W button's, but I know the salesman said "oh it's tip tronic" and breifly explained how it worked but I forgot...doh!

 

[Stulc]

Surely someone know's, c'mon guy's....

 

[Ian Brown]

what year is your car?

 

[Stulc]

99' on a V

 

[Ian Brown]

I think 99 was when they first started fitting the tip tronic box. if it is tip tronic you can move the gear leaver from side to side to select the gears the change is done eletrical rather than mechanical My friend had a w reg and it wasn't tip tronic. i dont think the tip tronic box came out until the w203 model

 

[Stulc]

Yea I remember now, thats what the sale guy said too, but I just cant see how this works, because you only seem to put it from P past N to D and away you go, there's no side movement that I can see, I'll have another look tomorrow.


Thing is too, there advertised it as tiptronic!!.....and they seemingly specialise in Merc, BM....hmmmm.....it was also them who overfilled my engine oil to cause my "oil high" warning light in the dash to come on....hmmm

 

[SLinKyjoe]

boring info coming..................

tip tronic is not and has never been on Mercedes cars...it is worded as tip function and has a sideways movement with a + and -. if you tip the gear selector in the + direction it will allow you to select the next gear higher...

this avoids the potential issues with Porsche who own the rights to tiptronic gearbox selection with forwards and backwards movement for up and down! one manufacture of a german marque uses the opposite direction to get away with the idea! ie down for up etc

the W and S on the gearbox selector in question is for winter mode and standard. winter mode means it sets off in a higer gear and will change up a bit earlier. in sport models it is worded C and S, comfort and sport..but it works in much the same way. I would however expect you to be able to have some way of holding onto a lower gear so, unless i am corrected, do you have a 4,3 ,2,1 or 3,2,1 etc under the D?

 

[Stulc]

do you have a 4,3 ,2,1 or 3,2,1 etc under the D?

No I dont have that.....


It is the sport model but I also dont have C or S, mine's W & S, much the same thing I suppose.


Why would the sales guy blatantly say that when they (being a so called MB/BMW "specialist") obviously then know it isn't!! hmmmmm...

Could I have them for false advertising.

 

[SLinKyjoe]

false advertising is knowingly misleading, they probably are un aware of that tip function and tip tronic and assume it is the same. i doubt whether you could have them for it.

but unless someone knows better, you dont appear to be able to select and hold a gear in your auto. so in the snow the car could hunt for a gear or contantly change up! i would have thought that there must be a way of holding a gear by making a selction of some kind.

and by sport i should have said SL types, the latest cars all have S/C instead of S/W but they have the same functions.

 

[Stulc]

I dont know why (when it's the sports model I have) I cant "hold" a gear, what's the point then of doing the sports model when you dont have this facility....bit dumb if thats the case.

 

[SLinKyjoe]

its a bit dumb on any model...you may need to hold the car in a gear for steep up hills, travelling over wet grass etc.

somebody on here must have knowledge of how it works.

 

[blassberg]

you may need to hold the car in a gear for steep up hills, travelling over wet grass etc.

or fording water (painful memory returns then fades)

 

[Frank Patten]

There seems to be a degree of confusion here. When the stick is in 'D' there is a small amount of sideways movement, against a spring. If you push it momentarily to the left the gerbox will be restricted to the bottom 4 gears (1,2,3,4) and the instrument cluster display will show '4' instead of 'D'. If you push it again you will restrict to the bottom 3 (1,2,3) and so on down to '1' If you push the stick to the right the gearbox limit will rise one gear. So it has the same effect as a PRND4321 gearbox.

If you HOLD the stick to the left, the box will go right down to '1' and the display will show '1'. Hold the stick to the right and watch the display come back up to 'D'

 

[Ian Brown]

There seems to be a degree of confusion here. When the stick is in 'D' there is a small amount of sideways movement, against a spring. If you push it momentarily to the left the gerbox will be restricted to the bottom 4 gears (1,2,3,4) and the instrument cluster display will show '4' instead of 'D'. If you push it again you will restrict to the bottom 3 (1,2,3) and so on down to '1' If you push the stick to the right the gearbox limit will rise one gear. So it has the same effect as a PRND4321 gearbox.

If you HOLD the stick to the left, the box will go right down to '1' and the display will show '1'. Hold the stick to the right and watch the display come back up to 'D'

That was more or less what i had said earlier but Stulc Says there is no movement in his gear stick.

 

[SLinKyjoe]

Yea I remember now, thats what the sale guy said too, but I just cant see how this works, because you only seem to put it from P past N to D and away you go, there's no side movement that I can see, I'll have another look tomorrow.

as the posts above suggest. when the selector is in D and your display says D, move the gear selector to the left, it should make the display read 4, again and 3 and so on. if you push right in D nothing will happen, if you have 4 on your dash display, pushing right will change 4 to D.

D = 5th and all gears up to 5th
4 = 4th and all gears up to fourth (It looks out 5th)
3 = you can work it out now


if your car does this, then when you are driving you can influnece and early up change if you have a light throttel pedal, flick the gear selector to the right and if the car has enough power it will up change to the next gear.

the gear selector should move sideways in both directions in D postion. it will not have a seperate section for the up and down change like mitsubishis or the J selector on Jags. both of which use the same gearbox.

 

[Stulc]

That was more or less what i had said earlier but Stulc Says there is no movement in his gear stick.

Sorry guy's, I'm causing alot of confusion here, I'll go outside just now and try this and report back......


Yes this is right enough, I didnt notice the slight movement left and right when it's in "drive".

 

[SLinKyjoe]

so we are sorted then?

 

[Stulc]

Yep....lol...

 

[Frank Patten]

I thought that was it!

 

[Stulc]

Y'see.....this is where having the proper owner's manual help's alot, I wouldn't need to ask these stupid questions...