changing rear diff fluid at 155, 000 miles?
 

car is a 99e300 155,000 miles

ok, 1 of my shops thinks that it is unwise to change the diff fluid this late, i dont have the full service records for the car, it could have been changed at some point but maybe not
the car seems to have been well maintained but.....

this indie shop feels i am likely to get noise/whine/problems out of the rear diff if i change it now and it has never been done before

said they have never seen a mercedes diff fail so just leave it alone



my other shop feels i should change it

what are everyones thoughts on this?

Go with this shop. Diff gear lube should be good for ~100k miles.

If the transmission has not been serviced (fluid/filter change, not a flush) then have them do that. Is it a MB specific shop? That particular application has a drain plug on the torque converter too.

Change it.

that is what i think too

chances are 80% or better it waa changed at some point anyway, at least i would think so from the records i do have

already did trans, doing brake fluid this week and will go ahead and do diff

i feel better knowing it has all new fluids in it and plan to change all the rest over the next few weeks


the shop that recommended not changing it is a mercedes/bmw shop

i just worried maybe there was some thing about this particular differential that caused it to whine etc if left too long and then messed with

If changing the fluid causes a problem, it was on its last leg to begin with.

An unserviced AT may be asking for trouble. But a diff? Do it!

change the rear diff fluid. and if the old stuff comes out looking particularly dark or nasty, change it again a month later.

My '96 E300 -- I changed the diff at 249,000 miles, probably for the first time (no records of previous changes). The stuff that came out was not particularly nasty. I refilled and have had no problems in 36,000 miles and 4-1/2 years. I agree with the 100,000 mile suggestion.

Jeremy

Change it. It's not like a trans.

Rgds,
Chris W.
'95 E300D, 373K, 2 diff fluid changes

By my notes I changed Diff & Trans at 134,305 miles, I now have another 38,000 miles on then and likely will change them again this summer.

No problems, just do it with 100% synthetic fluids.