I recently did a transmission change from a very late 2005 to a late 2006 ML320 CDI, (In aus we got the ML320 cdi before the USA I think)

The transmissions both had the same part number, the one from the 2005 car had only done 45000km when the car was totalled - the car with the failed torque converter had done about 275000km - both first gen (2 disc) torque converters

I had the torque converter failure - scanner code said too much friction in lock up clutches - I swapped everything over except I pulled the valve body out of the one with the failed torque converter and put it in the "new" transmission. I did this to avoid the programming issues. Surprisingly enough I also had to change the shifter box on the side of the transmission as the car did not respond to other one - no idea why that is programmed to the car - thought it would just have picked up everything from the TCU and the shifter on the column.

The gear changes were rough for a short while but eventually the TCU re adapted and all has been good now for 10000km

I was wondering if transmissions from later cars can be swapped? I am looking at a 2009 ML350cdi which has been wrecked and buying the whole car and see its transmission code is 722902 02 388588 while the code on the 2008 GL is 722902 01 619515, and the codes on the two 2006 ML's are 722902 00 XXXXXX

I assume the second set of numbers (bold) are the evolutions in the transmission, the 01 having the upgraded torque converter (3 friction discs)

I am just not sure if the 02 is much different to the 01, they both have A49 torque converter, but the valve body changes from vgs2 (M type) to vgs3 (R type) - vin codes A38 toA52)

I think that they went to an 03 but for this they changed the transmission fluid (according to Fusch the fluid changed type for the om642 fitted transmissions in mid 2010)

I realize this is a fairly indepth thread -and probably badly written but here goes

 

You need only to worry about the first 3 numbers. 722.902 are all the same, which mean they go to the same engine and yes they went from 2 clutches to 3 clutches on the torque converter. The numbers after the 722.902 are production serial numbers. Pretty much all 722.9 transmission are exactly the same in hardware, with the exception that some components were upgraded later on....... The exception being the 722.9 installed in the newer M157 engines that had the wet clutch instead of the torque converter. The difference in all these is the number of clutches for each application. Diesels have a bigger amount of clutches due to the torque they have. I have been rebuilding these transmissions for about 3.5 years. The higher the torque, the higher the failure.

 

Many thanks

I actually bought the 2009 cdi wreck and a week later my daughters 2006 ML320 cdi went into limp mode - pulled the pan and full of metal - quite big chunks compared to the torque converter friction disk failure I have had in the past on the other 06

I cleaned the valve body (some valves had been jambed by debris) and used the 2006 valve body and TCU / conductor plate (VGS2) in the newer transmission and torque converter - does not seem to be an issue sofar with the 3 disk torque converter (only finished last week)