johnand

Looking at the transmission, there appears to be a plug on the side of the transmission just above the pan. I may be able to fill from there until it comes out the overflow tube in the pan.

splinter

Effect of ATF temperature on its level:

saetneta

I just wanted to say thanks for posting this. The automatic transmission on my 02 C230K was shifting pretty hard. Thanks for the instructions - my car shifts much better now!

One thing - I couldn't get the drain plug to open, so I sucked about 3L of fluid from the top fill tube with my MityVac... then when I dropped the pan, there wasn't hardly any mess. I'm thinking about changing out a few liters of fluid using the MityVac after each oil change since I didn't do a complete flush.

Cheers!

Glyn M Ruck

This is a very interesting thread & good learning for all. One question I have is - was this a truly representative oil sample & how was the sample taken?

The sample results suck - almost typical of a transmission in trouble. The results are so bad that I would suspect the sample came from the dregs in the oil pan - not what the transmission sees post filter.

The Pentane insolubles show a level of oxidation. It's a pity that a TAN (Total Acid Number) was not performed to better show just how bad this was.

C230 Sport Coup

All I know is that everything is great now. The sample came straight from the cooler hose.

Glyn M Ruck

That should be a good place to sample. I wonder why so much crap was getting through the filter. Of course we don't know the size of the wear debris. Must be very fine if the filter was OK & not in bypass or damaged.

I'm spoilt - I'm used to having a good analysis & a ISO cleanliness level to have a look at which gives you a partical size distribution.

C230 Sport Coup

My primary reason was to see if the work was ever done...that I'd paid for.
As in I had a dealer "flush" the tranny, but saw that in fact only 4 quarts got changed, if at all at 80 or 90K miles. I checked after they did it and it was green then, so likely not, and the test pretty well proves it, though if you only changed 1/2 your motor oil or less, you might see the same type of result. I plan to do it again at 60K miles as suggested in the maint. sheets.

So since I couldn't seem to get any of those fools to do it right, I was forced to DIY, which is nothing new.

My local guy is suggesting changing it every 30K miles! Which seems excessive but he feels that might result in some long and trouble free transmissions.
It's a PIA without a lift.

Glyn M Ruck

Yeah! I don't have access to a lift/hoist = PIA - South Africa is considered in MB speak to be a "torrid zone" & the 5 speed has recommended drain & flush every 60,000KM so your local guy might not be that far out- I'm looking with interest to see how they handle the 7G longterm

Saw an interesting statistic yesterday - South Africa has the 4th largest offtake of AMG vehicles wordwide - the autos in those things must take a hammering.

C230 Sport Coup

Offtake? Thats not a word that gets much use in the US.
How do you mean? You mean 4th in terms of sales?

Glyn M Ruck

Yes - 4th in terms of sales. This is a power hungry market & the statement was made by AMG South Africa so I have no reason to doubt them.

nilknarf

I discovered that I had a Valeo radiator on my '02 c230k, so I replaced it with a Behr last week and did a tranny flush. Everything went ok, except I had trouble getting the hose clamp to hold the 1/2" flushing hose to the transmission cooler line. It ended up poping off a couple of times and spewing fluid everywhere.

Sent a fluid sample to Blackstone and it looks like if I had any coolant contamination, it was minimal. In fact, it indicated 0.0% water, so I think I'm ok. Here's a copy of my report. D66132.pdf

Also replaced a leaking transmisson electrical plug shown in this link: http://www.installuniversity.com/mb/...ans_oring.html

C230 Sport Coup and Splinter, thanks for the DIY's...they were definately a big help.

Rev 2 Liv

Can you guys remind me Why you didn't pop off the right side undertray, unscrew the banjo bolt and flush the fluid directly from the tranny? I'm planning on flushing my tranny this weekend and am wondering if there is any time or hassle savings in draining from the radiator.

thanks!

C230 Sport Coup

Well, unless you have access to a lift, doing the banjo bolt thing is, well,
you'll see when you remove just the pan, and replace the filter. Minimal space, and I don't enjoy tranny fluid showers while laying on my back, though I knew this one kinky chic...but thats another story.
It's just a personal choice. The banjo bolt thing makes more sense on a lift, but then someone has to
start and stop the car. So, that means, they'd have to be in the car... on the lift???? Hmmmmm....
just go with the rad function. It's a little bit of a pain wrastling it out of it's plastic clippy thingy's on the rad, but not that bad. Be sure to replace the o ring! See pn I posted for C230 if you have 2002, not the one on the C32 that Splinter uses.

