Super_kart

Hey guys,

I made a new DIY tutorial for you guys. This one explains how to change the transmission fluid. Enjoy it and let me know what you think.

How To Change The Transmission Fluid On Your Mercedes Benz S500 - YouTube

Quadcammer

overall a good video.

Few things.

1. No need to replace the oil fill cap. If you need a new o-ring, sure, but the cap is reused.

2. You spend a lot of time on jacking up the car, but zero time on removing the actual pan.

Just as a heads up to those doing this, the pan will sill have about 800ml of fluid in it after its fully drained through the hole. IF you just pull the bolts and lower the thing, you will likely make a huge mess.

My preferred method here is to loosen the lower bolts first. then slowly loosen the more forward bolts. Position your drain pan towards the rear of the transmission. Once you start to loosen the more forward bolts, the fluid will start spilling over the back of the tranny pan. Continue to loosen the middle and then front bolts, and you can get most of this fluid out. Once this is done, hold up the pan to level, and remove the last of the bolts and lower the pan without spilling.

Also, the bolts do not hold the pan lip directly but rather have a stanchion that hold the pan lip. Make sure that the stanchion is in the right place when reassembling.

You will likely need to remove the 02 sensor wire clips and the bracket that holds them to get to all the bolts.

haoz129

Wow, the video is neat.

One suggestion relate to safety.
Jack four wheels up is always extremely dangerous. What ever how careful you are there is always a chance the car will shift which is a disaster. Do not lift four wheels up at home unless you REALLY HAVE TOO.

In this case front wheels up is good enough. And I also suggest using ramps instead of jack/jack stand to handle works which is not related to wheel/suspension.

Thanks.

Howard

Quadcammer

not really. Cars solidly placed on 4 jackstands are very safe. Any time you raise a car and crawl under it, it can be dangerous, but lifting all 4 corners is just fine.

haoz129

Lifting 2 corners are easier and safer than 4 corners. In this case 2 corners off the ground is good enough, ramps are even safer for oil change, why not take the safer way?

Yes, idealy, 4 jackstands solidly supporting a car which is level, it is fine.
But we are not living in a perfect world. Think about the process, at home, lifting the front then the rear, the car goes through a un-level process, which is dangerous.
Think about the teeth gap of the jack stand plus the garage floor condition, it is almost impossibble to find a level position, this is dangerous.
Think about the plastic jack pad which is not designed to use with jack stand.
Consider above, do you still think it is safe to put this heavy car on four jack stands and crawl under ? I will not do that. I work on cars for fun and I will never suggest others to do dangerous DIY.

If you think it is safe and you want do that, you could. But one day you will know how dangerous it is.

Wish everybody a safe DIY.

Howard

Super_kart

Thank you Quadcammer and Haoz129 for your compliments and advice. I made some updates to the video. I did spend a lot of time on lifting the car. I felt lifting a car on all four wheels can be a bit confusing and even more confusing if it is lowered in the wrong order as this can cause the front bumper to sit up against the jack. I will focus more time on applied techniques, e.g., noting excess oil in the transmission pan, in future videos. Thank you again for your advice and guidance.

Welwynnick

Lifting all four corners CAN be safe, I've done it myself, but you need enormous care. Each axle stand needs to be supporting a purely vertical load. The risk is that the geometry of the jack and the suspension will put a side load on the stand. The weight on each stand may project onto the edge of the base of the stand, rather than the centre, and if it goes too far the stand will topple. Years ago I saw someone jack a car onto stands, and it moved sideways. It put a mortal fear into me, and though I love working on cars, I've always been mindful of what can go wrong. I really don't want to leave my family behind for the sake of saving a few bucks. Four stands really are potentially very dangerous.

Nick

haoz129

You're welcome Super_Kart.
It is not easy working and taking video at the same time, as we all know. I've always been struggling on the works itself hence can't record the process as well as you did.

It is nothing wrong to emphasize on lifting cars as it is a safty issue and most important skill for DIY. I'm glad you give us a chance to bring this up for discussion.
When I started to work on cars 5 years ago I spent a lot of time on researching of how to safely jack up the car. When I got the W220 I redo the process again due to it has different jack points.

Here is something I want to share with you and all DIYer:
- Use ramp as much as possible when you don't have to jack up the car, e.g. all kinds of oil change, engine/trany mount, exhaust... Because by using the ramp the car is still standing on the wheels so it is the most stable and safe way to get clearance;
- I use the jack pad on four corners for changing tires. But I removed the jack pad and use jack stand support the car directly for prolonged procedure, e.g. fix rust and paint fenders. Again, the jack pad is not designed for use with jack stand and most of the time the attach point of the stand is not as flat as a shop lift or a floor jack, so be caucious;
- Be extremely careful when apply force to the car, sometime you have to, e.g. release or angle tighten suspension bolts. Especially when jacking up 4 wheels or even 2 wheels, as soon as the car start to shift it is almost impossible to stop it. For this kind of work I use jack stands and jack together and put wheels under the frame.

