Gents, Give me your comment on the following procedure proposal to flush the transmission. In my final fill I will put the new MB supplied proper fluid, new filter, casket, plug seal. But to flush I propose to drain the pan, wash out the filter with kerosene and put it al back. filling up the transmission with a cheaper fluid (For example shell helix) to the Quantity I took out. Take as per recommendation of one video the one of the pipes of at the cooler radiator, start the car a flush out 3 litre and stop the engine. Fill again 3 litre, start the engine again and again drain 3 litre. repeat this till the fluid is nicely red. Last cycle (When 3 litre fluid is clean I drain the pan (Again collect the fluid and measure) Then install the brand new filter,pan gasket and drain plug crunch seal. Torque all up correct (20 on plug and 8 on pan bolts). Finally I fill again with 3 litre + pan drain volume but now using the MB fluid. Use my dip stick (Got a MB one) to check firstly the static level and finally start the car and check the level again (Cold level) finally I run it to 80 C and check the level again and adjust when required. This procedure saves me expensive fluid and a filter, and ending up with clean fluid trough a "Fresh Filter". The procedures I read are flushing using the new filter and leave it and some even say to replace the filter again in the final opening up. To me a "Filter wash with even washing benzene and a proper blow dry will make the filter good for use for flushing. I recon during the flush there is no real load on the transmission it merely needs to be properly lubricated at all times. Is there anything wrong with my method. (Shout at me if you wish) just trying to be the devils advocate to overcome the MB saving stupidity to remove the converter drain - how much saving that represents

 

I haven't read the thread, so I don't know what has been discussed, but my thinking has always been that a complete flush on an unserviced transmission will cause large chunks of debris to dislodge because of all the fresh detergent, which in turn will clog the filter, which will cause major damage to the transmission.

What I have done in the past is to drop the pan, clean it, replace the filter, and only the ATF that was lost while dropping the pan. drive no more than 1000 miles, and repeat. do this 4 or so times. (filters are cheap) cut open the filters to evaluate.

If the transmission starts to feel funny in ANY sort of way, replace the filter immediately. (In my mind it is all about the filter).

 

any idea what they charge for a tranny rebuild these days?

 

Who knows but I can tell you a "VALVE" body at $600.00 does almost nothing for an improvement.Been there ...done that. Total waist of money and only did it because I new nothing about these valve body" in the beginning. Now I can mod them to shift very well.
As far as a flush....disconnect the trans line...start car and let it drain. When it starts to gurgle out.....shut car off, fill trans with same amount that came out and start it again. Repeat "2" times. I would than drive it and let it shift for at least 20 min. up and down at operating temperature. Than drop pan , replace filter put in your good fluid. Than after a couple days drop pan and do it again. THIS IS ONLY FOR A TRANSMISION THAT IS VEEERRRY DIRTY. Why all the steps...your slowly pushing new fluid into the trans and "washing" it so to speak at a slow pace. The new trans fluid would look dirty right away because of the washing effect so doing this slowly in the end you will have nice pink fluid. This has worked for the last 25 years that I have been rebuilding transmission's and it WILL work...but is time consuming. When we flush them at the dealer after a quick drive the fluid has a "hue" to it because of all the old crap getting washed off.