C180 2012 AMG Sport poor acceleration

[Charles2070]

I have recently bought c180 amg sport plus and have found the throttle response really slow? I’m not sure if this is due to the gearbox or the throttle delivery but I can put my foot all the down and it will take a long second to actually do anything! Not great driving experience so far. Does anyone have any experience of this and tell me what could be done to improve this?

thanks

 

[markjay]

Welcome.

Difficult to say simply based on the description, but notoriously the 7g+ box isn't the quickest to respond to kickdown. You'll probably get better response by 'blipping' the throttle gently and not all the way to kickdown.

You could try updating the software on the transmission TCU and engine ECU, this is a dealer or specialist job, and they will also be able to tell you at the same time if there are any fault codes.

Also, your 2012 car should have had the ATF changed in 2017 (and it will be next due in 2022), so check the service history to see if this has been done. The ATF and filter change interval is every 5 years or 77,500 miles, whichever cones first.

You could also try fitting a Sprint Booster device, that reprograms the 'drive by wire' accelerator pedal, but there are mixed opinions about how useful this device actually is.

 

[markjay]

Also, if your car has the M271 engine, listen for rattle at startup, it could indicate a loose timing chain, but even so I doubt it is related to the issue you described.

 

[SpikyMikey]

Do you get a better response using the paddles to drop a gear or 2?

 

[SarahAnn200]

Welcome to the site. I've had a 62 reg C180, they are not supposed to be quick but are a beautiful car. Were you expecting it to be a bit quicker than it is with it being the amg trim? I think mine was only a 1.6 if I remember correctly It wasn't the sort of car I would race about in

 

[SpikyMikey]

The 1.6 is certainly no rocket ship, but I don't find mine all that sluggish either for a heavy estate car; if anything is a bit too keen to kick down. Admittedly the throttle response isn't exactly linear but leaving the transmission in sport helps with that.

 

[markjay]

The issue isn't with the engine, strictly speaking. 156bhp is plenty, and the torque is adequate. It's the automatic transmissions - when mated to small petrol engines - that don't drop the gears quick enough on kickdown, for whatever reason. Just Google "delay before acceleration".

It was very bad on my 5g, it's better on my 7g+ but still not great. I've learnt not to use kickdown, and it's fine this way, I just partially-depress the pedal (but not all the way down) when I need to accelerate, and it works. But if you are the lead-foot type, 'push the pedal to the metal' etc, then these are just not the cars for you....

That said, the OP's car should go on STAR, just to confirm that there's no issue with the engine or transmission.

 

[Petrol Pete]

Hi Charles and welcome along . What are you comparing this car to ? was your previous car quick ? You may have fallen for the words 'AMG sports +' I am afraid in the case of this particular Mercedes Benz that's all they are...words.

You have a nice car there , but it is no sports car.

 

[Dryce]

I have recently bought c180 amg sport plus and have found the throttle response really slow? I’m not sure if this is due to the gearbox or the throttle delivery but I can put my foot all the down and it will take a long second to actually do anything! Not great driving experience so far. Does anyone have any experience of this and tell me what could be done to improve this?

Are you puttng your foot 'all the way down' or only as far as the pressure point.

MBs typically have a switch in the accelerator - you press - there's a bit of resistance - and then you push beyond and you get immediate shift to best gear for acceleration. It's like an old fashioned kickdown. If you push the accelerator pedal with the car switched off you should bve able to feel it distrinctly.

Sorry if this is just repeating something that was already obvous to you - but in the past some owners haven't realised they can push that bit further past the pressure point.

 

[markjay]

Are you puttng your foot 'all the way down' or only as far as the pressure point.

MBs typically have a switch in the accelerator - you press - there's a bit of resistance - and then you push beyond and you get immediate shift to best gear for acceleration. It's like an old fashioned kickdown. If you push the accelerator pedal with the car switched off you should bve able to feel it distrinctly.

Sorry if this is just repeating something that was already obvous to you - but in the past some owners haven't realised they can push that bit further past the pressure point.

