holycaoAMG

okayy, just had one quick question.
will ANYTHING bad happen to the tranny if i dont flush it????
i just took my car out for a sprinted run when chasing this guy i caught paint balling my house!!! and using my touch shift manual mode, down and up shifts were extremely jerky and i started getting really worried. yes, i know, the jerkiness is because i didnt flush the tranny.

please can anyone tell me what can go wrong if i keep driving without flushing the tranny???
btw, my car has 89k mi, no service has been done to the tranny that i know of.

(man lucky they didnt gun my car or someone could have gotten "hurt"..)

Tangerine

When you put it in D, does it jerk when you drive calmly?

No need for flush, I would just do drain and refill if you plan to keep the car for a while.

holycaoAMG

it doesnt jerk (pull forword) unless i change gears (from P to D). while using the touch shift and in the normal auto mode, shifts were clearly noticable and felt (not so smooth). it felt as if something was wrong, and i know its the oil/fluid.
oh and i thought flushing and changing the fluid is the same concept, is it not?
drainning and refilling is cheaper than a flush? i'm clearly lost here.

LILBENZ230

We'll need an expert opinion for sure on this one, but I'll share with you what I was told until one of our resident experts comes on and tells me that I was taught all wrong.

I had an 02 Acura TL a few years back with one of Honda's glass transmissions. I was a member of Acurazine and members there who had higher mileage TLs and had never flushed it were told not to do so. That flushing it at such a late stage would cause an issue quicker than prevent one.

Now this never seemed to make much sense to me. I don't imagine this could possibly be the case. But if it is, you won't need to flush it at this point. Let's see what the experts say.

PA_Pete

I have a 2001 C320 as well. I currently have 74,xxx miles on the car. At 70,000 I did a transmission flush along with a radiator replacement. There are a ton of threads on this. Search using: Valeo. It's the make of the radiator that is more than likely in your car that has been problematic for some people in the way of leaking glycol into the transmission lines. If I were you, I would definitely flush your trans and maybe test your ATF for contamination, or just do what I did, just go ahead and replace the radiator while your that far into it, then you don't need to worry about it down the road on whether or not you have a faulty radiator. Splinter did a great write up on replacing your radiator where C230 Coupe did another great write up on flushing the transmission.

Glyn M Ruck

Not changing/flushing transmission accelerates wear of all components & will lead to failure of friction materials on the multi wet plate clutches. 1st failure likely is the 1st to 2nd one way clutch - It suffers the most under high torque changes due to low ratio.

Change the fluid.

holycaoAMG

first off, thanks for everyone for there insite.

ok, so sounds like i need a tranny flush and check the ATF. how long does Mercedes OEM ATF usually last??

it makes sense the first problem to occur as mentioned by glyn is the 1st to 2nd one way clutch since shifts from 1 to 2 is hard.

PA_Pete

MB states that it is a lifetime fill, which means you would never have to change the fluid, but we all know that's not right. I think every 60k miles is a good recommendation.

holycaoAMG

oh, i was thinking it was 60k mi but wasnt 100% sure.

thanks pete.

mleskovar

I have the same year/model as you....I had my transmission fluid analyzed and it started breaking down (to replacement point) at about 130K miles. Mostly freeway miles. "Flushing" is an often misused term with transmission fluid replacement....what do you get with your "flushing". If they use less than 8 quarts of fluid in the process then there is no complete replacement of fluid. I don't think it can be done with less than 10 quarts.....I'm guessing.

holycaoAMG

thanks mleskovar,
things are a little clearer now.. i did not know that!

W203E35

I went to the dealer they gave me some BS. My whole incident happened when I was on the freeway it was traffic then it opened up and I pressed the throttle half way and it was accelerating slow. I took it in they looked at codes and everything was fine. The guy said the transmission learns your driving. He said if your GF drives it then you drive it you will feel a difference.

He said since you were in traffic the transmission learned and when you wanted to accelerate it took some time because of this.

He said if you drive aggressively the throttle and transmission will learn to react quicker.

Is this true guys (transmission masters, Glyn)?


Edit
He also mentioned a lot of people bring it in because they say the same thing, that something is wrong with the transmission that its different. Also can I reset the transmission to make it learn again? Or is this automatic?

Thanks

krisv420

Sup bro,

My car has the same amount of miles as your 320 does =P im going to be flushing my tranny as soon as i get some $$$ teehee... I was so pissed off i broke a bolt on the case that sits above the valve cover.. so so scared to drill it out today but i did IT =D so proud of myself.. but anyways

My car sometimes gets jerky its odd it stopped after i checked all the vacuum lines on the car and pushed them all in tightly.

if i use manual shift mode and down shift from 2 to first.. Talk about a hard downshift.. Only sometimes..


