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The car has just got 86 000 km done. So it's quite low miles for a 2004 e500.
I do not have any service history of the car. It did have the newly designed transmission pan. So it should have had the fluid changed at least once. It did not have any magnets installed though.
The oil on the picture is the drained ATF from my pan. It does look very dark on the pictures. But it was dark in real life also, but not quite as dark as the picture.
Last edited by Faniskogen; Oct 11, 2016 at 06:03 PM.
That was pretty dark AT oil, as was in my W211 when I drained it about a month ago!
If this was my car I would soon change the oil again since your torque converter and cooling lines were left with old dark oil, which was mixed with the new oil you put in the pan.
I know it's a hassle and the oil etc. are expensive, but the transmission is way more expensive.
Mine had two round thin & flat magnets in the sloped section in the rear of the pan and they had collected quite a bit of very fine metal.
They are part of the design and are available from MB dealer as well as independent parts stores.
That was pretty dark AT oil, as was in my W211 when I drained it about a month ago!
If this was my car I would soon change the oil again since your torque converter and cooling lines were left with old dark oil, which was mixed with the new oil you put in the pan.
I know it's a hassle and the oil etc. are expensive, but the transmission is way more expensive.
Mine had two round thin & flat magnets in the sloped section in the rear of the pan and they had collected quite a bit of very fine metal.
They are part of the design and are available from MB dealer as well as independent parts stores.
Yes it was. All clips I've seen on youtube about the ATF change has also had very dark oil. Is it really supposed to be clear red after so many miles?
Do you think it is OK to just drain the 6.2 liters from the pan again or do I need to do a flush? I did not have the torque converter drain plug unfortunately. A friend did turn the motor around two times and did not se the plug. Possible I looked in the wrong angle or wrong place.
I had planned on doing an oil change again anyway, bought 20 liter of ATF on ebay. I have not planned on a flush as I see that as a more challenging task, but can do if it is necessary.
I now have magnets in, I bought a new pan as I did not know if the current one was new or old design, got the two magnets and a drain plug and bolts with it.
Last edited by Faniskogen; Oct 12, 2016 at 05:09 AM.
Yes it was. All clips I've seen on youtube about the ATF change has also had very dark oil. Is it really supposed to be clear red after so many miles?
Do you think it is OK to just drain the 6.2 liters from the pan again or do I need to do a flush? I did not have the torque converter drain plug unfortunately. A friend did turn the motor around two times and did not se the plug. Possible I looked in the wrong angle or wrong place.
I had planned on doing an oil change again anyway, bought 20 liter of ATF on ebay. I have not planned on a flush as I see that as a more challenging task, but can do if it is necessary.
I now have magnets in, I bought a new pan as I did not know if the current one was new or old design, got the two magnets and a drain plug and bolts with it.
the first atf change is usually dark. Make sure the filter goes all the way on. If you supply your vin, the Mercedes parts worker can check his computer if it has a T C plug.
the first atf change is usually dark. Make sure the filter goes all the way on. If you supply your vin, the Mercedes parts worker can check his computer if it has a T C plug.
I think my change should be the second as it had the updated pan. So it must have had a change before this one.
The filter, we tried to press it in, but there was no snap in or anything. It did hang a bit, is that OK or did we not press hard enough? It felt like it was in all the way
EDIT: I think I'm OK. The filter hanged like it does in this video at 2:25:
~snip Do you think it is OK to just drain the 6.2 liters from the pan again or do I need to do a flush? ~snip
I think it depends how dirty the old oil looks when you drain it the next time and I would make the decision then.
If you decide to do so, flushing out the rest of the oil by sucking new oil in through the pump inlet is not really that much extra work once you have the pan out already.
Just have a big pan underneath the transmission to catch the old oil - no need to open up the lines going to the cooler in front of the car.
Below is how red AT oil in different conditions will look like.
The oil in my Explorer yesterday at 365,000 km looked like the one on the right and my W211 before changing was little left of center! I plan on doing another change in few months.
I think it depends how dirty the old oil looks when you drain it the next time and I would make the decision then.
If you decide to do so, flushing out the rest of the oil by sucking new oil in through the pump inlet is not really that much extra work once you have the pan out already.
Just have a big pan underneath the transmission to catch the old oil - no need to open up the lines going to the cooler in front of the car.
Below is how red AT oil in different conditions will look like.
The oil in my Explorer yesterday at 365,000 km looked like the one on the right and my W211 before changing was little left of center! I plan on doing another change in few months.
Ok, i will check how it looks the next time then. I actually found some oil left in a jar. But it was first tapped in a container which I have stored used motor oil in before. So it got a bit of motor oil mixed with it also. But I put it on a paper towel as in your picture. Seems like I am in the middle or a bit left of it as well.
Is there any good guide that explains the flush procedure?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_6hA0MrcnUc
video on atf service with filter alignment and hear the click when it snaps in
Thank you! That is for the 722.6 transmission though, and that filter should snap in. That's why we started being concerned as my friend who assisted me said that his filter on his 722.6 did snap in place. But I do not think there should be a "snap in place" for this 722.9 as it did not in the other video I linked.
