honest and professional opinion, the guy at the dealership is right, of course you can try to drain it and burden yourself with the cost of repairing the torque converter when it breaks, due to the metal particles. As the saying goes, don't fix what is not broken.

The metal particles are imaginary - the kind of imaginary particles one is capable of conceiving when one is LAZY and/or GREEDY, and not willing follow the factory maintenance procedures - and imaginary metal particles can't really harm a transmission. The service procedures call for changing all of the fluid, not half of it. It takes a while to drain the TC - the plug is quite hard to get at on some models. But you've learned a valuable lesson, this is a half-assed dealership, on this job and probably others, and you should never go back.

BS

Change ALL the fluid.

This metal-on-metal action is at most minimal. There's still some boundary lubrication acting on the wet parts until full fluid is acheived during startup, just like you get when you change motor oil in the engine.

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95 E320 Cabriolet, 159K

So if draining the TC is bad, let me ask you, why did the manufacturer put a drain plug on it and instruct to drain it in their service procedure? I drain the TC in my 300E each and every time and have never had a problem. They're just feeding you a line. Go back and make them do it right. Oh, and post the name of the dealership in the shops forum so we can all steer clear of it. Be sure to let the service manager know you did so AFTER they make good on the original job.

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08 W251 R350
97 W210 E320
91 W124 300E
86 W126 560SEL
85 W126 380SE Silver
85 W126 380SE Cranberry
79 W123 250
78 W123 280E
75 W114 280

The corolary to this would be "never change the oil on an engine that's still running - it's not broken."

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"don't fix what is not broken" has nothing to do with 'Preventive Maintenance " ..and changing half your tranny fluid is a waste of 3.5 ltr of new fluid .
We don't want to dilute the contaminants, we want to get rid of them.............

Not that it's a big deal, and I'm not being a turkey; but DEANYEL, my '91 300SE does not have a torque converter drain plug. I bought it new in '91, so it's the original converter. I looked hard for it early on, and when I pulled the tranny to repair the rear main seal on the engine, I put it on the workbench and REALLY looked for it. It just ain't there!!
So, either I got a one-off fluke, or somebody at MB decided we didn't need to drain the converter on this particular model.

Anyway, I've done a lot of 2.75 quart changes in the last 16 years, and it's still working perfect at 175k miles, so I guess I can't complain, saved a lot of $$ on fluid - HeHe.

DG

And you're turning the engine over slowly by hand while someone watches the aperture for the full 360 degrees?

Converter Drain Plug

For Vehicle: 1988 - 1991 Mercedes Benz 300SE (Engine: 103.981)
Description: Trans: 722.319

Catalog Number: J2011-100658/OES

All my cars, '79 300D, '95 C280 and '89 300SE have had their TC drained at the time of trans fluid/filter service.

You have to realize that the car needs to occupy the service rack for up to 1 hour until the TC drains.

That may be why some shops decide not to drain the TC. "get 'em in, move 'em out"

I've paid $150 for this 'full' service at Peter Schmid transmissions.

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1979 300D 220 K miles
1995 C280 109 K miles
1992 Cadillac Eldorado Touring Coupe 57K miles SOLD
********************
1979 240D 140Kmiles (bought for parents) *SOLD.
SAN FRANCISCO/(*San Diego)
1989 300SE 148 K miles *SOLD