Hi!
My name´s Matteo, i´m italian, and i have one of the few clk430 sold here.
Car is a y2000, silver, elegance model, bought 2nd hand in june.
I drove more than 4000 km myself in it, and I find it very very nice.
I drove it up to denmark, through famous unlimited german autobahns... and here is first question :
has anybody tried top speed? at what indicated speed does the speed limiter starts in your car?
I have seen up to 260 km/h, then there was too much trafic. no trace of speed limiter (on an audi s8 speed limiter kicks in at 255 indicated, tried personally)... so i wondered maybe previous owner has removed it....

second question is regarding tranny.
mine works fine, shifts smoothly, but at low speeds, accellerating or keeping slightly accellerated, there is a noise coming from gearbox like a "ta ta ta ...." , not a loud noise (audible only without any external or internal noise).
this is less audible when car is cold, or when "sequential" gears are used. It doesnt show up when car is revved in P or N
i think it has something to do with the torque converter (as it is louder when TC is under "pressure").
Do you know what can it be and how much can it cost?
Car has 97000 km (60t miles), and I planned to have transmission fluid changed at next service.
another strange (but great) thing i noticed is the behaviour of car in high speed..... steering wheel over 210 kmh is very reassuring, car is very stable and "easy", no vibrations or whatsoever....

thanks for everything
if any of you knows where to get a copy of comand manual I would really appreciate.
Thanks again
Matteo

 

Hi Matteo,

I recently saw a CLK which made a noise which sounds a bit like the one you're describing. It turned out to be in the tailshaft at the central support bearing or the universal joint. However the car was under warranty, so it received a complete tailshaft.

The best way to find out what is making the noise is to get the car hot enough to make the noise and get your mechanic to lift the car with the wheels off the ground.

Use the "ESP off" Switch and then run the car in the air in gear at the speed at which the noise occurs. Your mechanic may be able to isolate the noise this way.

I can't tell you anything about the speed limiter because I don't live anywhere near Autobahns, but you should be able to get a new command manual from your local dealer in the language you need. I don't think it should cost much.

Good luck with your noise, unfortunately, noises a very hard to diagnose over the net, but I hope this helps.

 

Thanks a lot for the answer, as first.
I thought about the tailshaft and i went for a quick drive.
It doesn really sound like a tailshaft because noise appears only when torque converter is slipping. a tailshaft noise should increase with the speed, also when accellerator is not pressed... or am i missing something?
Anyway i´ll get it checked (in cooler weather is almost not audible)
thanks a lot

u should try the autobahn, at least once in life....

ciao
matteo