New Owner Question: How Does One Shift A 500E Properly?

[bpcesf]

Hi Gang,

Though I've owned several competitor cars to the 500E (E34 Touring, E39, etc), I'm about to take delivery of my first 500E. I've long been curious how astute drivers use the auto-trans to make it really an exciting experience. Can anyone give me a run-down on the best way to use it, and things to look out for that could cause damage to it? Apologies if this has been mentioned previously - I searched heavily before posting this. Thank you in advance!

 

[nocfn]

Well keep in mind that the car must have a minimal temp before it shifts, and after that you are not even at a operating temp, just one that "super heats" the cat. The cluster should have dots on it indicating 1, 2, 3 shift points . .. ... if you want to manually shift to the revs per gear. Again be certain you are doing this above 80C on the temp display as there is a rev limiter that can be shocking when it takes over in the lower gears. I have about 1.5 miles to a highway, plenty of time to enjoy that manual shift as I launch into the highway manually at temp. I might add that my vehicle is refurbished with almost every major component replaced with factory parts to factory spec. As the poster below suggests, you really need to be at temp and just mash the pedal down and let it launch on to a freeway that is straight and light to no traffic.

 

[036]

Drive it warm, than step on it. That´s it.
I would never ever try to schift manualy. You might demolish couple of things, not even gearbox.

 

[gerryvz]

I have not seen this specific questions asked in the past, though there are posts about how to use the four-speed auto gearbox in a manual shift manner.

Let me dispel a statement you made up front: the transmission as found in the E500E is in no way an "exciting" transmission and provides a competent, adequate and functional experience. It gets the job done with no drama or hassles, but particularly if you are used to modern "8-speed" type transmissions, or manual transmissions in sports sedans, the E500E transmission is pretty much the antithesis to all of this.

The bottom line is that these transmissions are perfectly capable of manual up- and down-shifting, if you want to or care to do that. However, in real life, it's MUCH MUCH easier and better just to put it in Drive and let the transmission do the work. Given that this is a very old design, four-speed transmission, it's really not set up for sporty driving, nor aggressive manual shifting a la a BMW M5 with a manual transmission, or even a Porsche with a Tiptronic.

The upside to the E500E transmission is that it is robust and durable and reliable. The downside is that it only has four gears, and is targeted more for regular and high-speed cruising rather than sporty driving, per the nature of the E500E itself.

Getting a bit more practical, per your question:

As said, let the car warm up a bit. Stock E500Es are set to start out in second gear, always.

If starting cold, it will hold the first shift (2-3) a bit longer -- higher revs -- to heat up the catalytic converters a bit faster. It will do this for the first couple or three minutes -- likely the first couple of stop signs you encounter after starting the car. Don't worry about this.

Shifting the transmission down and then into the "B" setting and back either up to 3 or 2 or D, at a stop sign/stop light, will move the transmission into first gear, where it will start from. Some folks modify their transmissions to always start in first gear, or have a switchable "first gear start" module that allows this. However, if you want first gear, it's just as easy in real life to activate the "B" switch and then move back up to Drive.

The max shift point speeds for each gear are indeed indicated by the dots on the speedometer, if you want to manually hold each gear to its max speed.

I would just experiment with the transmission, starting in second, first, and seeing what you like. Shift it up, shift it down going into corners, see how things work. Take care not to over-rev when downshifting. The transmission can easily handle manual downshifts.

I think you will find that it's much better and easier just to put it in D and leave it.

These transmissions have one weak point, and that is the reverse gear. This is all very well documented here on the forum. When the reverse gear setup is starting to go weak and on the road to failure, you will notice an out-sized delay in shifting into reverse. Normally a good transmission's reverse shift will be 0.5-1 second. When you get anything over 1 second, often times 2-3 seconds, you are very close to needing a rebuild. Eventually, the transmission reverse will fail outright. There are several good rebuilders nationally, also all documented here on the forum.

Typically this reverse issue will happen between 80,000 and 150,000 miles - generally toward the lower end of this mileage range on the E500E (80-100K). My own transmission has a 1.5-second reverse delay with 147K miles on the car. I have been nursing this delay for the past 10 years, but it is not yet to the point where it requires removal and rebuild.

These transmissions were spec'd originally with Dexron II transmission fluid, and do not like "modern" ATFs. Try to get a Dexron II or Dexron III compatible fluid if possible. You can go dino or synthetic with the ATF, but note as is typical you will likely get some modest leaks/weeping if you switch from dino to synthetic. Removing the transmission and doing a complete external re-seal will remedy this, and is not too difficult to do. It is a slight chore to remove the transmission yourself if you are good with a wrench, but is completely DIY-able if you ever need to do it (for example, to remove and ship it to a rebuilder).

 

[gsxr]

To clarify slightly on the above posts:

1) For FULL THROTTLE shifts, leave it in D and pin the throttle. Don't bother shifting manually. When everything is working normally, it will upshift at 6000rpm for every upshift. See video below (that tach is 'optimistic', yours will likely indicate 6000-6100 max).

