transmission oil question

[rufman]

sorry to harp on...1999 e55 on ramp today with the car dealers own mechanic and they cant do the trans oil as its a sealed unit. Spoke to mercedes and they said yes but they could do it for a......£240 plus vat!!.

Now im reading on some forums that sealed unit boxes dont need changes etc etc and can do more damage than good.

Any thoughts plus does any one recomend a good specialist in birmingham?

Thanks folks

 

[Ian B Walker]

Andy Gayle in Birmingham is well respected. On a supposedly sealed for life gearbox I would change the trans oil every 60,000 miles. I know someone who would change it for £163 inclusive of the 3353 Mb oil used.

 

[rufman]

cheers...will spk to him and a chap called howard williams..

will get it changed for sure..

 

[Parrot of Doom]

If it wasn't a sealed unit, the oil would leak out

 

[GSMGuy]

I heard this, and also my last car - Ford Galaxy Auto, was supposedly sealed for life... prob why the box died @ 50k.. anyway, the place that repired it (Auto Specialists only) did a great job, so took the ML to them when I got it.. Again, supposedly sealed for life.. They drained and flushed using a "powerflush" machine connected to 2 blanked off plugs on the gearbox, and it pumps a cleaner around whilst the car is running, from it's own reservoirr. Then they stopped it, took the bottom off the box and replaced the filter and pickup, before refilling with top qual synthetic fluid, using the same machine, and added a Wynns treatment (The machine was a wynns powerflush iirc) Anyway, took about 1 1/2 hours in all, cost was £140 plus VAT for parts and labour... Box was much sweeter, and still is 15k later....

TBH If I do change cars in the next few weeks, it'll be top of the agenda to get it done the same wat..

Mike

 

[rufman]

well its booked in for friday morning so that should be that..this should mean a gearbox that will now last for thousands of miles and will take severe lead footpunishment with ease.

hope these cars are as good as everyone says and i dont get embarrassed by mr mondeo tdci or mr a4 tdi..not that im looking for any road racing but motorway overtaking was a little embarassing with cars 2 inches away from my boot and me labouring past slower cars in my 230k..

thanks for the advice.

 

[GSMGuy]

Mondeo TDCi 130.... Bro in law has one..... Audi A4 Tdi 130... Bro has one - And my chipped ML270CDI leaves them BOTH for dead


And mines a "slushy" (yeah right) auto, whereas they have 6 spd manuals.....
Mike

 

[rufman]

well ive finally taken ownership today and driven it home..its a little stiffer than i thought it would be and the tyres pick up any camber in the road no matter how small but thats fine i suppose.

My brakes catch quite low down but do stop well once they bit.design flaw or something to worry about?. Steering seems just a tiny bit out of synch so i suppose wheel alignment is the next step.

Other than that Im pretty impressed..just wondering whether the £40 optimax will do the 27 mile journey home!

Thanks again.