And yeah you can reset it theres many posts around here just search =D

It will feel like a brand new car again =D

MbzC230K

Yes you can make (reset) the car "Re-learn" your driving style. look at this thread for instructions on how to do so.

https://mbworld.org/forums/w211-amg/...set-works.html

I never knew about this, but apparently this feature has been around for awhile on mercedes cars.

Edit: It's not really called an ECU reset, but it does reset something related to the tranny and gearbox to learn your driving habits. So, the guy at the dealership you spoke with was not completely feeding you BS. hahaha!

Glyn M Ruck

Yes this is a learning transmission. Yes you can reset - see above. I've always wished that you had a driver control that allowed you to to turn off learning & switch in some stock profiles. The S C buttons partially do this.

Glyn M Ruck

Merc's new tranny oil change specs are as follows:

60,000 miles
60,000 Km / 37,000 miles for torrid zones

https://mbworld.org/forums/attachmen...e-products.pdf

Please note this pdf above for Asia/Vietnam which is the same for Africa/Middle East/Australia. If you drive your car hard (like you stole it) - and reading this forum I know many of you do - High torque, foot flat up changes away from the lights etc. Please adopt the 60,000Km / 37,000 miles tranny oil change intervals. It will save you a lot of heartache in the long run.

People who drive more gently like mleskovar, with less in city driving, can go 60,000 miles or more. I will be changing at 60,000 Kms in 9000Km time.

W203E35

Thanks Spiritwalker1 and Glyn. I have tried this but to be honest I have not felt results although it says I have to (floor it, gas it all the way, pedal to the medal) for it to learn to be aggressive is this correct?

Maybe I didnt do this that is why It didnt learn to be more responsive?

Also I remember seeing a thread about Dyno more. On mine it's pretty wierd I have to set it to 2 position then to 1 position then do the 3 clicks. But on the forum it says just on 2 position. Am I doing something wrong that Is why I am not feeling it? People claim they have felt a big difference but not me.

Basically my Dyno more was a different process to get into would this mean that the reset might be different as well?

I guess I can try both ways (2 position, then 2 then 1 position just like the dyno)

Thanks guys

MbzC230K

NP! Well, what i did was just floor it all the way down and count to 5 then turn the key to off. You technically don't have to wait for those 2 minutes to go by before the car resets itself. But that's strange you didn't notice any change... In my car I definitely felt a smoother shifting response and less delay when I press on the gas. After you do the reset, I think the car begins to adapt to the changes after the first 100 miles or so.

In regards to the Dyno mode, I too just recently read about it, but have not tried it since I just got new rims and tires and don't want to shred them to bits yet, hahaha! Back to the topic; check out Buellwinkle's how to page on how to set Dyno mode. He's got some great How to's and not to mention sweet pics of his rides!

http://www.buellwinkle.com/howtos.html

krisv420

Hmm didn't know the 230 could shred tires

I floor the car all the time =D feel the need for SPEED.. can't do it anymore way to many cops now.. I see about 4 bike cops every time i go out.. I got pulled over for going 3 miles over the speed limit!! No ticket but he pissed me off right in front of my girl..

Im getting tired of these power trippin pigs =/

SickSpeedMonte

Towards the end of my owners manual, it reccomends a transmission flush at 37,000 miles. I just found that out this past weekend when doing my oil change. Mine's an '07 C230 SS.

Glyn M Ruck

So America is slowly coming in line with ROW.

holycaoAMG

wow, chaning at 37k mi now?
i dont drive my car hard every single day, only when its an emergency and when the road conditions allow it to.

i do the throttle reset and put my car on dyno mode, it makes my car feel like its a whole different vehicle, feels like 10 extra hp is added (its really not though). better throttle response, no delay upon launch, nothing but you and the car, no electronics restrainning you from the power.

holycaoAMG

if you did the throttle reset, it SHOULD work. its not a difficult process, just turn to position 2 floor it for 5 seconds, let go gas, turn key to off position, wait a few seconds to open the door. all Merc is drive by wire, have the system learn that you reached the pedal to the metal point on the throttle. the difference should be felt, seems like you DID the process right.

as for the dyno mode, depending on the year, its all gonna be different. once you do get it down, having both the reset and dyno mode on, you can finally have some fun!

mleskovar

I believe they went to a one time change at 37K miles and none after that with the 7 speed.

holycaoAMG

oh i see.
so does that mean the 7G tranny have a different change interval than the regular 5 speed? or does the newer transmission use a lesser quality ATF?