1996c220merk

Hey everybody. New to the forums. I have a 1996 Mercedes C220 Sedan, great car, solid engine, runs good and drives like a champ. It has about 103xxx miles on it. This is all good, but I want to swap the transmission for a manual one. Does anyone have any ideas which transmissions would fit on this model and around how much it would cost to have this done. Thanks everybody

99MBSport

only one question WHY?

1996c220merk

i prefer manual over auto

99MBSport

Buy something with a manual tranny. Like a Jeep

Darth Speed

If you can find the parts out of a wrecked R170 (SLK230) (I seen a lot in the wrecking yards in Cali) you can do the swap. I am going to do a swap into a C230K soon.

AcousticplayerJ

I'm not sure if you have to do anything with the electronics, but the car will probably be expecting an automatic. You might want to find out if there's anything you need to do regarding the computer system.

u001elg

Anything is possible if you want to put forth the time and effort.

The first thing is to find a complete donor car (same year/engine) that was hit from the back or side. Inspect to ensure that all components in front of the rear seats are there are are not visibly damaged.

Now the fun stuff, transfer all the "manual" components from the donor car to yours... this includes the wiring harness, dash cluster, console with shifter, engine computer (ECM) as well as the traditional mechanical parts.

The end result is a manual Merc as the factory intended...

If you do the work yourself you should pull this off in a month of weekends (figure 60 to 80 hours) and the cost of the donor car, probably $2000 to $5000 depending on condition. I would have a contingency fund of another couple grand for the misc stuff that doesn't work due to the parts coming from a wreck. Good Luck & Happy Motoring

joelas

The comments on how to do it are reasonable. but I think you should take a good look at the option of selling your car and looking for one that already has a manual transmission made at the Factory. You ll probably save enough money to get a few years newer car or in better condition and have time left over and avoid numerous wounds. You will be a long time finding all the hidden details that mercedes made different and changing them over so that it will work perfect. If you do not have a lot of experience before startng the job, you will have the experience when you finally finish it.