Hi tasho3, which dealers in Chicago have you spoken to? There is some serious misinformation going on! I'm also in the Chicago area and although I'm only at 11500 miles I am dreading the future trans service since nobody seems to have a clue how to do it properly.

I did my service A at MBS in Northbrook and the owner/mechanic there was very fair and knowledgable. Perhaps check to see what they say about the trans service:

http://www.mbsauto.net/

 

My W203 is up for the 3rd, YES 3rd transmission service. I will finally take detailed photos this time and update the write-up. Meant to take pics on all the 7G's I have serviced, just was always pressed for time.

If anyone of you guys lives in the Portland, OR metro and are interested, I would be happy to let you sit in and watch while I do the service, if you are willing to hold a video camera and shoot video of it. Would throw in some free STAR diagnostic work too

On another note, it appears we are making progress on figuring out the TC drain plug madness.

 

The bit about pulling the trans to drain the TC takes the cake. It sounds like the service advisors in Illinois are either the stupidest or most dishonest in the country. Perhaps both. This sounds worse than New Jersey and that's saying something.

 

Hello Mate, I used to go to MB of Chicago, but after they over filled my engine by 1 qt last time I got a oil change there, I refuse to go there anymore. I checked with MB of westmont (have appointment there at 730am tmr) MB of Hoffman estates, Mb of Naperville and MB of St. Charles, and so far the Westmont guys sounded the most sincere and helpful. But I'll give the guys you recommended a call and see what they say, thank you for the info

 

And I agree with you 100%. Took a previous car ( C63 ) at MB of chicago for oil change and they overfilled by one qt at least. When I got home the entire car was shaking like a rattle snake.

 

Hi tasho3, are you expecting the tranny service to be included in the Service B price? I don't think you will find that anywhere since the trans service is a separate job not directly associated with the "assyst" time/mileage scheme. Now to find a shop that can locate, drain and properly fill the transmission is a whole different matter.

 

I thought that was part of it, and one of the dealers said they would include it on the $550? if that's the case than I can have my indy shop (x mb tech) do the basics for half the price or even less

 

Just to be clear, you are looking for a drain and refill. A flush is only done if there are no drain plugs. Don't forget the 2 WIS proceedures that Glyn provided links for, and perhaps a camera.

Remember, not sure what % of the early W204's have no TC drain plug.

.

 

Thanks again KevinK

Good news is, I went to the dealership and had them pull my cars history and it showed that transmission service was done at 34,501 miles ( I purchased it with 40,251), he let me have the history printed out and I can say the previous owner did every service prematurely and all of them done at the same dealer. I see that my car was maintained very well and even detailed by MB dealer 2 times every year had my local x MB tech shop do Service B and saved about $250

 

I worked for St Charles back around 06-07 timeframe. I still have contacts there and service managers info (been there almost 20yrs) let me know if you would like his information. Also know which techs you would want to request if you go there.

 

Sounds good. Did the oil drain include the TC, as indicated by ~9 quarts?

.

 

Today, I received a call from Robert from MBUSA. I had submitted a inquiry online for details on the transmission service for my car. Robert informed me the draining of transmission by dropping the pan is the "approved method" accepted by MBUSA. He also stated that it appears my car does not have a TC drain plug and it may be the result of early 722.9 model bell housings being utilized in the early W204 transmissions. He said it was documented in my owners records and if I were to have issues related to the fluid change- it would be reviewed and taken into consideration. He also advised the "tech" I dealt with was an MB Technician from Corporate and was the Shop Forman.

 

Hang on here. Are you saying that there is no access hole in the bell housing of your car? What year is your car?

 

That's what "Robert" said. It is a 2008 (October 2007 Build). I advised him of the WIS document for draining the TC and also advised him of the documents you have provided. I don't know how true this would be, but he told me if I encountered Transmission problems, they would be "taken care of". He also further detailed that did not include damage caused by physical abuse or mis-use.
As I stated in the previous post- I was under the car while the Shop Forman turned the crank. Both the Service Advisor and myself watched as the bell housing (position marked with white paint) rotated 360 degrees and we did not see a drain plug. I was taken over to another MB and the same procedure was performed. I saw the drain plug just as described.

 

OK - so the bell housing has access - Just no TC plug!

 

I think he has confused things here, with info from your owner's records ... is that shop input ??

In this case, he is suggesting there is no TC drain plug, and no access opening in the bell housing.

So far, two people have witnessed the TC rotating, through the bell housing opening, and have not seen a drain plug. This "early portlesss bellhousing" issue is a new possibilty, that needs a bit of proof.

Here is one post about your observations under the car:

Watching TC Go By



Glyn, how did you logically dismiss a possible portless bell housing ?

.

 

Simply never seen a single bell housing on an auto Benz in 20 years without access Kevin. Not saying it's impossible but show me a pic. None shown in EPC.

I'm not saying SA is definitive. Would like to see

 

Glyn-
I just wanted to thank you publicly for your knowledge of our cars.

I recently brought an '08 C300 4Matic in to the local dealership to do the transmission service. Some background:

I bought the car as a used car last summer, with 47k, remaining factory warranty for about 6 months and 3k miles.

I immediately purchased the Mercedes-Benz extended warranty from a dealer that sponsors mbworld.org and has a reputation for being very aggressive on extended warranty prices (he beat a friend of mine's aftermarket warranty quote by nearly $500!). 7 years, 100k from in-service date- gives me an extra 3 years and 50k of warranty coverage.

