skittles

ok. so i got your attention.

im sick and tired of searching and reading everywhere and still end up in the same place.

few weeks back my cars temp was tripping. there was a thread about this. after while at this problem i noticed a new one come up. something is leaking.

at first i though it was the coolant coz of my temp prob, also it the leak shines greenish on light. but i traced it and it went down to the tranny pan. so i took out the splash guards, put on some gloves and got all the oil in my hand. it was goldish..

ok. so i thought now it was engine oil. while the whole car was jacked up i started to drain my engine oil(i was due anyway for a service). i drained the car overnight. then put everything back together EXCEPT i dint put any engine oil. i left the car jacked up for another night to observe where this leak is coming from(i wiped down the wet spots under first of coarse).

next day(TODAY). it was all wet again. looked around and it look to be coming from the adapter on the tranny. from what ive searched this is a common problem. needs 2 o-rings to fix.

by the way i had my tranny serviced at approx 70,000 and now im at 87,000 and also my coolant.

well my shopping cart is ready for check out and i want to be 101% sure of what im doing:

Lock Pin For transmission filler cap. (im OCD. i want that pin.)
Adapter Plug With O-Rings Transmission Cable to Conductor Plate
MB tranny Dipstick (anyone wanna lend me theirs??? save me the $40)
Drain Plug Seal Ring
A/T Filter & Gasket
Engine Temp Sensor
BEHR Radiator
Radiator Fan
Tranny oil (not sure exactly how many i need)
Coolant
Front and Rear Rotors & pads
waiting for my kit to arrive from blackstone labs to test my oil.(this ones gonna be a long wait)

so as you can see its a pretty fat order. so help me and my pocket out. i dont wanna replace anything that doesnt need replacing. NO ERROR CODES by the way.

SO ANYWAY............................

heres where im stuck:

oil is goldish... if its from the tranny it should be red. if not orange.

is it gold because of contamination? (i read its a common problem with valeo radiator's)

as of now my car is on stilts. i dont want to take the risk of loosing the whole tranny or engine.

mleskovar

Why the fan and engine temp sensor (?) ?

skittles

oh. sensor coz my fan is not spinning fast enough. if my OEM fan starts to function right after replacement of sensor then i will return the fan. if not then my OEM fan motor must be really going out. i dunno what else could be the cause of that..

this might be the solution to my first problem which was the go stop go stop low temp high temp.

victorb623

In my car, c240, same thing. I get a goldish color leak. I brought it to two different dealer for diagnose/inspection. Both dealers told me its not the transmission which I am also suspecting. Its the rear engine main seal gaskets (its engine oil). Its
6-8 hr job because you need to remove the transmission to do it. And the funny thing is the gaskets only cost 50-80 bucks from the dealer, labor will kill you

Both dealer mechanics doesnt recommend to replace the rear main gaskets as of the moment because the leak is still small.

BTW car has 51,000 miles

skittles

wow! great info victorb623. after hearing this i think i might wait on some test results first. but wait, i left the car jacked up without any oil in the engine overnight and the next day it was wet again on the tranny pan. your saying your problem was the same? btw when i did my oil change the old oil was close to black already.

can i inspect this leak/gasket location you are talking about without removing the tranny? also if you dont mind do you have a part number if not whats the exact description on the part. thanks.

edit: you said rear engine main seal gaskets, is that the rear crankshaft seal? im gonna replace it even if the dealer says no.

skittles

if it helps heres some photo's i took just now.

you can see the color and where i think its coming from.

heres the album for the rest of it. http://s646.photobucket.com/albums/u...%20oil%20leak/

TemjinX2

the tcu connector brushing is known to go bad. Mercedes issued a TSB for it. Splinter posted the tsb for it on another thread with some pics. Depending on what kind of driving you been doing the tranny fluid could have changed color. When you change the fluid you only change part of it so there still a bunch of the old fluid in there.

I would change out the tranny brushing and change the transmission fluid and see if it still leaks.

The auto needs about 4qts to change the transmission fluid, depending on how much you pump out. Just put back exactly what you took out. Don't put in too much fluid.

Glyn M Ruck

The tranny fluid is not supposed to be red!! It's supposed to be a greenish gold. Red fluid is GM spec. The American market does funny things so someone there might dye the fluid red but genuine MB fluid is not red.

Dingleberry

i have never heard of greenish gold MB transmission fluid in the states.

the factory fill for the 722.6 was red fluid.

A001 989 68 03 10 which is the 7 speed transmission fluid, is red. perhaps this is only for the u.s of a

Glyn M Ruck

Must be US only. Red has always been GM dye colour for the Dexron range over the years. Others have tried to stay away from red because the frictional properties of Dexron fluids are so different to theirs. Factory fill in Germany & South Africa is certainly not red for 722.6 or 722.9.

Red Benz fluid in most markets would be a sure way to ensure misapplication & the wrong product in your box.

