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C55 auto box saga continues...

Power_n_Glory

Active Member
Joined
Jul 19, 2012
Messages
92
Location
St Albans
Car
C55 Estate W203
Thought this may be useful for someone...?

After having my gearbox control unit and the steering wheel buttons/gear stick electronically re-united with each other as on my other thread and now the miles increase (now done 1000 miles since the fix and TCU reset) another fault has become manifest. Another 'am I mad?' kind of fault. When in C or S and I asked for a downshift via the stick or buttons, it MIGHT do it and even when it did the chosen gear would only hold for a few seconds before the gears shifted up and D was re-established. Had I pressed the button hard or long enough? Was I doing something wrong? The auto modes seemed to be changing up very early and slightly randomly but perhaps that was the thing learning/confused by my driving style, alternating between mild mannered motorway munching to full bore fun around the Lake District.

But then in M the selected gear would only hold for a few seconds and then the gearbox would shift up of its own accord, several cogs, as a fully auto would. not meant to do that...

Back to the dealer I bought it from, it was booked in the next day back at Hampshire Service Centre. No fault codes found, quizzical looks all round, then they looked via the computer at the signal from the various components. It turns out that the gearbox is getting an 'on' signal from the steering wheel button randomly, even happens when no-one is in the car! So it's either the switch actuator or the connection band inside the wheel, apparently. Nice one HSC. Explains all of the above....:doh:

The garage is covering it under warranty, although they tried to limit their costs to the first £200 which was a bit cheeky but they then quickly agreed to cover all the costs after my exclamation of outrage. In fairness, they have been good about the car in all other ways so far!

Car in to have this sorted out so fingers crossed....:wallbash:
 
Sounds like a nightmare but at least (fingers crossed) you've now identified the issue and it will be sorted soon. Good luck.
 
Thanks guys. I have a feeling that a new button (it was the right upshift button!) or s/w contact ring will indeed resolve this problem, although it doesn't sound like it was the cause of the first....

Anyway, yes, looking forward to having it sorted. Glad I can get the miles in to shake it down under the warranty :-)
 
Well if may be so bold as to state publicly what an excellent choice of car you have made. Understated in the extreme just adds to the fun of these things. I still can't resist the occasional boot to floor if the Nova boys get on the rear bumper.

De-cat and resonator delete is a must do (if you have not already) this will frighten children away and give old men erections (that can also frighten children away).
 
Well thank you - I'm (very publicly) delighted with it despite the glitches. So many ways of frightening children...
 
Saga continues further... and it's getting a bit annoying now.

The garage (Hampshire Service Centre) have said that ;
  • The car is fitted with steering wheel mounted buttons although this particular car was not originally fitted with them
  • HSC's view is that it’s likely that a previous owner attempted to fit a steering wheel with these buttons albeit could not fully integrate them into the car’s electronics
  • HSC’s view is that the buttons can never be made to work properly on this car
  • HSC have now configured the car’s systems to ignore the buttons, so as to be as originally supplied at new. Thus the automatic gearbox and gear-stick mounted tip-tronic function works as originally intended but the buttons on the steering wheel do not work
So I am faced with the inevitable outcome that the steering wheel buttons are fitted but will never work. Can anyone help with the following questions;
  1. How can I confirm that my car was not fitted with these buttons as standard?
  2. Is the car worth less without them, and if so any ideas about the effect?
  3. I think it is worse having buttons that do not work rather than no buttons. I'm not too bothered day to day but resale...?? Opinions?
Thanks for any thoughts...
 
Have a chat with Alfie or Richard at comand.co.uk They are located in Lightwater, not a million miles away from you.

They have successfully retro-fitted paddle shifters to the W203 C55
 
I think the garage have been really good by what you have reported, you may find it may be the ABS ring behind the steering wheel or even a faulty button.

As above , the guys at comand will be able to check this out for you.

good luck!
 
I thought the C55 came with steering wheel buttons as standard?

My C55 had paddles retrofitted by Comand for Tudu here, and I found when I bought it the up paddle did not work. A quick trip to Comand and it was just a loose connection.

I would check in with them in the first instance.
 
I have a C55 AMG estate 2004 model. It came with the buttons and they work properly.

I understood all C55's had the buttons.

Where people state retro-fitting paddles they refer to replacing the buttons with paddles.

I may be wrong here. But it does sound more like a broken button. They are very simple switches. Or possibly the reluctor ring.


As others have said. Try giving Alfie at Command a call or give your chassis number to Mercedes who should be able to tell you what the car came as.

Sent from my iPhone using MBClub UK
 
Thanks guys, much appreciated. I have emailed Comand as the phone wasn't answering yesterday, so hopefully they can do what the Indie can't!!! Picking up a couple of points...

I'm pretty sure I saw a couple of C55's without the buttons when I was looking for mine.

When the garage was testing to identify the fault, they did say they thought it was either the ring or the button and have replaced the ring and say they have tested the button but it's still doing it.

I suspect a loose connection too... an earthing fault would give a code but there are none.

Will let you know when I have talked to the guys at Comand.

Cheers for now,
 
Comand say;

Hi,

Thanks for the email.

All C55's were supplied with steering wheel buttons as standard. Your car
would have had them from new so they should be working. I have of course
assumed that the wheel is the standard factory one and has not been
replaced. If you send us a picture of it we can tell you.

Im suprised the garage have said what they did to you as its not true.

We can test the buttons for you easily enough.

Best wishes,

Mark


Looks like I weas wrong in my recollection :doh:. I have let the dealer know and he can suggest what he does next. But I'm not letting go of this one! :thumb:
 
Latest news - the dealer has now agreed, after badgering Mercedes who finally also agreed, that the gear shift buttons were fitted as standard to may car. Mark at Comand has been really helpful (top tip :bannana:) and both dealer who sold me the car and Hampshire Service Centre are now working on how to make the systems work, now it's clear they are original. They say thay are finding it difficult to trace the fault and they have even switched the wiring on the buttons on the steering wheel and the fault was still on the RHS button, so something weird going on... BUT they have accepted they will resolve the issue.

They have asked for a few more days to resolve.... Hey, what's a few more days?
 
So the car see's no up shift signal? (1 > 2 > 3) but does see a downshift? (3 < 2 < 1)

But it does see both up and down on the stick and in the display when using the stick.

Odd. FYI. I had an issue on my C240 with gear shifts. STAR showed no errors. But a re-set of the gear box adaptions cleared the problem instantly.

In my case the box was droping from 1st to fourth so the car would bog down. And that was a hard/constant fault. Might be worth suggesting they try that.
 
Well, it's back from the dealer, who in the end sent it off to MB in Reading. They spent 6 hours on it, suggested a new TCU and waited 5 days for the part from Germany, then decided it wasn't that and so 'plugged it into Germany' for what sounds like the mother of all resets. They say they are happy with the car, so the dealer's happy with the car...

And so, three weeks later, it seems to work, buttons active as they are meant to and gearbox sweet again. Only done a few motorway miles so far so I'll see if that original fault of selecting M comes back and if it doesn't then I will be happy with the car!

In the meantime, it's great to have it back. How I missed that sound track and exquisite thrust :thumb:

Thanks again for everyone's advice :rock: - without it I would have the car back without the buttons working... :mad:

All's well that ends well :bannana:

Mike
 

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