I brought the car to a different Benz dealership for the initial service- just needed a state inspection as I bought the car out of state and I wanted them to run the car's maintenance history and advise me of any maintenance that was not performed on schedule or simply neglected. That dealership advised me that there was no maintenance that needed to be done, other than an "A" service, which I performed on my own. That first dealership seriously soured me on the service experience, as they screwed up everything nearly every time I gave them a chance- first, they performed an "A" service after I told them that I just did this myself and only needed the service indicator reset; second, they overfilled the crankcase significantly, which led to a smoking issue on cold starts; third, they refused to acknowledge that there was any smoking issue on cold starts and claimed that they could not find the problem.

Because of all of these issues, I decided to take my car to a different dealership this year (the car gets driven very little- less than 5k/yr., so it's basically an annual service interval). Again, I did the "A" service myself (figured out how to reset the service indicator myself as well). I took the car to the second dealership because it needed a state inspection again, as well as having issues with the driver's window not going up properly, a parking light issue and I wanted the maintenance history checked again. I downloaded the maintenance schedule from the mbusa.com website (missing from my owner's manual) and found that I was well overdue for a Service 20, the transmission service. I made a point of asking the service writer whether my car has had the transmission service done (referring to it as the Service 20) as well as if it was due for any other service.

The second dealership tells me that the Service 20 has not been done, so I wanted them to do it. I get the car back and check the invoice- 6 qts. of transmission fluid. I was reading about something else on mbworld and found Glyn's posts about how the dealerships do not do the transmission service correctly. I immediately contacted the service manager and explained my concerns. He told me that he never heard of this but would look into it and also told me that the tech did not do the job correctly if he did not drain the torque converter. After a few days, I got back in touch with the service manager- they concluded that the service was not done properly and confirmed that W204s have a drain for the torque converter (they were confused by the language about how some transmissions do not have a drain plug in the TIS that you posted, Glyn).

I bring the car back, transmission service is done again, dropping the pan, replacing the filter again, replacing all of the pan bolts, replacing the torque converter drain plug and 9 qts. of transmission fluid. Now I could be overly cynical and say that they just wrote the order up and never did the job, but I think that they did right and learned something in the process.

So if you have a Benz in the Philadelphia area and need the transmission service done properly, contact Tom Haig at Keenan Motors in Doylestown, PA.

Having dealt with bad dealers before, I'm glad that this was a positive experience in the end. I hope I don't eat my words.

 

I just read the entire thread, went and checked my paperwork for transmission service and sure enough, only 6 QTs were used. I should def make a call and get this done the right way. Glyn, you are a Mercedes GOD! Thank you for your excellent knowledge!

 

Just got off the phone with my local MBZ dealer and they said I should have been given the option of a flush, or just an oil and filter change. I told him that I had the procedure for the MBZ oil filter and change, and it still states that the torque converter needs to be drained regardless. They were very nice and offered to do it the way it originally should have been done. Just have to set up an appointment now! Thanks Glyn!

 

Ok the service adviser called me back and we set an appointment. He tried to say first, the techinicans arnt required by MBZ to drain the torque converter for a filter and oil change and it doesnt say anywhere to drain it. Then I read him the wis "the same one he was looking at" and read him step 6. He started reading it out loud and said, "well let me look into this for you". I said there is nothing to "look" into. I says verbatim right here in step 6 to drain the torque converter and it was not done. Only 6 qts of oil were replaced into the system when the system capacity is 9. Now all that fresh fluid is contaminated in the system and its really like only resetting the clock back to about 20k miles ago with the amount of old fluid left in it. He was very understanding and wanted to make it right. Appointment is set up for Tuesday! Knowledge is power!

 

Pleased to be able to help guys & thank you!

 

Glyn

Does the fluid from the torque converter at some point intermix with the transmission fluid?

 

Constantly. The fluid is circulated via the TC at varying rate from the oil pump to keep it cool.

 

Hello all. First off all, thanks for the info so I could go into my 40k mile service prepared. I don't know for sure if they would have quoted me the lower price if I did not mention the torque converter drain since I mentioned it from the start. It seems it was just treated as an added cost "option".

Job 1 (Transmission) Total: $375.00
Labor: $84.80
Parts:
1 PK722.9 Trans kit $170
-1 007603-012102 Ring, general
-1 220-271-03-90 Gasket
-5 001-989-68-03-10 Transmission oil
-1 221-277-01-95 Oil filter
-1 251-271-00-97 Pipe
-6 004-990-35-12 Screw
5 001-989-68-03-10 Transmission oil (24.04 each) $120.20

Job 2 (Brake fluid flush) Total: $129.95

Job 3 (40,000 mi service) Total: $329.95

Job 4 (Warranty Campaign) Total: $0
PERFORM MB CAMPAIGN
2012070002 CAM SOLENOID
OPEN CAMPAIGN
CAMPAIGN COMPLETED
DC-59900027

Job 5 (Engine air filter) Total: $125.00

Misc Total: $16.91

Grand total w/ tax: $1052.52

I paid $552.52

(Disclaimer, I went to an event at the dealership's sister company over the summer, and one of the perks for attending was a 50% off your next service coupon. I would have gone to an indy MB certified shop, but the coupon and the valet pickup and dropoff service was too good to pass up.)

For those comparing location & prices, I had the service done at MB of North Olmsted, in northeast Ohio, where I bought my car - 2010/4M/Sport.

Yet another edit: I got to drive around a 2013 C300 4M in the meantime. While I'm not a big fan of the current front fascia and the halogen lamps (I retrofited HIDs into my projector housing), the rest of the updates are quite nice. My favorite part is probably the kickdown switch though. My biggest complaint about my current car would probably be the electronic throttle lag and this solves it for the situations when I need quicker response.