Not4ne1

I just bought a 98 E340 at auction. I couldn't test drive it but as soon as I drove it away from the lot the transmission was slipping. At start up, the tranny is fine for the first few minutes of running but after 5 minutes or so it acts almost as neutral when trying to go then engages suddenly and harshly. It's almost exactly as if the fluid is low and the pump finally fills up and everything finally grabs. I'm desperate for this car as I just hit a deer in my S500 and need a car while I fix that. It's still at the auction in dispute because they didn't disclose the obvious malfunction but I don't expect to win my argument. Auction is about 2 hours drive so I can't just tinker with it whenever I want. I really really hope that someone will tell me that it's very likely that topping off the tranny will remedy the problem at least temporarily. I'm Ok with topping of the tranny once in a while until my S500 is fixed and I'd kind of like to keep this E series after that too but right now I just need a car. Is this problem likely low fluid? Will over filling cause the same or similar problems? I do realize that there may/will be larger problems that only get worse but I'm worried about just the next couple months. Thank you.

Plutoe

Take the car back and get your money back or expect to spend 2000--4000 for repairs!!

kajtek1

Is it US model of E320?
If so what is mileage?
Those transmissions have about 400k miles life expectancy, but are famous for small ATF leak at pilot bushing fouling the computers.
About $10 part, a can of MAF or other cleaner and you will loose some ATF in the process.

RichM

Since we don't know if this was an "as is" auction or not, I would do everything you could to get your money back. If you can not resolve this with the auction house, trailer it home. It is not likely just topping it off will do the trick.