Tiptronic box starting in 1st

Hi all, I've had my '99 Tip C2 for a few weeks now, and I'm still in love At first it seemed to always pull away in 2nd, but in the last week or so it seems to have started in 1st for a bit when the car is cold, and also sometimes if I've been sitting at lights. I guess it could just be the box learning how heavy my right foot is, and it's not really a problem, but I'm slightly concerned incase it's a clue that the box is on its way out or something. I'm about 4 months inside my warranty from the dealer. Thanks in advance, Steve

Nothing to worry about - Go out the and enjoy... When the engine is cold, the tip box will start at 1st until the engine has warmed up in which case it will revert to 2nd again. You can use the manual mode to start at 1st... However, if you dont move, the tip box will automatically move over to 2nd again. The manual shift on the gearbox prevents this. But this is working as designed, so no need to worry.

Great, thanks for the reassurance, this place is a goldmine of experience and advice.

Hi, The car will only go into 1st in D "automatically" when the car is cold. If the car is warm (ie. driven for about 10 minutes), as mentioned above, it pulls away in 2nd. It will never drop into 1st on its own. The only way to get the box into 1st (and in D) is to: a. Put the stick in D b. Press - on the steering wheel (dash indicator will show 1 and M) c. Move the stick into N d. Move the stick back to D e. Dash indicator shows 1 and D Unless you intend to pull away quite soon, it's not a good idea to do this, because in 1st (and warm) the engine pulls a lot harder, so puts additional wear on the engine, drive shaft and brakes. If you want to pull away very quickly. Just select 1 a few seconds before you need to pull away and leave it in M. If you put your foot down, the gearbox will automatically change up just before the red line (even though it's in M). For this reason, it's not possible to redline a Tiptronic and why, they generally, make for safer purchases 2nd hand. I'm not sure if the reduced RMS issue on the Tiptronic is due to this, I doubt it, but I'm sure there's some related explanation. I would add, that if the engine is warm and it's moving into 1 on its own accord, then that's not right. However, I don't think it's doing that and it will be a combination of you pressing the - and/or moving the gearstick. If there's a fault with the gearbox, the gear lights flash on the dash (can't remember which ones, but the manual tells you). Cheers, GD

It also depends on which tiptronic box you have, and what control module is fitted. Early boxes were made by ZF, and the programming was very different in the 98 and some 99 models. There were only 5 driving programs, and when in auto mode the tiptronic switches had no effect. Later ZF boxes had a control module which allowed the switches to override auto mode for a few seconds. 3.6 cars were fitted with a Mercedes-made box, introduced on the 996 Turbo. This has 250 driving programs. Both modules have a warm-up program which holds the car in a lower gear for longer, to warm up the catalytic converters quicker.

Mine is one of the ZF boxes, when in D the tip buttons have no effect.

Then it is the same as my old C2. With a warm engine, and in D, if you open the throttle quickly (without hitting the kickdown switch) it should shift down to first. I don't think you have anything to worry about, from the sound of things.

Richard, that's fantastic knowledge. I thought the gearboxes were similar, just with a few internal tweaks and different programming. I was aware that the facelift had the 250 option from the Turbo, but didn't realise it was so different.