I brought my 98W210 (E320) in this morning for oil change & tranmission service (when it's cold, sometime the car has problem engage in gear when first start up).

Well, couple hours later I got a phone call from the shop, and following need to be done:

- Flex Disc: $395
- Front control arm bushing: $1100
- Valve cover gasket: $425
- Oil pan gasket: $200

I was in a middle of a conference call, so I couldn't talk much with the shop guy. I was a bit freak out when he told me that "if
the Flex Disc break, you'll be in big trouble", so I authorised the repair on that one.

Once my meeting end, I have more time to do research on it. First of all, I found that the Flex-Disc cost only $60 (internet price), so I guess the rest is on labor. On top of that, there would often be several warning sign when the FD about to go out: wooble, jerk when shifting, vibration at speed... My car is always smooth in both shifting and driving, so I am not sure the FD about to go kaput. The shop already warned me about it when I took it in last time for service, so it's probably bad anyway. Just that I'm in doubt the FD in my car would need to be replaced that soon.

Anyway, it's too late to revise the decision, since the shop as already started working on it. I have tons of holiday bills due soon, so I'm just trying to prioritizing it, so I'm questioning my decision. That's all.

For the rest, do you think $1100 for the bushing and $400/200 for the gasket worth it ? Is the price a bit too night ? How about $400 for FlexDisc replacement ?

My budy own a auto repair shop too (mostly domestic & Japanese car only, since he has no computer to debug Benz), but he told me that if the job is not to complex, I could buy the bushing or whatever part, and he would change it for reasonable fee. He's very good as working on what he know (Honda/Toyota), the bushing can't be a complex job as reprograming the ECU or working on the TCU, can it ?

Does $400 sound right for the FlexDisc job ? Notice that the shop I bring my car too is very honest, they wouldn't even work on the job if they don't think it's necessary. I've more than once asked them to replace the harmonic balancer, and they always refused, saying it's still good, same with some other jobs. Only checking with dealer later, I found out that my car has already has "upgraded" harmonic balancer. I bought my car used FYI, and it is currently 120K mile.

So with holidays bills due, and not wanting to tap into credit car, can any one offer me advices on:

1) Should I let my budy work on the Bushing, then I'll take it to another shop for alignment (which I bought the lifetime package there)
2) How about gasket ?
3) Out of curiosity, does $400 sounds right for the FlexDisc ? How much the book quote on that job ?
4) When it's cold in the morning, sometime I have to shift in and out of "D" more than once for the gear to engage, or sometime have to restart the engine for "D" to work, but the rest of the day, it's always good, and car always smooth in gear shift, anyone can offer any hint ? Changing the transmission would be a $4K job.

Anything else I should look for at that mileage ? Anyone know or own a good/reasonable shop in SoCal that you can recommend ?