I have an '04 CLK500 as well as an '04 E320 4-Matic that seem to "act up" every now and again in the shifting behavior. Sometimes the tranny seems to hang on to the gear I'm in(especially going uphill) but will shift properly when I tap the tip tronic lever and at other times it seems sluggish in shifting from drive to reverse when parking. Since there is no dip stick I cannot accurately determine the fluid level which I feel is the culprit since it has been changed in both cars(using MB fluid) but do not have a local dealer for almost 100 miles to thermally measure the fluid level! Am I on the right track?

 

Have a Dealer Inspect the 209 as that year had a defective radiator that leaked coolant into the Auto trans..as the trans cooler is part of the radiator...when it leaks it WILL Damage the Trans!!

 

Thanks for the heads up on the coolant leakage into the tranny fluid but it did turn out to be a low fluid level in the transmission and adding a little more at the dealer resolved the issue when it was measured by the thermal device and they did it for NO CHARGE! So nice of them that I brought my '04 E-320 wagon down to have that checked too! Now about my SRS light on the '04 CLK. Turns out that that has to be reset by the dealer because the code is locked out on the scanner.