My old 1977 280E, which my brother now drives, has a flaring shift from 2-3. Everything else is normal. It was doing this when I first bought the car about 100,000 KM ago. I was worried about it then and had it looked at several times by several techs, got it tweaked, etc. Nothing helped. So I just changed the fluid every 40,000 KM and she's still purring along, albeit the flaring shift from 2-3. The car's total mileage is around 300,000 KM, original transmission.

A tech once tweaked it so that the 2-3 shift was more smooth, but then the other gear shifts were not. I chose to live with the rougher 2-3. It really drops into 3rd with a solid clunk, but it has never worsened. It seems the rough 2-3 shift is not uncommon.

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Chris
2007 E550 4Matic - 61,000 Km - Iridium Silver, black leather, Sport package, Premium 2 package
2007 GL450 4Matic - 62,000 Km - Obsidian Black Metallic, black leather, all options
1998 E430 - sold
1989 300E - 333,000 Km - sold
1977 280E - sold
1971 250 - retired

"And a frign hat. They gave me a hat at the annual benefits meeting. I said. how does this benefit me. I dont have anything from the company.. So they gave me a hat." - TheDon