My SLK (R171) Auto gearbox service

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Rebel

Member
Joined
Aug 28, 2006
Messages
55
Location
UK
Car
Clk 230K soon to be SLK R171
Hi guys (and ladies) I haven't been online for a while but thought I had to tell you about a recent experience I've had with my car.

I needed a few jobs doing on my car R171 (SLK 280) and as in normal for me went to a specialist MB servicing garage, Star Auto Services, these guys are fairly well known in the Mercedes world and have been mentioned an a number of occasions on different MB forums. that's how I first learnt about them, anyway cutting a long story short I am getting mighty close to 80k on the speedometer and MB recommend a gearbox oil change and filter change at 80k surprisingly enough it isn't on the service schedule we are all expected to know (or guess) that this is needed. even worse nobody tells us the gearbox oil should be changed at 40K and I didn't know if that had been carried out as I bought my car second hand long after 40k had been passed.

Anyway Stuart at Star asked if I'd had this work done and I told him I didn't know about the 40k service so we came to an agreement that he would carry out this work for me whilst my other bits were being done, I have to tell you the car was behaving impeccably and I had no reason to worry about the auto box it was smooth and changed gear as it should (or so I thought) but anyway Stuart did the service on a brand new gearbox servicing machine he had just acquired, at the same time he did a complete gearbox flush using "LaunchUK" flushing fluid and changed the filter & refilled the box with new ATF.

To be honest I didn't expect a lot the car was behaving well and I only did the job on a preventative maintenance basis as I don't intend to change cars it was a case of better safe than sorry.

On the way home I started to feel a difference, in comfort mode the changes which had always been smooth were hardly noticeable, the truth was the only way I could tell the box had changed gear was by the engine noise, I simply couldn't feel it! When I swapped to sports mode it was even better instead of a perceptible jump when changing gears it was just like the comfort mode, you had to listen to the engine sound to tell you'd changed up a gear, it was big difference that was totally unexpected to me.

I asked Stuart for a rough idea of costs for different models and he told me it depended on how much ATF the car needed and the cost of the filter etc. but it started at around £250 and my 280 SLK was £350 inclusive, considering how much a replacement gearbox would cost I thought that was relatively cheap, you might want to think about it especially if you are coming up to the time it needs changing (40k, 80k etc.)

Star Auto Services is in Huntingdon Cambridgeshire if you want to chat to Stuart, I can personally recommend him but talk to him yourself I don't think you will be disappointed.

Regards and best wishes to all
 

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