The more I work on my car, the more I realize how much of the previous repair work was completely half assed.

I discovered the drain plug on the trans pan completely stripped. So now I have to drop the entire pan full of fluid.

Is it possible to extract the contents of the pan through the dip stick? An ATF bath is the last thing I want right now!

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Undo the rear bolts more than the front and get a tilt going on the pan, to dump in one direction. Catch it in a bucket, not your face. Most fluid is in the torque converter anyway, and at least that exit is controlled through a bolt hole. Probably stripped on your car too... lotsa silicone goo around that hole?

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Cheers!
Scott McPhee

1987 300D

i don't think the top side oil removal that works for draining engine oil will also work for tranny fluid. if you don't want to drench your driveway you could get a new trans pan from another member and have it ready, and drain the fluid by carefully drilling a hole in your existing pan so it just squirts out. your pan will be shot but the time you spend cleaning up a mess will be less than the time/effort of buying a new pan on the cheap

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Same thing on mine...just undo all of the bolts slowly and drop a corner a bit lower first.

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TC
Current stable:
- 2004 Mazda RALLYWANKEL
- 2007 Saturn sky redline
- 2004 Explorer...under surgery.

Past: 135i, GTI, 300E, 300SD, 300SD, Stealth

If you have access to a welder you could possibly weld a nut to the bolt and get it out. Or sometimes the proper size torx bit can be tapped into the allen hole and that works.

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Not at all actually. It looks like the mechanic i first brought my car to back two years ago stripped it trying to remove it. I'm guessing he just dropped the pan like you suggested.

I have a large oil catch pan too. I was worried there was like two gallons of ATF in the tray. I'll give this trick a go and get a new bolt that isn't these damned allens.

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-Typos courtesy of my mobile phone.

drill a hole in the pan? then replace the pan & bolt?

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'85 300TD "Puff The Magic Wagon" - Rolling Resto
'19 Mazda CX-9 Signature - Wife's sled
'21 Morgan 3-Wheeler P101 Edition
'95 E300d - SOLD
'84 300TD "Brown Betty" - Miss this one
'81 240D "China Baby" - Farm grocery getter

If you had a 722.1 transmission then you could push a small tube down the dip stick / filling hole in order to syphon it out. This might work on your transmission - I'm guessing it isn't a 722.1...

You could also loose quite a lot of fluid by disconnecting the oil cooler at the front of the car. (Jack up the back for a bit more of a drip effect! - Hardly worth it though)

And in my experience loads more fluid comes out of the torque converter - if this too is an option of your transmission I'd drain that first too.

At least in these ways you are minimising the amount of fluid left in the pan.

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1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

some pans don't even have drainplugs, you just have to do it the way thats been suggested, workhorse P-vans come to mind.

I once worked at a shop where the owner had a 3-4 foot catch pan attachment for just this contingency, basically a big tapered piece of plastic that looked like an inverted oven hood and designed to fit into the top of a normal catch pan and like triple to surface area where fluid can splash. It was a genius piece of equipment, and I havent been able to find another one just like it.

I made one out of some cardboard and duct tape which worked for a while. If i had used waxboard, it probably would have lasted a lot longer.

messy PITA without a proper drainplug as you obviously know

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I am unable to remove the plug in the CD, the shop that worked on it last doesn't have a clue.
I also just carefully remove strategic bolts and let it pour out of a corner. No spill, all went into the drain pan. However, there was much dripping from the now exposed transmission, what a mess.

VW Beetle oil pans are like that, no drain plug.

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83 SD

84 CD

Could you define "completely stripped" in a bit more detail?

Expect 3-4 quarts.

a pair of vise grips should work or a chisel and hammer to knock it loose. should be pretty easy

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1987 300sdl
Engine 603.961

A topside extractor will do just fine at removing all the fluid from the pan. I do this all the time when changing transmission fluid. It is quick, easy, and pretty much eliminates any mess associated with dropping the pan. I would do this in a second as opposed to dropping a full pan.

Possibly a victim of bad info on the Internet: the Diesel Giant tranny fluid change page says to use a Torx bit.

Since it's alreay stripped - maybe an oversized Torx firmly seated into the plug can get some grip. Or maybe drill through the drainplug?

You could buy a replacement plug, mark the depth, carefully drill through to let it drain, then maybe try an EZ-out; either before or after the pan is removed.

Or - just go straight to assuming worst case and the pan is warped due to overtorquing the retaining bolts and buy a new pan. $45 @ Fastlane, and maybe money well spent depending on how much time you invest in getting it back together without leaks.

http://catalog.peachparts.com/ShopByVehicle.epc?q=&yearid=1985@@1985&makeid=63@@MERCEDES+BENZ@@X&modelid=6193%3AED%7C10000135%3AMBC%7C1504@@300D&catid=241185@@Transmission&subcatid=241318@@AT+Pan&applicationid=W0133-1613125@@AT Pan&mode=PA

The inside of the torx screw is a complete circle.

I finished the job today and also flushed out the power steering pump. The pan didn't have any noticeable junk in it so that was reassuring.

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-Typos courtesy of my mobile phone.