Ok, i will check how it looks the next time then. I actually found some oil left in a jar. But it was first tapped in a container which I have stored used motor oil in before. So it got a bit of motor oil mixed with it also. But I put it on a paper towel as in your picture. Seems like I am in the middle or a bit left of it as well.
Is there any good guide that explains the flush procedure?
Below is one way of doing the flush which was written on this same thread back in 2012 -2013.
Another way is to have the AT oil pump suck clean oil in (from 4 - 5 liter jug) through 1 inch semi-rigid hose witch is connected to the filter mounting hole with a piece cut off from old filter and just let the old oil run into a large pan from the transmission, without disconnecting either cooling line.
Just make sure not to run out of oil and dry run the pump.
The filter can and does slip off. The symptom is like low ATF. Works when hot, but fails to engage while cold. May only show when temp is below 30F.
That video doesn't seem right. Air would be sucked up in the ATF and cause damage by cavitation.
How to make sure the filter doesn't slip lose? O-ring is on the outside portion of the filter tube. I don't know how to prevent the filter from accidentally slipping off and resting on the bottom of the pan.
May Glyn knows.
Last edited by dave2001auto; Oct 15, 2016 at 07:47 PM.
The filter can and does slip off. The symptom is like low ATF. Works when hot, but fails to engage while cold. May only show when temp is below 30F.
That video doesn't seem right. Air would be sucked up in the ATF and cause damage by cavitation.
How to make sure the filter doesn't slip lose? O-ring is on the outside portion of the filter tube. I don't know how to prevent the filter from accidentally slipping off and resting on the bottom of the pan.
May Glyn knows.
Wow that's not very good design if that can actually happen!
The Mayle replacement filter for my transmission had a similar fit as the one in the video (it was hanging at a slight angle).
My thinking was it would not be able to slip out due to it resting against the pan, but if that is not the case...
Has anyone else had these slip off while the pan was installed?
I just did my fluid change over the weekend, and my filter hung down a bit as well. Very helpful forum member _Ryan said "Sometimes the aftermarket filters don't clip in very well at the front and tend to fall down like that. It's not a big deal. The pan itself will hold it up. Just make sure that the side with the o-ring clicked in. "
That was what happened to me, but it turns out I think I just had low-ish fluid and I replaced the filter and it kind of sagged and ended up putting in 1-2L of fluid than I took out before it signaled full on the 45 degree drain test.
I used an air compressor and a 2L juice bottle to pump up fluid into the transmission like the Aussie video showed. I can't imagine away to pump oil up without also pumping some amount of air inside. Now you have me wondering / worried that there is too much air inside and I'm trying to imagine where it can escape from since there is thankfully NO DIPSTICK TUBE.
I just did my fluid change over the weekend, and my filter hung down a bit as well. Very helpful forum member _Ryan said "Sometimes the aftermarket filters don't clip in very well at the front and tend to fall down like that. It's not a big deal. The pan itself will hold it up. Just make sure that the side with the o-ring clicked ....
Which after market ones don't clip in well? What about Mann or Feib?
It seems to me that a few posts on the inside of the pan would be positive assurance that the filter could not slip off. My filter was found on the pan After 30,000 miles post atf service.
Glyn PMed to clean the area with solvent and install the filter dry. Seems like a double o-ring and bevel would also be a more fool proof design.
Can someone help me with transmission pan leveling confusion? I am going to do transmission fluid change on my 08 R350. Videos on this post and WIS procedure always mention to level the car and verify the transmission pan is leveled. To my big surprise after I raised and leveled my car I noticed, the transmission is not aligned with the car at all. Actually it is at some angle (I could not measure it yet). To level the pan, actually I would need to rise the rear of the car significantly with front of the car literally nose down. Anyone got the same issue? Are my engine’s mountings incorrect that makes whole engine with transmission be at that angle?
Can someone help me with transmission pan leveling confusion? I am going to do transmission fluid change on my 08 R350. Videos on this post and WIS procedure always mention to level the car and verify the transmission pan is leveled. To my big surprise after I raised and leveled my car I noticed, the transmission is not aligned with the car at all. Actually it is at some angle (I could not measure it yet). To level the pan, actually I would need to rise the rear of the car significantly with front of the car literally nose down. Anyone got the same issue? Are my engine’s mountings incorrect that makes whole engine with transmission be at that angle?
You want the vehicle level and horizontal, not the transmission.
See the 2nd row in the attached document.
Fwiw, above, you're semi/sorta talking about the pinion angle.
I agree with arto - sorry just my opinion. The WIS PDF you posted RedGray is for a 722.6. 4Matic on his R350 is a 722.9. (7G-tronic, no dipstick tube.)
I realize how you are interpreting WIS but it is (intuitively even) impossible for the 4matic on a R or an ML (which goes down at a steeper angle) to have the same leveling procedure as an S (that is relatively flat.) It was not redesigned to take every single chassis in mind.
Even in this document, footnote 2 :
[2] It is very important that the car is perfectly level front to back, and side to side when checking fluid level. It does not need to be level while draining the fluid, changing the filter, etc. You can use any method you choose to level it. But, the easiest way to verify level is by using a magnetic level on the transmission pan.
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