W124 gearbox overfill?

[brucemillar]

Friends. My mate Dave wanted know if the 300te auto box can drop atf "if" over filled?

Does it have a breather where it could push excess atf out.

 

[roadhog]

There is a breather at the top, near the rear end. Tell Dave to be more careful topping up the fluid next time.

 

[Charles Morgan]

Tell Dave not to drink the stuff before filling up.

 

[stwat]

Tell Dave, that yes. It can also leak onto the exhaust at motorway speeds causing a smoke screen behind the car.
My mate Dave found that out after overfilling his W126,,,,

 

[brucemillar]

Gentlemen.

By spooky coincidence Dave was able to see my screen. He wants to thank you for your helpful replies. Oh he said he should have listened to Bruce who did say " that's too much atf your putting there Dave". But, blinded by Bruce's thumping good looks, he just carried on emptying the bottle in. What a plonker you are Dave.

 

[roadhog]

My mate Dave thought it'd be a good idea to pour all 7 litres of ATF in one go rather than faffing about doing 4 litres, running the engine and topping up slowly to the required level. He also spent quite some time cleaning fresh ATF of his drive. Not very good with instructions, my mate Dave.

 

[Martyn_n]

Do we all know the same Dave? He did it on his ML270 last year, ended up with ATF all over the front of his caravan. He then dragged his wife and kids to the nearest MB dealer, in Orleans, to buy some more huile to replace what had been spewed out. Fortunately the parts department was closed, for a reason only the French would understand, so he limped home with only 1/2 ltr too much in it.
It wasn't a total loss as there was a stunning SLS GT race car in the showroom to lust after.

 

[219]

If one of these is overfilled , and Dave has a Pela oil extractor for doing engine oil changes , there's no reason that couldn't be used to remove a little atf to bring it down to the correct level .

 

[optimusprime]

My friends name is Ron .Real friend that is .
And i told him , that the GTX oil he was putting in to the engine of his Morris Traveler , had 25% more free oil in the can . And can you see tha mark . But he still put the lot in .

 

[optimusprime]

The oil can be removed with a syringe and a small plastic or nylon pipe fixed to the end .The syringes can be purchased at you home brew depot.

 

[219]

Suitable tubing can either be bought as screenwash hose , or from aquarium shops .

 

[ashenfie]

Get Multi-Use Hand Transfer Pump Fluid Extractor for less than a £10 very handy for filling and extracting oils and the like.

 

[Peter103]

Tell Dave to buy some extra rolls of kitchen towels to wipe his hands on.

 

[brucemillar]

Thank you all for the replies. Dave has the use of my personal (as recommended on this forum) battery operated extractor pump, that has indeed multiple hoses that will fit into the dip stick tube.

It appears that what Dave did here, was check the ATF level, without first ensuring that the car and box were up to temp. Easily done, as Dave can get muddled when he is multi-tasking. Dave then proceeded to add, just under a litre of ATF to bring the dipstick up to the mark.

As the car is laid up for winter and was only started a couple of times since. Dave then noticed a smallish (just under a litre) sized puddle of ATF on his garage when he moved the car back to do some work in his garage.

Dave noted that this was very fresh and very clean ATF and surmised that he may have been the instrument of his own downfall here. Checking the dipstick (no that is not Dave) now shows the level to be fine.

My thinking is that that the excess has been pushed out the breather. I have asked Dave to get the car hot again at the weekend, when he can check the level again, properly. Dave has agreed to do this, if I help him and stop him getting muddled up.

 

[Deleted member 11979]

My mate, unmmm, Bob, yes Bob, can confirm that overfilling the gearbox and then zipping down the motorway can indeed cause a smoke screen so bad that the RAC may well have got involved

Silly Bob

 

[Mike Walker]

Bruce
Your mate Dave has only scratched the surface. My mate Dave recently tried to fill his Mercedes C220cdi with petrol and fortunately stopped having only put £20 worth in.

Silly Dave had to fork out lots of £££££ to get the whole mess sorted out. I don't think he will do it again.

 

[ianrandom]

Tell Dave, that yes. It can also leak onto the exhaust at motorway speeds causing a smoke screen behind the car.
My mate Dave found that out after overfilling his W126,,,,

Hahaha. My trusted non MB garage once filled my W126 gearbox to the brim, it would seem.

Very thoughtful, but every time I got to about 100mph (on my private roads of course) the white smoke was somewhat frightening and resulted in a stop of the car!

Still alls well that ends well..

 

[ianrandom]

I should add that although it's a different car, I was advised that since I might not use it for a month or two, trans fluid can collect in the torque converter and then get flung out on starting? Hence there's some on the floor.

That was by Star Motors, who rebuilt the gearbox. Made sense, and it doesn't leak apart from that, also behaves impeccably in general.