I would like to think I'm on top of my vehicle maintenance all the time, ever ready to check my fluids, dot my i's and cross my t's, spending as much time looking at parts as I do driving. But there is just one thing that has slipped past me for reasons unknown, and is probably the most critical of things to not let slip by weekend after weekend. And that's the transmission fluid/filter! Since I have had my car (one year last month) I have not changed out my tranny fluid, and who knows how long ago the po did it.

I never thought about it until I drove a friend of mine's diesel Mercedes last weekend. I marveled at how smooth the shifting was, and wait, there's another gear to shift through?! My stomach dropped once I realized that for God knows how long my car has not shifted anywhere NEAR proper: Leaving it in Drive it shifts once at 17 MPH, again at 23 MPH, and that's it! Then when winding back down it shifts down with a clunk at about 20 MPH, meaning it skipped through a gear or two? Oh man!

So I think every single time I go from a stop it skips a gear, then whenever it shifts back down it skips one or two gears. Hooraay! I am definitely changing out the fluid this Friday, but my question now is, does allowing it to drain by itself get ALL the old fluid out or should I spend the $100 taking it to a shop for a quick flush, removing 100 per cent of the fluid? And if I'm better off taking it in should I at least replace the filter before bringing it in? (obviously lots of fluid will drain out, I planned on putting fresh fluid back in just to drive it to the local shop.)

Let me know what your take is on this. Hopefully after forking out the money for a tranny rebuild I will learn.

Thanks for letting me vent!

__________________
1981 300SD, odometer stopped at 188,000