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Mercedes Benz C230 jerking problems

25 of the 657 owner complaints about the Mercedes Benz C230 describe jerking or lurching, most of them for the 2006 model year.

owner complaints
25
worst model year
2006
typical mileage
63,000
Is there a fix? No recall or service bulletin covers this area of the car yet.

By model year

Often reported together

Stalling 3Loss of power 3Check engine light 3Won't shift 1

Trouble codes mentioned

P0718 1P0717 1

What owners say

Filed May 2, 2023 · Transmission · 131,629 miles · CA

The contact owns a 2006 Mercedes-Benz C230. The contact stated while driving approximately 30 MPH, the transmission failed to shift, and the transmission appeared to be frozen in the 2nd gear. The contact stopped and turned off the vehicle and shifted into park (P); when the vehicle was restarted and shifted into drive (D), the vehicle was lunging and jerking. The contact stated that it was difficult to shift from drive (D) to park (P) or reverse (R), because the vehicle would lunge in the direction the transmission was shifted. The contact stated that the check engine warning light was illuminated. The contact had not taken the vehicle to a local dealer or independent mechanic to be diagnosed or repaired. The contact had researched online and related the failure to the transmission control module sensor. The manufacturer had been informed of the failure. The failure mileage was 131,629.

Filed Jun 16, 2017 · Transmission · 120,000 miles · TX

Tl* the contact owns a 2007 mercedes-benz c230. When slowing down the vehicle by applying pressure to the brake pedal, the vehicle jerked and hesitated to stop. There were no warning indicators illuminated. The failure recurred several times when the vehicle was coming to a stop. In addition, the contact stated that the transmission lost power and was unable to shift into gear. The vehicle was not taken to a dealer. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 120,000.

Filed Jun 7, 2017 · Transmission · 63,000 miles · FL

The car stays in first gear and I have to stop and pull over. Put it in park and it jerks very badly going into park. Then I pull off the road, stop, turn it off and back on. Then everything goes back to normal, until it happens again. I read on-line of many people having this same issue and there is no recall. Imo this is a safety issue and I do not feel comfortable with loved ones in this car. My dealership is reapiring the transmission as I write for $1400+. I thought mercedes meant high quality/reliability. At least they can admit their mistake and fix it for the people suffering before someone dies. My car only has 63,000 miles and has been serviced by the dealership iaw service manual.

Filed Mar 15, 2016 · Acceleration, Transmission · 94,000 miles · NJ

The car stays in first gear and I have to stop and pull over. Put it in park and it jerks very badly going it to park. Then I turn it off, and back on. Then everything goes back to normal, until it happens again. So many people have this issue and there is no recall. What are they waiting for. There is 113 complaints on this car and almost none are from the only recall they have actually issued. This happens on a red light. It happens on the high way. In reverse. I wish I never bought this car. Some people paid 1500 dollars to fix it. I thought mercedes meant high quality. At least they can admit their mistake and fix it for the people suffering before someone dies. The car has 94000 miles. My honda went to 200,000 with out issues.

Filed Feb 9, 2016 · Transmission · 41,000 miles · GA

Tl* the contact owns a 2007 mercedes benz c230. The contact stated that while driving at 45 MPH, the vehicle starting jerking as if it were to stall. In addition, the contact stated that the transmission seemed as if the vehicle was in neutral. The vehicle was shut off and restarted. The vehicle was taken to a dealer where it was diagnosed that the conductor plate needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was 41,000.

Filed Oct 17, 2013 · Transmission · 54,000 miles · UT

While driving, my car would not shift to the next gear. I pulled over and shifted into park. The car jerked hard. Then I put the car in drive and it jerked hard again. I pulled away and the car had low power and then would not shift passed second gear. I pulled over again and shifted the car to park, turned off the engine, turned it back on and shifted to drive and it worked fine. It's now done this about 15 times while driving at different speeds.

Filed May 30, 2013 · Acceleration, Lights · 80,000 miles · CA

I was driving about 60 MPH suddenly my car was jerking and shaking the speed started to decrease and the car suddenly turned off I was able to pull over to the side of the road and I had to turn the key to start it the engine light turned on and I was able to drive off like regular. The next day I was on the freeway exiting I was going like 40 MPH when I decreased my speed to stop and make a turn my RPM was at high 4-5 and my speed was 20mph I had to step on the pedal all the way just to get to 20 MPH.

Filed Apr 26, 2013 · Engine, Transmission · 58,965 miles · FL

I was driving home and noticed that when I would accelerate after coming to a stop the car was extremely slugglish. I would have to almost floor the gas pedal in order for the car to begin moving. I pulled over and then put the car in neuttral. The jerked violently and shifted very hard as I then tried to put it in reverse and the into park. I tried to put the car back into drive and it would not accelerate at all. I had to turn the car off and then back on again in order to get it moving. The gears continued to shift violently. However, when I finally got moving again, the car would not go over 35 MPH. The car was inspected and an error code for the internal speed sensor came up, which is part of the valve body for the transmission. My car only has 59,000 miles on it. Mercedes is very aware of this problem on 2006-2007 c230 models! In fact, they are having a dispute with the manufacturer of the valve body because it is poor quality and defective. I have seen numerous other complaints related to this issue. My local mercedes dealership quoted me $2,400 to repair this defective part. I was lucky in that I was not driving at 60 MPH on the highway when this malfunction occurred. This is an extremely dangerous issue and a recall should be issued for this part.

Filed Feb 5, 2013 · Transmission · 86,000 miles · TX

I was stopped at a red light and when I accelerated the car didn't change from 2nd to 3rd gear and the tachometer was reading very high since I was trying to accelerate. Since the car wouldn't excel I pulled over and turned off the engine. When I turned it on again it was okay. I took the car to the mercedes dealership 1/8/13 but they couldn't find a problem. This has happened a total of 4 times since 1/7/13 and each time I have to pull over and turn off the engine to reset it. Additionally, I have had a problem with the car lurching (jumping) when putting it into drive or reverse and when accelerating after this the car doesn't change from 1st to 2nd gear. Also, I have had 2 incidents where the car has not accelerated to the appropriate gear (higher gear) on a highway ramp and I have had to pull over and turn the engine off to reset it. Sometimes when I pull over and turn the car off I have to do this again as it doesn't correct the problem the 1st time in my opinion this is a safety issue, but not only that it is very annoying and every time I get into the car I wonder whether it is going to happen again.

Filed Feb 6, 2012 · Driver assistance, Engine · TN

Having problem with the gear shifting, believe this is caused by the shaft balancer, etc. The car grabs and jerks from time to time making me unsure of the safety of my car. My car only has 84,000 miles on it. The car is like new, but as I read the class act against mercedes I noticed that my car has several of the same issues as others listed in the complaint. The interior and exterior of my car is in excellent condition, and I can't believe that the mercedes company would allow an error like this to continue. I would like for this to be corrected by mercedes or to be placed on the class act suit as well.

Related recalls

No recalls on record for this model year.

Questions about the Mercedes Benz C230 jerking

Which Mercedes Benz C230 years have jerking or lurching problems?

The model years with the most reports are 2006 (7 complaints), 2007 (7 complaints) and 2003 (5 complaints).

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