88 300E Tranny rebuild time
 

I have checked the vacuum and adjusted the bowden cable for months now, but the poor old thing is stuck in 2nd gear and occasionally downshifts to first. Pretty slow driving. So I bit the bullet and had it towed to Ultimate Euro Repairs in Davie, FL, which has been highly recommended on this forum, and they say it is time for a rebuild at the tune of about 2000 bucks. That's alot of money to put into this car which has allegedly 97,000 miles. I bought it a year ago and it had 89K on the odometer, but no paperwork. I love my Benz, and want to know what you would do. ANY advice is appreciated.:(

If it is in good shape otherwise and you like the car and are going to keep it, I would spend the money. That is what I was quoted for a rebuilt transmission and TC. $1895 + $60 for fluid and tax. Having said that, I'm not the best judge of how much money to sink into a 20 year old car.

Chris

i think it would be a good investment at that mileage...if everything else is in good working order.

triple check your transmission fluid... my 88 260e with 214k leaks tranny fluid and if i don't keep the fluid level up it gets a symptom like yours

Thanks for the thoughts...I told them to go ahead. They do the rebuilding in the shop, replace all of the soft parts, then replace hard parts as needed. I guess I will be keeping the car for quite a while now if all goes well. Engine runs great with no trace of anything on the plugs. Plenty of power and incresed responsiveness after a couple of 10 hour round trips and a 40 hour round trip to Baltimore for Christmas. Brakes are all good. In the past year I replaced the starter, voltage regulator,battery and tires with new parts, dashboard, driver seat, and numerous switches and controls from donor cars. Nearly got heat stroke polishing the paint. So I guess it is just the cost of driving a nice old car to rebuild the major things as needed.

Do they rebuild the TC as well? Do the gassers even have a TC?

They said that they won't know until they get it opened up.

i hope they have the ability to go thru and o/haul the valve body or replace with rebuilt from benz .from your description a lot of your problems are there.

Yes, they said that they thought it may be a problem there. I asked why not just install a rebuilt transmission from adsitco.com or another supplier, but they prefer to do it themselves. Comes with a one-year 12,000 mile warranty.

Ultimate Euro is a class act. Buying a rebuilt tranny mail order is about the worst thing one can do. One must get the rebuild from the person who is going to be responsible for it. We build many of those transmissions and I would never consider building and shipping one. The person installing it has to be responsible or you will get into a tag team matchup every time there is an issue.

Personally, my guess is that the governor screens are packed with clutch material from the reverse clutches. Just did our 90 300e loaner car that intermittantly wouldn't shift. Pulled the VB cleaned the screens and back in business. It will fail in reverse shortly and I'll probably part it out when that happens as it will only be worth maintaining as a loaner another year or so anyway.

Do you rebuild the TC as well? Do you rebuild or replace the VB? I'm asking because mine is going to need one sooner than later.

Chris

I got the car back today, and it drives as smooth as silk. Ultimate Euro Repairs is the place to go. Thanks to everyone for helping me to make this decision to rebuild the tranny.(It cost 2230.00, more than I paid for the car) I take care of my best friend who has Alzheimer's, and we need the car to be running every day, so I think that it was worth it. Raul at Ultimate said that he believes that the car is in good condition, but gave me a heads-up about my belt tensioner needing repair. I am sure that I can handle that myself. So now that I am going to be driving it for a while, I will continue to fix the cosmetic issues and reseal the upper timing cover. I got the Sure-Flex from Color Plus to change the pinkamino back to palomino on the seats.:)