Quote:
Originally Posted by porkface
i read your signature. it says the sdl has 300k miles. NEVER had a trans rebuilt? NEVER changed the atf before? supposed to be every 30k miles. you're on fumes now.
try this. drain the pan and keep the fluid. refill with with 1 new atf. then refill with the used atf. this way you gradually introduce fresh fluid. gonna take a couple of years if you do this once a month. more work but cheaper that a trans.
me, i'd pull the trans and get it done. 300k is a lot.
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It's not the original transmission. I bought it in 2017 with 303303 on the odo. I remember the figure because it was a palindrome. Who knows, maybe a sign.
It had a tranny fluid leak, seals no doubt. I had to check it every two or three days. In late 2019 I blew the radiator, luckily the idiot light caught my eye, I hadn't seen the needle going up to the red line. Popped the hood, it was all steam, at least it wasn't black smoke.
I put in one of those aluminum radiators, it ran fine until early 2021 when it started billowing white smoke, and finally gave up the ghost. I found out later it was a blown head gasket, it's what we all suspected.
I had gotten some prior work done on it that I couldn't do from a Vietnamese mechanic who cut his teeth on Mercedes diesels in the old country where they were pretty common. He's something of an OM603-ophile, owns two 350SDs. He somehow ran across an 87 SDL with 130 K, a really strong motor and a so-so transmission. I never did get the whole story. The body had been near totaled, but still drivable - he said the engine felt really good, and the compression checked excellent. He pulled it and the drivetrain, called me up, put it all in.
The fact that I blew it with the transmission haunts me, I don't know how I could be so stupid. I could try to make the excuse of the cancer treatment I was going through at the time, chemotherapy the whole works, but that doesn't really cover it. I've done pretty well with some other vehicles on maintenance. Took my 87 BMW 325I to 425K doing all my own work, changed the fluid, timing belts, etc. on schedule.
I'm healthy now, I just need to make the car healthy. A rebuilt tranny is in my future. But if I could get some service out of this one for as long as possible, that would help.