On my W203 C180 Kompressor and W204 C180 CGI, kickdown produced the opposite effect - it caused a noticeable lag before anything happened (gear drops and revs go up).

Pressing the pedal quickly but not all the way down brings-up the revs pretty quick - the engine's torque is up for the job and there's almost no lag on modern Turbos.

Only seen it on mercs - on the C180, to be precise - all other cars I owned behaved as expected when using kickdown (quick downshift and engine rev increase).

 

[markjay]

Hi Charles and welcome along . What are you comparing this car to ? was your previous car quick ? You may have fallen for the words 'AMG sports +' I am afraid in the case of this particular Mercedes Benz that's all they are...words.

You have a nice car there , but it is no sports car.

Good point. The Sport and the AMG-Line cars have exactly the same drivetrain (engine and transmission) as non-Sport/non-AMG cars - the difference is only in the suspension (lowered/stiffened with bigger/wider tyres) and the internal and external trim bits (spoiler kit, grille, seats, steering wheel, etc etc) - but performance of the C180 CGI engines (M271 and M274) is identical across all variants (Classic, Executive, Elegance, SE, Avantgrade, Sport, AMG-Line, etc).

 

[Charles2070]

Thanks to everyone your welcomes and your responses! I’ve had the car about 3 weeks so not too long to play around with manually downshifting on the paddles or anything but the general feeling when driving, not really even that enthusiastically, the reaction from the car feels very sluggish. I’m not expecting pure power and performance but I would expect more of a response. I have contacted GAD tuning (recommended from this forum) to do the ecu but perhaps i should also ask about the tcu as well? For info the car is a 63 plate 1.6

 

[Charles2070]

Also, if your car has the M271 engine, listen for rattle at startup, it could indicate a loose timing chain, but even so I doubt it is related to the issue you described.

How would I be able to find out which engine the car has?

 

[Charles2070]

Welcome to the site. I've had a 62 reg C180, they are not supposed to be quick but are a beautiful car. Were you expecting it to be a bit quicker than it is with it being the amg trim? I think mine was only a 1.6 if I remember correctly It wasn't the sort of car I would race about in

Thanks Sarah, it’s not the speed that’s the issue, it’s definitely quick enough, it’s just the response time is much slower. My last car was a a4 s line and the transmissions and response was MUCH smoother so it has taken me by surprise a bit

 

[Charles2070]

Hi Charles and welcome along . What are you comparing this car to ? was your previous car quick ? You may have fallen for the words 'AMG sports +' I am afraid in the case of this particular Mercedes Benz that's all they are...words.

You have a nice car there , but it is no sports car.

Hi Pete, thanks for the welcome, previous car was an Audi A4 s line cabriolet 2.0 litre so by no means a performance car but the gearbox was always smooth and even without sports mode on it was always responsive to to your right foot

 

[SpikyMikey]

How would I be able to find out which engine the car has?

In theory yours should be the later M274 engine like mine; it you want to post your VIN, one of the gurus here should be able to decode it for you.

 

[SarahAnn200]

Thanks Sarah, it’s not the speed that’s the issue, it’s definitely quick enough, it’s just the response time is much slower. My last car was a a4 s line and the transmissions and response was MUCH smoother so it has taken me by surprise a bit

Hope you get sorted. I change cars to often (especially recently) and had a 2020 facelift A4 avant diesel for a short time in Dec/Jan. That gearbox was a lot smoother on that than the mercedes I've had.
You could just decide to cruise around steady and let people see your lovely car
Have you put some photos on yet?

 

[Charles2070]

Just to clarify also because the title of this thread is a bit misleading in retrospect - acceleration is very good - it’s just the delay in when I ask for it and the car delivers it that is the issue

 

[ernie]

How would I be able to find out which engine the car has?

Your car should have the M274 engine, which apart from the thermostat, has shown to be very reliable. That's not to say there couldn't be a problem with yours! However, I don't think there ahs ever been a timing chain problem come up on here on one of these engines.

Ernie

 

[markjay]

M274: