Curious to what fellow CDI owners are using for their transmission program: Sport or Comfort? My inclination would be to use C in snow and S the rest of the time. But the PO claims he found he got better fuel economy in C, so he left in there all the time.

__________________
14 E250 Bluetec 4Matic "Sinclair", Palladium Silver on Black, 158k miles
06 E320 CDI "Rutherford", Black on Tan, 177k mi, Stage 1 tune, tuned TCU
91 300D "Otis", Smoke Silver on Tan, 144k mi, wastegate conversion, ALDA delete

19 Honda CR-V EX 72k mi
Fourteen other MB's owned and sold
1961 Very Tolerant Wife

After playing with it during the first week of my ownership, I couldn't really distinguish a difference, and since I have a heavy foot, I set it to S and it's been there ever since (127k miles).

__________________
Mark in MA
05 MB E320CDI 402k Granite Grey Metallic
05 MB E320CDI 267k Black
05 MB E320CDI 232k White
05 MB E320CDI 209k Tectite Grey
99 Dodge 2500 Cummins 5sp 148k
62 Jeep CJ-6 120k

S starts out in 1st gear I believe. Take off is faster when needed.

I have not noticed any difference in mpg when driven on highway trips.

__________________
-- Chris

'95 E300, 216k miles, Silver Surfer
'05 E320 CDI, 138k miles
'07 S550 4matic, 69k miles

Gone but not forgotten:

'76 300D, 350k miles?, SOLD in 1995
'75 240D, 300k miles, SOLD in 1991

If I am not mistaken the 97-up 210s use the 722.6xx transmission, which is also what they used in the 211s.

My 210 has the switch, except it is labeled W and S. I leave mine on S because it definitely starts in 2nd in W.

__________________
The OM 642/722.9 powered family
Still going strong
2014 ML350 Bluetec (wife's DD)
2013 E350 Bluetec (my DD)

both my kids cars went to junkyard in 2023
2008 ML320 CDI (Older son’s DD) fatal transmission failure, water soaked/fried rear SAM, numerous other issues, just too far gone to save (165k miles)
2008 E320 Bluetec (Younger son's DD) injector failed open and diluted oil with diesel, spun main bearings (240k miles)

1998 E300DT sold to TimFreeh
1987 300TD sold to vstech

That would make sense that S/C is the same as S/W. I hadn't thought of that. Yes, 1997 through at least 2006 have the 722.6xx.

__________________
14 E250 Bluetec 4Matic "Sinclair", Palladium Silver on Black, 158k miles
06 E320 CDI "Rutherford", Black on Tan, 177k mi, Stage 1 tune, tuned TCU
91 300D "Otis", Smoke Silver on Tan, 144k mi, wastegate conversion, ALDA delete

19 Honda CR-V EX 72k mi
Fourteen other MB's owned and sold
1961 Very Tolerant Wife

I have a 2008 Bluetec with the 7 speed trans. I cannot tell the difference between C and S. Definately starts off in first gear on both settings.

I'm using S. C makes the reverse gear too high for me.

It may have been my imagination, but using S this morning in stop and go traffic somehow seemed too jerky...switching to C smoothed things out.

__________________
14 E250 Bluetec 4Matic "Sinclair", Palladium Silver on Black, 158k miles
06 E320 CDI "Rutherford", Black on Tan, 177k mi, Stage 1 tune, tuned TCU
91 300D "Otis", Smoke Silver on Tan, 144k mi, wastegate conversion, ALDA delete

19 Honda CR-V EX 72k mi
Fourteen other MB's owned and sold
1961 Very Tolerant Wife

My dad drives an '06 CDI and says he gets better fuel mileage in Comfort mode as well and he finds it more comfortable.

I haven't noticed a big difference in shifting all that much between C and S though, whenever I drive his car.

Fun fact: For the longest time we assumed S stood for "Sport". We couldn't figure out what C meant though, until finally someone decided to leaf through the user manual. We all had an: "oooooohhhhhhh, that's what it means" moment...

Apparently C is supposed to take off in second gear, so it should be more comfortable in stop&go traffic.

__________________
"The MB W123 is so bulletproof, you can drive them forever. Which is a good thing as it takes that long to get anywhere."
Betsie: 1984 W123 300D (hobby, 280k miles)
Myrla: 2001 Mazda Protege 2.0 ES 5spd (daily driver, 130k miles)
The Turd: 2007 Toyota Camry (wife's car, 118k miles)

Since they are going into the same 5th gear, I doubt fuel economy differences are high.

I use C in mine most of the time. It would make sense that shifts are firmer in S (sport) though.

Sitting a light with your foot off the brake in C click it into S, and you'll notice the big difference between first and second. At least on older cars Mercedes used to advertise second gear start minimized idle creep.

__________________
68 280SL - 70 280SL - 70 300SEL 3.5 - 72 350SL - 72 280SEL 4.5 - 72 220 - 72 220D - 73 450SL - 84 230GE - 87 200TD - 90 190E 2.0 - 03 G500

Nissan GTR - Nissan Skyline GTS25T - Toyota GTFour - Rover Mini - Toyota Land Cruiser HJ60 - Cadillac Eldorado - BMW E30 - BMW 135i

I use "c". But like Ray-R said too high in Reverse.

__________________
06 MB E320 CDI 123k miles
14 Sienna (wife's DD) 36k miles
11 GL350 Bluetec 136k (Sold)
96 E300; 292k+ miles (Donated)
11 Sprinter 22K+ miles (Sold)

Always S, unless it's a snowy or icy surface.
I'm not keen on driving when there's snow or ice surfaces anyway. Usually stay off the roads 'til it clears up.

__________________
'06 E320 CDI
'17 Corvette Stingray Vert

It doesn't make sense to start off in 2nd gear, unless there's icy/snowy surfaces, and even then the car has traction control engaged. The car has to work harder to get moving in 2nd, so it wouldn't make sense that it automatically gets better mpg. That's a hard one to prove better mpg locking out 1st. Any defined data your Dad has, I'd like to look it over.

__________________
'06 E320 CDI
'17 Corvette Stingray Vert

Yeah, I guess I could see that in heavy stop n go usage.
If you want a thrill - lock out the traction sometime in S, and you'll light 'em up from a dead stop laying down burning rubber with these high torque machines. Look around for the cops though, first!

__________________
'06 E320 CDI
'17 Corvette Stingray Vert

Try a gearbox reset , certainly livens my 97 e300td up.
Sit in car and put ignition on but do not start engine.
Push throttle to the floor so kickdown switch is depressed for just over 5 seconds
Keep foot down and after the 5 seconds turn ignition off but leave key in.
Lift foot off throttle and then remove key and wait for around two minutes before attempting to start car.