harmetp

We bought a R320 diesel a year ago and it had the low power issue that turned out to be an oil staturated inlet motor - finally fixed it (now it's got a boost problem, but as involved as the inlet motor swap was I probably have a sensor connector not seated).

Naturally the transmission must have felt left out so it started acting up - hard 2-1 shift then coming out of gear while running down the highway and now barely any reverse. I did a quick fluid/filter change (didn't drain the torque converter and I'm not sure my year has the drain) and no improvement. Original oil was quite black and the pan magnets were pretty furry, but a mb tech told me that wasn't necessarily a show stopper (shavings are typical in AT's of all kinds).

Star indicates implausible transmission ratios/slipping, but no electrical/ECM errors. There seems to be a lot of conductor plates being replaced, but it's my understanding that is to fix the hard 2-1 downshift. The easiest thing for me to do is replace the conductor plate and possibly the whole valve body, but the diagnosis isn't leading in that direction

I'm probably not the only guy with 722.9 transmission issues - anyone just replace the 'easy' parts for a problem like mine and have good results or is it going to be replacement?

2007 R320 CDI
170K miles


Thanks, Pat