210 transmission

[vahe]

This is OT but here it goes.

The car is E320-97 its my wife’s car, she put 64K miles in roughly 9 years on it, mostly easy driving, the current mileage is 104000. Yesterday the transmission failed.

Took it to the dealer just to see what was involved, their estimate was $8K, the dealer was a bit surprised to see such an early failure, their word. The car has other issues so I am going to get rid of it as parts car. We bought this with 40K miles used, the transmission was serviced to avoid just this kind of problem, overall the car turned out to be a money pit.

Out of curiosity is the transmission on this car the same as the diesel model?

Vahe
240D 77

[nhdoc]

'97 was a transition year so I think it is possible this car could have the older, mechanical version 722.5XX or the newer electronic 722.6XX. You can ask the dealer which model your car has. If I had to guess I would say yours probably has the 722.6. All of the auto boxes are similar for gassers and diesels, but the XX designation determines which exact model yours has and it will be "tailored" to the engine (meaning higher torque engines have a heavier duty transmission).

My advice would be to seek out an alternative source of the transmission other than the dealer. $8K is certainly more than the car is worth and they know that nobody is going to actually spend that for one so they are telling you they don't want your business. I would guess you could get an independent shop to either overhaul yours or replace it with a salvage or rebuilt for much less than half that much, at which point it would be worth saving. A salvage gearbox could probably be installed for $1000-$1500 total. It's a gamble but a lot better than $8K.

Call around to some local indy shops that specialize in transmission work.