First I must say I love the truck. The engine is fabulous with tons of power. this is my first Mercedes so it will take a while to get used to all the do-dads especially since my other car is a Dodge Viper.
I do have some questions and comments i hope some of you can help me out with.
1. The transimission seems very smooth and quiet. What I have noticed however is its eagerness to jump to the next gear, particularly at slower highway speeds and low rpms. The combination of higher gear and the lower rpm make throttling the truck from there nearly impossible without getting it to downshift. Is this standard? I assume the transmssion is always trying to maximize fuel economy.
Also I noticed that the transmission is very quick to shift to second from throttling from a dead stop. Furthermore whenever I give it s bit more throttle rather than the normal "touch the gas and go" it seems like the transmission gets confused causing the gear change from first to second to become sloppy and the car bucks and hesitates a bit. If I give the car anthing past quarter throttle it holds first gear a bit longer and the shift from 1st to second is smooth again. Anyone notice this also? Is there a problem with the transmission?
2. My passenger side seat has an annoying creak when either accelerating or braking. I can move the seat and it goes away for a bit but it always seems to come back. Again have others had this problem? Will the dealer fix this?
3. Ipod kit. I ordered the car with the ipod kit which is useful. I did notice a bit of a decrease in volume as compared to the radio which is not too big of a deal. I will try that change to the service software I recently read about. A problem i do have however is it cuts out intermitantly. It sounds like there is a wire loose the and getting a signal intermitantly. However there are times when it is fine for a long period of time. Is this something that anyone else has noticed? Is it a loose connection of some sort?
Despite these nuisances, i love the truck and excited to put some miles on it and putting the pedal to the ground...
Tom,
Congrats on your new truck!
The more I drive mine the more I love it.
I too initially felt the bucking of the gears when I first drove it but it seemed to get better with time and now it hardly does it after a couple months driving it. I don't know if it the vehicle or my foot getting used to the way the trans works. 1st gear is a deep gear and the trans wants to get out of it as quickly as possible for economy but if you nail it it, 1st WILL rev up to over 5k and quickly shift into 2nd, 3rd etc...
As to the question about the seat and IPOD, don't have those problems.
ENJOY!
Congrats on your new ML!! Love mine too.
I don't experience your problem # 1,
For # 2, if it's really annoying, you can bring it back to the dealer. It's covered under the "bumper-to-bumper" new car warranty. The only thing is, you know these trucks, they are like humans, as soon as you bring them to the doc, they start acting normal and no symptoms.
For # 3, I don't have your problem but probably you can also ask the dealer when you bring your truck for #2.
congrats on new purchase - you'll love the mercedes V8 in the ML, the 500 is fast, and I've only heard amazing things about the 550.
the w164 has an adaptive transmission - so instead of you trying to adjust your driving style to make the car smooth, let the car learn you. If you try to learn it while it's trying to learn you - it starts acting strangely and you get that bucking. Drive it in anticipation that the car will do what you want, and eventually it will.
I hope that helps. It's hard to describe on paper.
Thanks I was reading about the adaptive transmission last night. I will certainly do as noted.
Quote:
Originally Posted by revolt1112
congrats on new purchase - you'll love the mercedes V8 in the ML, the 500 is fast, and I've only heard amazing things about the 550.
the w164 has an adaptive transmission - so instead of you trying to adjust your driving style to make the car smooth, let the car learn you. If you try to learn it while it's trying to learn you - it starts acting strangely and you get that bucking. Drive it in anticipation that the car will do what you want, and eventually it will.
I hope that helps. It's hard to describe on paper.
We have had the ML to our dealer for the passenger seat squeak. They did not fix it.
I know that the problem is a plastic casing on the bottom of the seat that rubs somewhere against the metal frame. If we could reach the rubbing area with a little grease it would stop the noise completely. But we can't reach it. So we live with it.
Nevertheless, it is very annoying to hear this expensive car creak like an old door.
We have had the ML to our dealer for the passenger seat squeak. They did not fix it.
I know that the problem is a plastic casing on the bottom of the seat that rubs somewhere against the metal frame. If we could reach the rubbing area with a little grease it would stop the noise completely. But we can't reach it. So we live with it.
Nevertheless, it is very annoying to hear this expensive car creak like an old door.
My 06 ML driver's seat does this usually when cold.
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S.
2006 ML350 white/ash
2008 C300 Sport mars red/black
2004 986S seal gray metallic/black/black
We have had the ML to our dealer for the passenger seat squeak. They did not fix it.
I know that the problem is a plastic casing on the bottom of the seat that rubs somewhere against the metal frame. If we could reach the rubbing area with a little grease it would stop the noise completely. But we can't reach it. So we live with it.
Nevertheless, it is very annoying to hear this expensive car creak like an old door.
maybe fashion together like a narrow hose/siphon/funnel about the width of a cocktail straw and fish it to where you need it. i was sitting here looking at this can of compressed air i have for cleaning my camera lenses, and you know they have those plastic extensions - something like that + grease = problem solved, lol.
My tranny on my 500 does the same thing. It shifts very quickly out of first (and the next few gears) and it creates a sluggish feeling to the engine unless I really get on it since it isn't building any revs prior to shifting.
Must have learned I'm a cheapskate trying to save gas by going easy on the pedal!!?
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