How many gears have I got?

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

andyjenkins

Active Member
Joined
Oct 13, 2009
Messages
133
Car
S204 C250 Sport
I have a 59 plate C250 (pre-facelift), and was under the impression that I have 5 manual gears and 6 auto gears. If this is correct, how come the following happens?

If I put the car in manual mode, I can manually select 1 thru 5 sequentially. I'm good with this. If I put the car in auto mode, the change is automatically decided. I'm good with this too. This is basic stuff ;:bannana:

If I change from Auto to manual, if that change results in a downshift (ie, say from 5th to 4th), the revs rise. Same speed, at lower gear to previous = high revs.

So how come I've never seen the revs rise from auto, to manual 5th? I'm assuming I'm not driving such that the car has determined that 6th is needed. Is the 6th gear something "special" and it doesnt work like how a layman understands a "gear" ?
 
You car doesn't have 6th gear. It has 5 forward gears and 1 reverse. 6th gear doesn't exist on your car

When you are in automatic mode D, if you nudge that lever to the left, it changes down to 4th. The car will not go a gear higher than 4th until you redline it, then it changes up to save the engine. If you brake, it will go down the gears to prevent stalling.

In all modes, its so smooth at changing gear, because it is an excellent 5 speed box, not a rubbish 7 speed one, you haven't noticed.
 
In all modes, its so smooth at changing gear, because it is an excellent 5 speed box, not a rubbish 7 speed one, you haven't noticed.

The three speed ones were better, but not as good as this...
biggrin.gif

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5D8Y4j0Rs_Y
 
You car doesn't have 6th gear. It has 5 forward gears and 1 reverse. 6th gear doesn't exist on your car

That would explain it then. I think I must have got confused with the manual (which I think is six speed ?)

In all modes, its so smooth at changing gear, because it is an excellent 5 speed box, not a rubbish 7 speed one, you haven't noticed.

Actually, I was tempted on an exchange to a 2012 C350 or E350, one of the reasons was FOR the 7 speed box, which I thought was silky smooth (according to reviews). I've been less than impressed with the current box in my C250 - accelerated hard, and you can really feel the gear change.

Even coming to a halt, there's a "jerk" right at the end, 5 to 0 mph .. as it comes to a stop. I find I've had to change my braking style so that I let the car "coast" the last 1mph to 0 mph .. just to get a smooth stop.

So your saying the later 7 speed boxes are worse than what I have now ??????
 
I experienced a 7g box for 500+ miles recently and thougt it was amazing.

I think this is the overwhelming opinion of this forum from what I can gather, *** is quite vocal with his opinion:D but don't let this sway your too much. Do you own research ;)
 
*** and I have both had E220's (5g box) and now we have the E280/320 (7g box). Our experiences with our cars have been quite different though.

My E220's 5g box was really awful when cold but very smooth when warmed up. I was more than happy with it until it kind of 'went-off' at about 20K miles. You could lift off and the car would slow, then it would upshift and accelerate slightly before slowing again. Although the dealer had a fair crack at fixing it, never again was it as smooth or consistent as it should have been. I hate cars that don't work properly, so this was reason enough for me to get shot of it - plus I really wanted the smoothness of a 6 rather than a 4 pot engine.

My 280 with the 7g is much better - smooth when cold except for a lurching downshift from 2nd - 1st, but this only happens when cold and I believe the latest gearbox software addresses the issue. I plan to have this looked at when the car goes for a service shortly. The rest of the time, the 7g is better imho, the changes are more consistent than the 5g and are normally very smooth regardless of the amount of acceleration demanded. There is no 'jerk' as you've described it when slowing down once the box is warm. I never experienced that with the 5g box either - it used to lurch badly on upshifts when cold, but was always fine on downshifts.

***'s experience is almost the opposite to mine - his E220 was super smooth (I had a drive in it when he had it) but his 320 with the 7g has been far less satisfactory.

From your description, it doesn't sound like your present car is shifting as smoothly as it should. I don't have any direct experience of the C250, so maybe 'they all do that sir', but I would have thought not. Perhaps worth following up with the dealer?
 
my old '59 plate c250 had the 5 speed auto... was always smooth apart from on very very cold mornings. How many miles has the car done? Also are you running in C or S mode? Might be worth clearing the settings and letting it relearn driving style...?
 
my old '59 plate c250 had the 5 speed auto... was always smooth apart from on very very cold mornings. How many miles has the car done? Also are you running in C or S mode? Might be worth clearing the settings and letting it relearn driving style...?

40k miles, and I've had it from new (just over 2 years).

Clearing the settings? I've not heard of this .. is this covered in the manual?
 
It is worth noting a few 204/212 5g owners had issues, due to the way the box was mapped

I've driven my car for 38k miles.A C320cdi 7g, an E500 coupe 7g, a CLS350cdi 7g and all of them had shifting problems.


I've also driven a 5g 211 E220cdi for 40k miles, a CLS55AMG, a 211 320cdi I6, a C270cdi 5g and a 212 E220cdi 5g. In all these cars, from mine to the CLS55amg the box was fast shifting, smooth and obedient in use of its manual override. The 7g was willfully disobedient using manual override, slow and rough.

Its a pile of dog poo. As Ian F says, the fit the 5g to the SLR for a reason. Because its good.


Lawrence, yours is the common 7g issue, and software fixes it. However, in saying that, I've driven pretty much new 59 and 09 regs with it, and they jolted and banged around. I don't know what was wrong with your 220cdi, was only in it the once and was smooth. I'd have been temtped to take it off you if you still had it, was a lovely car.

I got a lift in HB's I6 E320cdi, yes the engine was gruffer but oh my god it was smooth in its gears in a way mine isn't.

Can't wait until my savings account has enough in it for another car, can get 7g out my life.

Andy, please try a 7g, you may like it, most seem to, but I am a hater. I am not the only hater, where is Ian F when you need him.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom