Sincity

Folks,

I just came back from the dealer after getting my Harmonic Balancer replaced under my Starmark extended warranty. There is one part I don't have to worry about.

I asked my SA about transmission failure on 98s and 99s and he quoted that they have replaced many units and they seem to fail around 60k miles. How many of you out there with a 98 or 99 replaced your transmission?

My trans seems to be fine for now, though it did have a hard time shiffting once. I just want to get anohter 15-30k miles before I trade it in for an FX. I currently have 70k miles.

saturnstyl

I certainly beg to differ. Transmission failure is quite rare at my dealership. The 722.6 is extremely reliable. We do fix a lot of leaking electrical connectors though. A valve body or control unit here and there, but rarely a transmission. Typically when a 722.6 quits it totally destroys itself and a replacement is all you can do, but those types of failures are few and far between, and spread evenly among all the models.
Remember a faulty air mass sensor can cause late upshifts, and a bad traction module, or shifter module can also screw things up!

patrick

Indeed!


???? Have you ever looked at the price of the broken parts? It is definitly worth it to fix it instead of replacing it. Only mechanics who do not know what they are doing just replace transmissions.

But...many people on this forum know "ALL" about these transmissions. I have already read the biggest BS!
If I was English-speaking I would take some time to explain some things,...but in fact it is not worth it!

saturnstyl

Well fella let me put it to you this way... I took the training course for the 722.6 courtesy of mercedes-benz. Even they will tell you that if any hard parts are broken, it will be cheaper to get a new transmission than it will be to try and repair the old one. Figure labor at $80 an hour, a tranny R&R, teardown, inspection, repair, reassemble and limited warranty vs a simple tranny swap that is fully warranted by MB. Why put $2000 worth of gear sets in a trans, and pay all that labor, when you can buy the whole thing for $2500-3000?

Sincity

Saturnstyl: I agree. As an adjuster, I know it is sometimes cheaper to R&R a unit rather than overhaul. From my job, I have known my SA from prior dealerships he has worked with and the is quite "frank" with me. According to him, they have replaced several units at around 60k miles, which is suspicously close to some of the folks here with failures.

Also, since I am ignorant in the subject, why did MBUSA elect not to recommend service to the trans fluid and filter? Also, can you give me some insight as to what problems I will experience before an iminent failure?

Thanks.

saturnstyl

The trans fluid in all 722.6 and the new 722.9 trannies is a fully synthetic fluid. It should never need to be serviced. Notice they left out the dipstick too, because if it doesn't leak, it should never need to be checked.
Most of the time, sprag failure got the early transmissions. Coasting to a stop, it would downshift, and the headrest would pop you in the back of the head. Its a really hard downshift. Eventually grinding noises and such, car won't move anymore... just like any other transmission. Seal failures, clutch failures, anything like that just isn't really common. Any major failure just isn't all that common. Most of the time if you have a check engine light or tranny is in limp home mode, its probably mechanically sound and the electronics went bad somewhere. Drink spills in to the shifter are very common, and sometimes a speed sensor failure or tranny module failure. Any engine running complaint will usually adversely effect the trans operation also. Since you have an ML, you may experiance a shuddering while turning, thats just the transfer case and is considered normal and not warrantable, but an updated case will resolve the issue.

Sincity

Saturnstyl,

Thanks for the response. My trans used to downshift hard early in its life. I think a trans module of some sort was replaced.

Funny that you mention about the spillage into the shifter gate. I once handled a Mercedes claim (E-Class) where someone spilled a mug of coffee (after impact with another vehicle) into the shift gate and damaged a module.

Darkmann

So what happened??? I hope they won because that one very bad design. It's as if they dare you to spill - and in most MBs that I have driven, the cupholder is usually not too far from the shift gate.

Regarding this quote from Saturnstyl

Oh yeah, that hard downshift at low revs is still there in the ML tranny. It drives me nuts and I believe that the tranny will quit soon, if that hard downshift persists.

Sincity

I paid for the module.

implausible

I see more seal failure and hotspots on the steels than heavy metal damage.

OttoBon100

I had a '99 ML320 that I sold just shy of 90k miles and never had a problem with my transmission. Own an '03 ML320 now. So far, no problems. < 15k.

coretexity

I've had my transmission rebuilt at 47k miles (april 06). I drive a 99 ML 320. The car used to jerk when downshifting to 1st. I noticed this at very low RPMs, like if I am in D and had to stop on a light. Took it to the dealer, they rebuilt the tranny. Not sure how long it'd last, but today a shop tells me that I have a leaky transmission pan gasket. I will put a cardboard under it to monitor the leak and get it back to the dealer as I believe the rebuilt xmission has 1 year warranty.

honda96vf750

Hi All
This is my first post, I just bought a fully loaded 2001 ML320 for 20.000 euros that was sitting at my local BMW dealer . It was in what looked like was perfect shape inside & out , I checked under the hood and seen no leaks and no sign of a recent motor cleansing,took a test drive and all was what to me seemed in perfect order.
Now reading all these posts im starting to get worried ,Did I make the right choice? the ML 320 only has 63.000 km on odometer and only 1 previous owner other than being run by the mercedes dealer for 1 year prior to him. I talked to my local benz dealer and they said that because I also have a 1year BWM warrenty that I can also bring to to them if any problems arise .
wish me luck ,I will post some pics as soon as I can.
Its a beautiful truck
p.s love this forum , just wish I found it sooner

Wolfgang

Congratulations, you made a great choice.

Here's some stuff to check out on 163s:

https://mbworld.org/forums/m-class-w163/88443-list-stuff-watch-out-163-a.html

http://www.whnet.com/4x4/tsb.html

honda96vf750

Thank you Wolfgang. hope it was´nt tongue-n-cheek But only time will tell about my choice. OMG the lists you gave are endless