Long Islander

It seems it's time to change the tranny fluid and filter as well as the transfer case fluid. A local MB dealer quoted an eye-popping $650 for the tranny svce and $250 for the transfer case svce. He also said MB equipment is needed to pump out the tranny fluid.

I was thinking of taking it to a local mechanic whose labor rates are much lower, but the bit about the MB equipment being needed to pump out the tranny has me concerned (or is this just snake oil).

Any thoughts? Also, anyone know how much of the fluid I would need to buy if I took it to an independent shop?

LemonSqueezy

A good independent shop who knows how to work on Mercedes will do it for $350-400 in my area.

Plutoe

Instead of always thinking on the cheap and supplying all the bits and pieces, why not first call a couple of transmission shops and get estimates!!

Now you have a base to work with!!

Long Islander

I called two other MB dealers. The nearest one said $665 for both. Another one said $425 for both tranny and transfer case! Plus, the service advisor told me about service coupons they had online and I used a 15% off coupon for referring a friend. So, I had them do it for $361. My local indy said $150 labor plus materials (around $225 from the dealer).

This is basically a 1.5 hour job for someone who's done it before. Charging $675 of labor for 1.5 hours is just plain greedy. It pays to shop around.

onorbit

I just did it the tranny oil change myself a month ago. Emptied out the oil from pan, removed the own and cleaned it including the magnet. Replaced the pan gasket, OEM filter and if e quarts of ATF 134 tranny oil purchased at the MBZ dealer. Oil costs about $22 a quart and filter and gasket were about $30. About 30 minutes of work. You need to break the red cap off the off where a transmission dip stick should go, if you use a small thin screwdriver you might remove it and can still use it. If not, buy a new cap for a few bucks. Simple process I will do it at another 50K miles. My car has 165K now and runs great.