Why isn't the tranny drain plug at the low point?

[RML]

I am doing the transmission service on my 84 300D. Changing the fluid, filter and gasket. Drained the torque converter too with a little help from my son turning the engine so I could line up the drain plug.

So I dropped the pan down after the fluid drained out and saw that there was still a considerable amount of fluid in the pan because the drain plug is not at the low point of the pan. Does anyone have a good explanation as to why the MB engineers did not locate the drain plug at the low point? My only guess is that you might want to see if there is any debris collecting in the pan that would allow you to diagnose a transmission problem.

[pawoSD]

Since you have to remove the pan anyways to change the filter, they probably did not worry too much about the "lowest point" for the drain plug.

[Eric]

Originally Posted by pawoSD

Since you have to remove the pan anyways to change the filter, they probably did not worry too much about the "lowest point" for the drain plug.

that.

[Diesel911]

At least it has a Drain Plug. May US Cars do not.

[pawoSD]

Originally Posted by Diesel911

At least it has a Drain Plug. May US Cars do not.

Exactly....talk about a mess when trying to change their fluid! I'm glad we got rid of our last "US" vehicle in October.