Once I aligned rear sub frame, I put several levels around the car to make sure it was level, I use both jacks and stands, but still the car falled to one side as I was adjusting the height of the car to get a perfect alignment. And the wheels under the frame saved the car. I was wet.

Safety first. For any work, if there is danger or risk identified which can't be avoid I'd rather have the shop to do the work instead of exposing myself to hazard.
Again, if jack 2 wheels can do the work, avoid 4 wheels. If ramp can do the work, avoid jacking the car up.

Yes Nick, it was me,

Quadcammer

well, having the car on 2 jackstands makes it a certainty that the load is not 100% vertical due to the slant of the car.

I use ramps whenever possible, but with a set of good jackstands:

http://www.uniquetruck.com/p-6376-3-...FUGk4Aod0gIAXA

I feel plenty safe under the car.

Welwynnick

Only if the brake is on. Leave the brake off - then it IS a vertical load!

Quadcammer

you figure that how?

kraut56

I use ramps whenever possible, but with a set of good jackstands:

I feel plenty safe under the car.[/QUOTE]

I am of the opinion that the jackstands shown in the video are NOT safe, as they are not made for the round MB jack pads.

I do agree with the stands shown in your link (with large round supports); these are ok and safe. Many body shops put their cars on these to work on.

Limited Edition 190E

Very informative video Super cart!

FrankBoni

team,

Maybe silly questions but...

Transmission = transfer case?

and the procedure to change ?

Super_kart

Thank you everybody! Haoz129, that's great advice and quite a story about your car falling! Glad you didn't get hurt. I like the link you posted Quadcammer. I'll have to try them out. The jack stands that I use have a wide and flat plate that holds the rubber mount well. The jack stands that uses the skinny wedge for support I would not recommended at all.

I think this would be a nice setup if the idea of jack stands brought on a feeling of unease.

http://www.raceramps.com/images/disp...-car-ramps.png

Quadcammer

no, the transmission and transfer case are separate items on this car.

Transfer case fluid change is a bit more involved.

I believe I posted the DIY on here, so a search should find it for you.

Welwynnick

Compare a car sitting on a pair of stands with a ladder up against a wall.

Normally, the ladder will push against the wall, but still stay in position. That's a bit like a car on stands with the brake on.

However, if you put wheels on the bottom of the ladder, it will fall down. It can't push against the wall because there's no friction at the bottom. That's like a car with the brake off.

Anyway - to the OP - great video! Have you done many before? It looked rather more professional than most.

Nick

Super_kart

Thanks Nick! I still have a lot to learn. I've made two more before this one. An oil change DIY for the S500 and the second Video explains how to reset the service indicator after you change your oil.

merc79

just stumbled upon your awesome video. Excellent job! This should be in the Stickies in the DIY section for sure. I know this will come in handy when I tackled it when the time comes. Is your S500 an 01' 5 speed?
Thanks.

Super_kart

Thanks Merc79!! Yes, 01 5speed. That would be really awesome, maybe one day. haha!

Jud Chapin

Excellent video, Super_kart. Their are many ways to skin a cat, and yours more than does the job. I changed the fluid on my CL500 a while back and could have used your video.

BTW, what type of tranny fluid did you use? I always try to stick with MB products.

One interesting area, and FWIW, is checking the fluid temp and getting it up to specs before checking its level. I mentioned this to a MB tech and he kind of laughed. He said none of the MB techs he knows does this. He said they just fill it to the proper level with no regard for the fluid's temp.

As for a future video request, how about one on repairing the soft door close. My driver door went and I'm finding it tough to get good repair procedures.

Thanks for your fine work.

merc79

I forgot to ask previously, but since you did all this work, why didn't you also change out the Electrical pLug also known as the AT Plug to the tranny. Its known for leaking, but regardless whether it wasn't leaking or not wouldn't that also keep your mind at ease knowing you won't have to worry about that down the line to go through all that again. If you ever do go change it out, make a video also , sweet ride by the way!!

P.S out of curiosity how much did each bottle cost you for the tranny fluid and where did you source it out?
Cheers!

Jud Chapin

I changed the leaking plug on my '02 CL500 a few years ago and found quite a bit of info on the forums, more than enough to get the job done. Definitely a PITA job, though.

Here's a good thread here that I used:

http://www.benzworld.org/forums/w220...1-adapter.html

merc79

+1, Yeah I saw that info also on that website marked it in my favorites as a good reference. Thanks.

MBNUT1

What about the fluid in the torqueconverter? Is there a procedure for draining it and doesn't it mix with the transmission fluid?