Transmission fluid advice...
 

I drive a 2011 M-B E350 Bluetec diesel with the OM642 3.0 liter turbodiesel engine.

I am just turning 120K miles (about 200k km) and the recommended 120K service includes: engine oil change and filter, engine air filter, fuel filter and cabin air filter, and a transmission flush, fill and transmission filter.

Local Mercedes stealer, I mean dealer, wanted $2200 for all that. My local independent garage, who I trust implicitly, is doing everything but the transmission fluid and filter for $500. Fair enough.

He told me, "I can't do the transmission fluid. Need a special tool, it has to go in at a certain temperature, and I am just not equipped to do it, I'd have to buy the tools and charge you for it. Plus, if your transmission fluid was changed at 80K (which it was), I'd wait 60K beforeI changed it, that is what pretty much every brand does. 60k."

I called the stealer again, and they want $800 for the transmission filter, flush and refill.

Short of calling other M-B dealers, which I will do, what would you do? Wait 20K more? Find an independent garage that is more familiar with M-B? Pony up and let the stealer do his dirty work?

(Note I am not a fan of this dealer. They filled my DEF fluid from a 55 gallon drum and tried to charge me for 14 half gallon bottles at $20 each. I asked for the empty bottles, and they finally admitted they fill from a drum)

When transmission service intervals are whole mystery done by MB, I just did 2 of them last week.
$9 infra-red thermometer will do when you don't want to spend $100 on advanced scanner. Any shop hesitating spending "that kind of money" on their tools would be red-flagged in my books.
My W211 did not have ATF changed for 140k miles, while comparing the dust on magnets, I think the W212 was on factory ATF at 180k miles. No problems.
Note that 7G have converter plug, so if you don't DIY, make sure what the shop include in the price.

Read the procedure.
It is not adding at certain temp, but closing the overflow plug at the temperature it is calibrated for.
The procedure sounds scary at first since there is nothing like that in the past, but once you do it, there is not much to it.
Just messy job as you have to work under the car.

Thanks for the advice everyone.

Not sure what fluid that uses, but you can use Shell ATF fluids. It's probably either ATF 134 or ATF 134 FE. The local shell distributors usually have both for around $60 for a case of 12 quarts so much cheaper than the dealer. And yes, there's a certain procedure you're supposed to do to fill the transmission til the fluid comes pouring out. And that happens at a certain temperature. Fluids expand at different temperatures so I suppose if you do it when it's cold, you'll have too much fluid.

https://www.shell.us/business-custom...r-locator.html

1 you don't know if the old fluid was at correct level
2 the only way to check level is to top it off and let it overflow
3. getting ATF to 40C does not take long and you can always spend the time to check other things, or simply relax.

Make sure you use the right fluid. There's a difference between the 2010 and 2011 E class (not sure of the exact cutoff) but one is the 7GTronic and one is the 7G Tronic Plus. The Plus requires fluid every 70K miles. The older 7G requires at 40K. I did the fluid myself on my 2011 E350 about 20K miles ago. It's a messy job but the only tools you need are a fluid transfer pump, IR thermometer and the thing that screws into the bottom of the pan to pump fluid in. I put the fluid in a clean bucket and pumped it in. No issues after the change.

I got a kit from benzexpert on Ebay. It included everything and was priced reasonably.

2010 june 21st is when the cut off was (dont remember the exact date though)
After this date mercedes started using different fluid.

i got the kit from rockauto but i made my own kit with with parts they offered.

Harborfreight is having coupons for $5 transfer pumps.
The adapter might be harder to find, but transmission plug is having the same thread what oil pan plug and having spare oil pan plug, I drilled/taped it for hose connector.