Greetings MBWorld. I am a long time (since 2004) Benzworld poster but since I found so much good W220 transmission servicing info here, including absolutely killer Johnand's thread and we should all know the famous G-AMG who's contributions have landed in the w220 wiki and who is in my opinion the owner-technician we should all strive to be like. So a huge thank you!

On to the car, "Lily":

134,000 miles and previous owner claimed the valve body was replaced. Now I am not sure why in the hell someone would need to replace an entire valve body, other than not wanting to take the time to figure out which valve was giving a problem and then when he told me all his servicing had been done by the stealership a bunch of red flags went up. We can discuss that opinion if you would like, but let's just say I hate the stealerships and question their ethics.

He claimed this took place 2 years ago and so I figured that meant a fluid and filter change happened. Being me however (and feeling like the car didn't inch forward enough in 1st gear and fearing a low transmission fluid condition) I decided to change the fluid, filter, gasket, etc.

The fluid that came out was much darker than I expected and confirmed my fears that things were not as good as I would like. On a white t-shirt it looked like dried blood.

I have the misfortune of having a torque converter with no drain plug, so that is not good.

I am not wanting to do the whole 12L flush deal even though I probably should but lets just say I don't want to.

I also noticed that when I dropped the pan, the magnets were MISSING. I knew I should have ordered knew magnets with my autohaus order but for no reason, I let this 6 dollar decision throw back my service 2 days and I'll be on my motorcycle for the next few days. The fact that the magnets were missing is only more confirming evidence of corners cut at stealerships who are not interested in jobs that don't make them money when they are in line behind cars that they sold additional services that will make them money.

I probably got 5L of fluid out. I disconnected a radiator line to see how much more would come out, barely anything.

Here's the question - if I were to fit my wet/dry vac on the radiator line, do you think I could get more fluid out without damaging anything?

I tried hooking up the manual pump backwards that I was going to use to add the fluid and that didn't work well.

Just wondering what else I can do to get more fluid it out of this bad larry while I am waiting on ye olde magnets. Really don't understand why they skipped the torque converter drain on this, but it was confirmed by WIS and other threads that it is indeed the case.

Thanks!

 

I just realized a bunch of my answers are on Johnand's thread.

I think I am just going to take the Australian guy's youtube video approach, Scott Eliot, to do a flush through the radiator line after all, or at least a couple liters.

Any best practices or experiences recently would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

Often times I see dealers replacing the entire valve body when the conductor plate starts throwing codes for speed sensors, which at your mileage, is about the time that they fail. The reality is that nothing is wrong with the valve body itself but it gets replaced anyway. My best guess at reasoning is because they get paid garbage on labor for warranty stuff. Replacing an entire valve body with new conductor plate is much faster than a straight conductor plate replacement. Reducing time means less expense.

Wet/dry vac won't work.

I definitely recommend a flush. Disconnect the line, start the car, pump it into a container with markings. As it pumps out, pump in new fluid out of a CLEAN measured container with your hand pump. Try to keep it as close as possible. Once the fluid starts coming out clean, you are done. Shut off the car, button things up, and then get the trans warmed up. Once you are at temp, check the level and adjust as necessary. It can be surprising how much the fluid level changes between warm and cold and this is why it's very important to check it at the right temp. Make sure things are clean. You don't want to pump in dirt.

If you want to avoid the flush, and since you've already done 5L, you can do the drain/refill method. I personally feel like it's a waste of fluid and takes more time than just doing a flush but a lot of people find it easier.

 

Thanks Ryan - I ended up with not doing the dual flush, this job was just taking too long, but I did pump out a liter through the receive tube starting at the driver's side connect on the radiator and what came out was bright red, so I was satisfied that most of the brown stuff came out.

In doing the fill I ran into a weird situation - I put in a liter more than I took out (or thought) and did the 45 degree test, and not much came out. So I added back another 2L - here is where I would love some opinions:

I added back the 2L when the temp was still around 40 degrees celsius. Then I did the test again and a bunch of fluid came out, say a liter, and then started sputtering, and I closed it off.

Car feels somewhat similar from a foot-off-the-brake lurching forward, or less than I would think - maybe this is just the car. One thing that didn't sit well with me is that the new filter sort of sagged when I put it in. I tried to take it out and it was hard to take it out, so I pushed it in again and was happy enough that it wasn't going to come out. Now I'm wondering if it did.

Anyway, intuitively the 2 more liters in and then 1 liter out seemed fine, but I was a little unsure that putting in two different temps of fluid was correct and wondered if I should have waited until the car was cold again.

Thoughts?

 

Sometimes the aftermarket filters don't clip in very well at the front and tend to fall down like that. It's not a big deal. The pan itself will hold it up. Just make sure that the side with the o-ring clicked in.

You can put cold fluid into a hot transmission. That's not a problem.

Also (for anyone else reading) keep an eye for leaks the next couple of weeks. If you put a new gasket on the pan and torqued to MB specs, chances are very high that it will leak. They need to be tighter than spec. Don't go crazy though, they are easy to strip out.

As for your drivability issues, it's hard to say if what you are feeling is normal or not without feeling it in person.

 

Ryan you are a good man.

I torqued to 4nm and then turned 180 degrees after that per various instructionals with new pan bolts. I'll be doing weekly inspections to make sure there are no leaks.

This morning the car felt great, I'm pretty sure it is in my head on the rolling issue. I do live on slight incline and it is a V8. I'm just comparing the "foot off the gas feeling" to my ML and my former CLK which have different engines and the 722.6 different transmission. It does move forward on flat surfaces. I think I'm good.

Cheers!

 

And to point out the obvious: this was an absurd design by MBZ and their most flagrant "just bring it to the shop so we can forget your magnets" attempt up to that point at making money off service.

 

Well if you want to save money, apply for a resale license. They're free (at least here in ca) and then you can order wholesale parts at the stealer. I get 30% off tax free here in SoCal. I buy every little thing from the dealer.

Now, to get more fluid, you could easily remove the valve body and pretend like you're doing a conductor plate replacement. That drains a lot out.