I also have a VW Eurovan that has 103K miles and I'm having trouble with the transmission slipping.

I want to prevent anything from happening to my nice Benz, so I'm looking through the STAR service CD and don't see any recommended interval for servicing the tranny.

I have 100K on this benz and I don't want to prevent as many problems as possible.

Is it time to service? There are instructions that are fairly straight forward. Any special advice? Any "kits" to buy that have everything you need off the internet? Standard ATF off the internet, or only from dealer? Gasket kit?

Any help would be appreciated. I searched the forums but didn't see any threads nor content alluding to what I'm looking for.

Also, the mechanics that post threads that offer help seem to be an extra step. I don't mind asking them, but it seems that this would be a common issue that needs to be discussed once and then everyone knows. Do I have that wrong? If so, I'd be happy to repeat my questions to one of those mechanic threads.

 

Mercedes claims that the fluid is "lifetime" but I recommend every 50k miles, using ONLY Mercedes Benz 722.6 transmission fluid. Get the Trans filter, pan gasket, crush washers for the pan and torque converter, 7-8 qts MB trans fluid (OEM ONLY!). Drain the trans pan and torque converter. It is refilled through the trans dipstick which has a lock tab that must be broken and pushed out to fill and check levels. You will also need the measurement dipstick which is a special tool that ranges from 20-60 dollars, this is the only way to check the level correctly. It is a pain but a transmission with torque converter is a $5000+ expense and not worth saving the extra couple of $$ on junk parts.

 

Thanks for the recommendations. On my VW in similar situation there are companies selling "Transmission Service" kits, with gasket, Filter and even a "make shift" pump to put the ATF back in the tranny.

The VW doesn't have a dipstick, it's fill to spill.

Anyway, if there's an online source for the parts I need, I'd appreciate a recommendation. When I went to my indy mechanic, they said keep driving it and don't worry. But if I twist their arm, they would probably do it for me.

I don't understand why they wouldn't? I'm not having any shifting problems at 103K miles, but I want to keep it that way for as long as possible, and I haven't been saving up for the $5K tranny replacement.....

Thanks again.

 

I cannot recommend any parts source online. Call around at local dealers in the area and get prices. You'd be surprised how they might deviate from each other and sometimes the parts dept may adjust the price to be competitive. Not as likely but possible. Stay away from dealers owned by Sonic Automotive if you want to save money.

 

I came across a tough situation.

I ordered all the parts from autohausaz, including the recommended Mercedes Benz OEM ATF with part number 001 989 21 0310. This was what was specified on the website for my year make and model.

I think, but can't remember for sure, that this is the same part number the dealer gave me, so I felt confident I was ok. It comes in the Mercedes labelled bottle and everything.

The problem is that when I drained the fluid, it looked very much like my Volkswagen Pentosin ATF, a yellow/goldish colored synthetic. Of course it was "old" and was dark, but when wiping things up off the floor, or other drips, it was definitely the yellow/gold type synthetic.

So then I get ready to put in the new ATF and panic when I see that it is RED. I know the stuff in there was not RED.

So I go to the CD ROM for my Mercedes, and type in my year and model and check to verify the ATF part number.

It comes up, 000 989 92 03. I'm like, GREAT. The website might have had the wrong part number. A friend convinced me it would be ok in the short run to go with it, and I have this feeling that the dealer did give me the 001 part number. So I'll verify again when the dealer opens later this morning.

But if anyone else has had this experience, and knows that the "RED" stuff will be ok, then that will ease my mind. I'll probably get an answer back from the dealer in about 1.5 hours, but I wanted to post this because someone may end up in my situation in the coming months/year.

I believe the CD ROM also showed alternative ATF's for transmissions with 722.3, .4, .5, .6, .7, etc...

But I thought mine was a 722.622. This is also a confusing situation.

Well, I'll let you know what I find out, and if you have similar stories, chime in.