Glyn M Ruck

This is what a tranny fluid leak would look like in ROW - this stuff was pretty degraded but the new synthetic fluid in Benz litre bottles from Germany is a pale straw colour with a green tinge. We had to top up my box a few months back. I had a slight weep on the drain plug washer which they changed & lost some fluid in the process. I watched them refill the transmission. I watch all work done on my car including servicing.


This is not my car My engine & transmission are spotless.

I did notice from C230 Sport Coup's tranny thread that the Fuchs Titan 4134 Fluid was pink.

I will bear in mind that US tranny fluid is a different colour.

mleskovar

Your tranny plug looks like the main culprit. When the main seal leaks it comes out the rubber inspection plug holes in the bell housing and the leaked oil is more built up in the center. My main leak is worse than yours and it's only going through a quart in 13K miles...and after 165K miles I'm sure some of that is being burned/consumed by the motor. How much motor oil do you consume between changes (and at what interval do you change?).

skittles

GLYN thats what i first said on my other thread. when i first discovered that i had a leak, i wiped it with a white towel. it exactly the color you are saying. greenish gold. but then i have 3 spare bottles of the A001 989 68 03 10 from my previous flush and they were all red inside. is it possible this fluid could be the original one from the torque converter? you know how you cant really flush those things unless you remove them. but then if it is the old fluid from the torque shouldnt it have mixed with the new red fluid? ill open a bottle later to double check the color. but from the measurement side it looks red.

TEMJINX2, yeah i saw that TSB. what preblem exactly am i looking for with this thing. the car jerks? limp mode? i dont really get it.

Glyn M Ruck

I really don't know??? Fluid seems red in US and as per DB specification straw/green colour in ROW

mleskovar

I just looked at my MB badged quarts of tranny fluid and they are all red. The part number is A 001 989 21 03 10.

C230 Sport Coup

The fluid that came out of my car was black.
Red was what went in.
Something about the mechanics getting confused, and red is the generally accepted
color for tranny fluid in the US.

Some may have noticed the cars came with blue coolant, only to be replaced with yellow as well.
Silly Americans.
I fart in their general direction.

TemjinX2

I think it just depends on how bad your leakage is. I noticed mine while trying to track down a esp issue and just fixed it, But i didn't have any noticeable weird tranny jerks.

Others have had weird shifts or lags between shifts.

Anyways its a 5min fix, you don't even have to drop the pan if you dont want to. You can just take off the shield and swap out the brushing. Your also going to need electrical contact cleaner, so clean out the connector.

Glyn M Ruck

I have researched the coolant story at the request of a 204 member. The Americans are still selling 3 generations old coolant generally.

Coolant meeting:

325.0 = orange/straw colour
325.2 = Green
325.3 = Blue/green in colour

For 143,000 miles or 15 year drain interval you are now supposed to be using 325.3 plus the silica gel sachet (mesh bag) to release silicates.

I understand that most American dealers do not stock the 325.3 coolant so people are getting their cars with the latest generation initial fill from Germany & South Africa & then poluting it with the older generation coolant - they are miscible - Or in the case of a pump failure or whatever, loosing & tossing the new long life coolant & replacing it with the old stuff. Not clever.

So I haved filed away in my brain for future reference on this forum that the Americans are dyeing the tranny fluid the wrong colour & selling old generation coolant to the masses. I will bear this in mind when scanning the location of the member.

Indeed a fart in their general direction

Glyn M Ruck

The problem in ROW if DB tranny fluid is red is that some tosser is guaranteed to put GM fluid into it because it is by far the most prolific fluid on the driveways of service stations around the world. This would screw up a Benz auto big time.

skittles

just want to make sure. this brush is the adaptor on picture 3 right? the one with the common o-ring problem.

edit: btw i dont get any weird tranny behavior at all. just in the morning when i try to run the car w/o heating it up, the tranny clunks.

TemjinX2

yeah you just need to replace the o rings but mercedes recommends you replace the whole thing.


Here's some better pics here.

http://www.installuniversity.com/mb/...on-o-ring.html

Glyn M Ruck

rmeuropean for about 10 bucks - I just ordered a spare. Note new black o rings & pink American fluid

skittles

thank glyn and temjin. ill go ahead and order this one first along with the temp sensor. and i did see that DIY before posting. its $6 at allmercedes norcal. thats the whole thing, not just the o-rings. anyway, when replacing this part the fluid should not spill right? or should i have a pan ready?

it came soaked in tranny oil? hahaha. oh and i notice that screw on the bottom. the new one doesnt have it. do you have to move it to the new one?

Dingleberry

the screw can jiggle back and forth, if he were to tilt the plug downwards, the screw falls into position - in other words, it's there on the new one, you just cant see it.

skittles

thanks dingleberry. its obvious i havent opened this part of my car. anyway. i used that company you posted glyn. they seem to be a better source. ill keep you posted.