Vik888

So my car is in for some warranty issue and it is at 39k miles now. The dealer said the ATF service is "recommended" and its possible down the road if the transmission were to fail that MB might not honor the warranty if this service is not done.

Anyway, so I did some searching, found the 08 maintenance sheet konigstiger has shared with everyone and it doesn't say recommended there. It looks like its required.

My dealer is famous for making a buck anyway they can but I have an amazing SA who hasn't tried to upsell me on anything.

So is it required? I've been quoted $425 for the service.

konigstiger

Required and although not a requirement until MY09 it should be changed every 40000 thereafter.

Vik888

Thanks for clarifying konigstiger.

SAguirre

The truth is that no automatic transmission has “lifetime fluid.” Now they are considering “lifetime” something like 80K miles. I found it fascinating that up until 2004, ATF was “lifetime,” yet once 2005 models did NOT have free maintenance it became required (even though a lot of transmissions were the same model numbers).

I keep my cars for a very long time so I had my ATF changed at around 25K miles and now once again at 68K. I will not change it again for a long time now. I had the transfer case, differentials and power steering changed at 58K miles. The anti Freeze was flushed and replaced with distilled water, MB antifreeze and Supercool when the PH hit 8, which was at about 5 years and 48K miles. I had the brake fluid changed at least 3 times now.

A full transmission service w/o the transfer case in $240, at my dealership with the MBUSA discount. I know I am changing the fluids a bit on the often side, but I think that it is important to have clean fluids to get a very long life out of equipment.

Steve