SETSEROCK

Ive been browsing through some archived threads looking for the answer to this question. This is only the second auto tranny ive ever had (the first was in a CLK, and it blew up. which made me swear id never buy another MB), some im pretty unfamiliar with the protocol.

Car has 78K on it, tranny has 20K on it ( i have no idea why, but the dealership replaced it in this car at 58K...long before i bought it) .

Should i flush it, or just drain and fill?


Thanks!!!

CLKCLK

With my personal experience, changing the fluid is good enough. You may also want to change the filter, oil pan gasket and electric cap/o ring where you are there.

If you do the full flush you may see about 8 quarts. If you just drain it, probably 4-5 quarts.

SETSEROCK

If you just drain it, will all of it not come out? How hard is it to get to the filter? I have torn a few manuals apart, but I've never personally seen the inside an auto before.

jturkel

i had my shop change mine yesterday. 95k miles and my tranny fluid was thick and black and nasty. glad i changed it. hour labor max.

91RS

It really isn't worth it to flush these transmissions. You get a better bang for your buck doing a service. Just drop the pan and replace the filter and about 4-5 quarts. I had enough extra fluid left over from my service I'm probably going to do a drain and fill next oil change (just pull the pan drain plug and top off).

EDIT: Here is a very good how to along with all the parts you'll need: http://www.benzworld.org/forums/w210...ion-fluid.html

twinttsvr4

just change it, along with the pan gasket and filter...you should never flush a cars transmission unless youve been doing it every 20-30k miles since it was brand new. it will only cause problems

SETSEROCK

^^^ my tranny has 21K on it....

JonMBZ

I am going to have mine flushed to make sure everything is cleared out the torque converter is also filled with old oil and needs to be flushed as well

320 dreamer

drop the pan and drain the fluid (4 qts.) replace filter and gasket. disconnect the rubber to hard line from the tranny ( the connection is rite next to the oil pan) and stick it in a gal jug. start the car and shift thru all the gears for a few secs. in each gear. go to rev. and back to drive a few times. you should get 4 more qts fluid in the jug. reconnect the line, refill with fresh fluid and you have replaced 90% of the fluid in the tranny.

SETSEROCK

it wont hurt anything to run it for a minute on half its fluid? Does doing this get the fluid out of the torque converter? and how do you shift through the gears with the car parked?

How does the dealership flush it BTW?

91RS

That doesn't sound like a good idea to me. I can't say if the dealership offers a flush (a.k.a. fluid exchange), but that works by disconnecting a trans cooler line and hooking a machine in line with it. The machines I don't recommend have their own pump which forces the new fluid through and replaces with old. The right way that will not damage the transmission in anyway (or stir up debris) is the machine that uses the transmissions own pump to replace the fluid. It just captures the old fluid from the cooler line and replaces with new in it's place.

SETSEROCK

So flushing may not be a good DIY candidate?

What about just draining it, filling it back up with 4ish quarts and then just repeating the process a week later?

And is the filter easy to get to? And if there are metal shavings, will they be pretty evident?

ScottW911

A search of the forum, of one of our esteemed masters, led me to this old post:

https://mbworld.org/forums/c32-amg-c...n-service.html

Thank splinter for this one.

boohooramblers

+1

As Splinter alluded to in his thread, it may be worth your while to have your transmission fluid tested for glycol content.
That will likely influence your decision to 'flush' versus 'drain and fill'.

spr

Flush it and use the new 7 speed stuff. Search my post on it for the best deal and info etc.

lkfoster

I used the Fuchs 7 speed ATF when I changed my fluid at 40k miles. While the old ATF didn't look too bad, the transmission shifted noticeably smoother with the new fluid.

I figured I'd changed about 40% of the total volume, so repeated the process to get mostly new fluid in there. I didn't feel like tempting the gods by messing around with cooler lines for the flush.