2) For PART THROTTLE shifts, sometimes the transmission will upshift when you don't want it to (too early). This is when you use the shift lever to keep it in a lower gear as desired, then manually trigger the upshift with the shift lever. I do this a LOT when driving around town. Ditto when you want a downshift, without WOT... pull the shift lever back to drop a gear at half throttle.

3) There's an adjustment for part-throttle shift RPM's. If you find the transmission is constantly upshifting too early, or is too lazy to downshift at part throttle, tweak the adjusting rod for the Bowden (control pressure) cable behind the airbox. It's a fine adjustment: 1-2mm change in rod length makes a big change in RPM's. The adjustment increases both upshift and downshift RPM's. Adjust, test drive, lather, rinse, repeat until you are happy.

 

[nocfn]

YEA, what GSXR Says!

 

[TerryA]

I don’t think you will get to excited about manually shifting your 500E. The first few times might be but it is kinda boring. The trans works perfectly by just mashing the pedal to the floor as witnessed in Dave’s post #5 above. I’m not sure if that was a 1st gear start since it shifted at 40 mph but he hit all of the WOT tach points on his way to about 130 mph on the speedo.

Note: Dave is our resident “Drag Racer” he just revived an old video of his red 500E going thru the traps at 14.04 seconds / ? mph.

PS: Maybe Dave can post one of his races here. I couldn’t find the latest one I saw recently.

A stock E500E won’t do much better than that!

If you want to go faster you should start looking for an AMG E60 or a Renn Tech 6.0 with all the goodies. This requires very deep pockets. Most E60s sell for well over $100K and a Renn Tech. 6.0 upgrade will be $30K+

 

[gsxr]

...in Dave’s post #5 above. I’m not sure if that was a 1st gear start since it shifted at 40 mph but he hit all of the WOT tach points on his way to about 130 mph on the speedo.

Yep, that is starting in 1st gear. The 1-2 upshift occurs at ~40mph, 2-3 is at ~70mph, 3-4 at ~110mph. Any full-throttle launch should always occur in 1st gear, as the pedal movement (and kickdown switch) will drop the trans from 2nd to 1st automatically.

Note: Dave is our resident “Drag Racer” he just revived an old video of his red 500E going thru the traps at 14.04 seconds / ? mph.
A stock E500E won’t do much better than that!

Most good-running E500E's will be roughly 14.0-14.2 seconds at 98-100mph. With some racer tricks (empty trunk, tank on reserve, etc) this can drop to 13.6-13.8 at 100-102mph. That's at sea level and with good air. Tons of variables will affect performance on a given day.

PS: Maybe Dave can post one of his races here. I couldn’t find the latest one I saw recently.

I need to upload some other videos, but there's a couple on my YouToob channel:

https://www.youtube.com/@W124performance/videos

If you want to go faster you should start looking for an AMG E60 or a Renn Tech 6.0 with all the goodies. This requires very deep pockets. Most E60s sell for well over $100K and a Renn Tech. 6.0 upgrade will be $30K+

To paraphrase Ferris Bueller: The 6.0L engine is so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up.

 

[maw1124]

The only thing I would add to all of this is that around town (under 60mph) I prefer to just leave it in [D]3. I only use D[4] on the highway. Even with first gear start and my Bowden cable adjusted, for street driving I prefer the first three gears only.

@gerryvz points are well taken, that as much as I love my tiptronic / SMG / AMG Speedshift transmissions in the other cars, this one is most assuredly not that.

But around town in 3rd with the Bowden cable adjusted will get you about as close as you need (higher RPM, more eager downshifts, etc.) and take some of the laziness out of it. But I'm pretty sure almost everyone who has responded has rebuilt transmissions, so there's that...

maw

 

[gsxr]

Terry, was this the video you were thinking of with the red 500E?

Video: 500E gets runner-up in 2015 Sportsman track championship | Street and Strip

Hey everyone, Yesterday was a very long, very bizarre day at the track. I'll spare you the intimate details, the short version is I came into the final race yesterday (#12 of 12) several rounds out of first place, and had no hope of closing that gap. Due to a string of luck so amazing I should...

www.500eboard.co

 

[TerryA]

Terry, was this the video you were thinking of with the red 500E?

Video: 500E gets runner-up in 2015 Sportsman track championship | Street and Strip

Hey everyone, Yesterday was a very long, very bizarre day at the track. I'll spare you the intimate details, the short version is I came into the final race yesterday (#12 of 12) several rounds out of first place, and had no hope of closing that gap. Due to a string of luck so amazing I should...

www.500eboard.co

Yeah! That’s it! I know you lost the bracket race but that is a kool video of a 500E rolling down the track. Also proof positive on a 14.00 second 1/4 mile run.

Thanks for posting

 

[gsxr]

Yeah! That’s it! I know you lost the bracket race but that is a kool video of a 500E rolling down the track. Also proof positive on a 14.00 second 1/4 mile run.

And, that was at 2700' elevation... corrected to sea level, that was a ~13.7 second run!