My indy found some metal chips in my trans fluid. He changed fluid several times. Will check again. Car seems to change gear more unexpectedly than in the past and I'm figuring that I may need to rebuild this puppy. Any idea of the costs, and upgrades to do? I have a TCU tune from Eurocharged, works well. Car has run 11.91 at MIR last fall. Don't want to subject tranny to strip abuse if it will fail far from home. Any suggestions? J

 

Drop in a low mileage used tranny yourself. Relatively cheap.

 

Where does one find such a used tranny? There is a large MB salavage yard not far away. Would you trust one from there? Is the AMG tranny different from the regular CL trans? My indy could handle the job, just the sourcing of the box seems challenging to me. J

 

I worked in that industry many years ago. The top companies nowadays are very professional and networked nationwide to parts inventories. If I needed to replace a blown engine or transmission, installing a used part is very much a valid choice and worth considering.

Think about a person who, God forbid, wrecks their CL55 that has 30K miles on it. Unfortunately, these cars 'total' easily because of the cost to repair and their current values. Rarely do the major parts and assemblies of a car become damaged as a result of a collision. Inside that wrecked car is a low-mileage engine, transmission, and many other bits.

Really your choices are, in order of cost: a) Install a used transmission b) Rebuild your transmission to stock c) Rebuild your transmission and take the opportunity to maximize it's performance and/or durability with hi-performance parts.

EDIT: A large MB salvage yard nearby? Man how I'd love to have that available here!

 

i believe some metal in the oil is normal. there are magnets to help collect this. also, i've been told that the synthetic tranny fluid turns black after prolonged use and it is somewhat normal. the only way to completely clean the fluid is buy flushing the torque converter. did you change the filter? you might want to wait until you drive it a few hundred miles to let the fluid kick in to see if you really have a problem.