Next week will be one year since the trans in my '84 500 SEL started to pour fluid on the ground from what appears to be the front seal. If I fill it up it just runs out in large puddles when I stop the engine. This was after I did a complete service on the trans( change the oil and filter and add an external cooler) all to extend the life of a perfectly operating trans. And no, I did not do anything wrong!. I have a long history of rebuilding the auto trans. on every vehicle I have owned over the last 25 years including an Allison trans in a bus which weighed 900 lbs. It is still running after 7 years. So I have continued to buy trans fluid on sale and now after a year I put a half a quart in a day since I drive over a hundred miles every day. The trans. still works PERFECTLY other than it is run low for a year. No one is more shocked than me, that it hasn't destroyed itself. At least 3 times, by mistake, I ran it so low that it would not come out of first gear until I stopped and put some fluid in. I was under the impression if you ran an auto trans low for any sustained period, it would kill it in short order. And before you say that's because MB trans. are so well engineereed, etc. you would be wrong. They suck!! They are weak and poorly engineered. So what do you make of that?