you must have had the incorrect lube in the transmission.. this should not happen.

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79 240D my current toy
42 years a Diesel addict

240D sold
250SE sold
220D sold
280C sold
280S sold
300D (2) sold
300CD sold
300DT sold
300SD sold
380SL sold

Sounds likely, the oil change fixed it.

Another note:

While most gasoline engines will reach operating temp in cold weather idling, most diesels will not. Last winter (about 5 F) I had to wait for a train a mile from home, nice breeze blowing. As I sat there, the temp gauged dropped considerably and I got cold -- no heat. My 300D takes three or four miles to hit 80C, usually don't get a heater blower for at least a mile.

I have always driven at least 2 miles on startup (the local grocery, and that means three or four minutes and I come back home, usually), most often tem miles or so. I've never warmed a car up, just started, waited for the engine to run steady, and backed out of the drive. Light throttle only until the temp gauge starts to move, no hard driving until up to full temp. Never wore an engine out (unless the Volvo is toast, haven't checked yet).

Extensive idling in very cold weather usually leaves the oil pretty cold, and water collects. I know this because my old Audi Fox had a poorly designed blowby control system that vented the crankase into the filtered air stream in front of the K-Jet airflow meter. In bitter cold weather, if I had not driven the car enough to get it warm every day (I lived pretty close to work then), the condesation would evaporate from the oil when I made a highway trip, and freeze all over the venturi in the air flow sensor. This resulted in more and more deflection of the "flap" at the same air flow, and it would flood out except at full throttle. Cured by leaving the blowby tube off. No significant blowby, either, just water vapor in there.

Synthetic oils are wonderful. If you use them, you can nearly eliminate engie wear.

Lexus doesn't hold it's value anywhere near like a Benz, are much more expensive to fix when they do break, and normal begin to disintegrate at about 125,000 miles. The interior comes apart, and they are NOT economically repairable.

I believe MB has made a severe mistake in greatly reducing the quality of their cars. Simplicity is the key to longevity, since it's possible to make much better, much longer lived parts when yo don't have anywhere near as many, like the W123 and W126 chassis show.

Much of the price difference between a Benz and anyone elses cars was the official importer, MBUSA -- they roughly doubled the price out of greed. I suspect their markup is considerably less now. My brother-in-law priced a US spec 300SD in Germany in 1983 for his dad -- $19,500. Same car in the US had a sticker price of $38,000 and some change, I checked.

Unfortunately, the automotive market, like all other american markets, appears to be drivine by novelty these days, along with the fact that NO ONE actually BUYS the big, expensive cars, they lease. This means cars filled with junk computers and gadgets and NO incentive to make them reliable -- MB and BMW suffer the most, but Volvo isn't far behind -- they suffer from Ford disease.

I'm hoping this will change

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1972 220D ?? miles
1988 300E 200,012
1987 300D Turbo killed 9/25/07, 275,000 miles
1985 Volvo 740 GLE Turobodiesel 218,000
1972 280 SE 4.5 165, 000 - It runs!