As you saw in my pics, it's pretty easy to drain at the rad,
and directly into a container for curbside recycle.
Sweet.

As far as the other guy who said the hose came off, well, be sure to use a hose clamp, just avoids that issue. Good job on replacing the rad and checking the fluid. Whew! Another Beeee U ty Full 2002 coupe saved from destruction. Post pics please! Not all Valeo rads are supposedly bad, but who wants to find out? Not me, I woulda done the same thing.

Glyn M Ruck

Good for you, Oil needed changing. Looks like you caught this sucker in time. You obviously did have a slight coolant leak from the potassium & sodium levels. Water can be misleading while the leak is slight. Blackstone probably just do a crackle test for water (literally putting a small sample on a hot plate to see if it crackles) and if it does they would do a distillation to see how much is present. If your duty cycle on the car is such that it runs fully warmed up for a reasonable period every day it will evapourate the water out of the transmission breather.

nilknarf

I think the problem with my hose coming off is that the 1/2" hose is just a little too large of a diameter. I did use a hose clamp, but there was still a bit of play with it tightened down. Is that fitting metal or plastic? I possibly could have tightened it more, but was afraid of over-tightening the clamp and breaking the fitting if it were plastic. You mentioned that you used a 3/8" hose and that was too small. Sounds like a 7/8" hose would be ideal, but probably tough to find (hoses available at my local Lowes went from 3/8" to 1/2"). Maybe a thick layer of teflon tape around the connecter would have helped.

PA_Pete

I owe a HUGE thanks to Splinter and C230 Sport Coup for their threads regarding the radiator swap (From a Valeo to a Behr) and for this Transmission Flush thread! I just did both of these jobs on Saturday and couldn't have done it if it weren't for these guys and the other contributors to their threads, so again, many thanks!!!

Glyn M Ruck

They are both, indeed, a huge asset to the forum

C230 Sport Coup

Glad you could make sense of all the jumbled info.
And glad you got it right. We get people around here once in a while posting that they
drained the tranny and then poured 8 quarts of tranny fluid into the sump, bloew up the motor, because they didn't do the reading in advance. Excellent! Another benzo saved from the wrecking ball.

C230 Sport Coup

I'm confused. 1/2" is too large, but you think 7/8" a larger diam, would be better? Please elaborate.
Like I said, I was able to save the day, by heating the hose slightly over the stove, stuffing it over a the handle of a 1/2" ratchet to stretch it, and then it was the right size.

PA_Pete

Thanks! I went over your PDF write up and the threads about 10 times! I read them over and over them again. When I did the job this past Saturday, I didn't even really have to refer to my print outs, it all came to me. This is the first MB I've owned, so all of this was somewhat new. I've helped rebuild trans. in GM's and swapped transmissions and transfer cases already, but with this being a MB, I had no idea what to expect. I must say though, only having 6 Torx bolts holding the transmission pan on is pretty nice (compared to the 12 or 14 bolts that GM has on their 4L60E Automatic). However, I noticed that I did not have a magnet in the bottom of my transmission pan, I read in another DIY thread regarding the transmission flush that they had a magnet in the bottom of the trans. pan. Weird.

C230 Sport Coup

Hmmmm....mine had a magnet....

Glyn M Ruck

Indeed strange

nilknarf

Sorry, my mistake. I meant 7/16", not 7/8".

nilknarf

Not sure why I didn't think of this at the time, but for those of you replacing a radiator before your flush, you can unscrew the old transmission cooler line adapter from the old radiator and use that as a flush hose adapter. It screws right off and then you clamp a hose on it and reconnect it to the transmission cooler line. It allows you a little more room to clamp and it looks like a 3/8" hose would fit nicely over the threads.

For anyone that doesn't have an old radiator, you can PM me and I'll send you one of mine (adapter, not a radiator). All I ask is that you do the same and send it to the next person from the forum that asks.

C230 Sport Coup

Umm...nice idea.
I won't be needing this for a little while, but I'd be happy to take one off your hands.
Well, actually I think I'll be fine, i saved the hose etc. from the 1st time.
Next time around I may just flush without messing with the pan at all 40K miles after the
1st time, then drop the pan the next time around...but it's running great now, so not messing with it.

Interesting how all your numbers are lower in your oil report, but the, lead, manganese, potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium (mine was 0, yours was 2) and zinc are higher....wierd.

I'm sure Glyn will tell us what it means......