to preface this thread, i am beginning to wonder if i made a mistake in adding this overly electronified benz to my collection[1979 6.9, 1986 560sel, 1987 560sec, 1995 e320cab, 1997 s500coupe].

i acquired this last of the bruno sacco coupes because it was the last series for which he was responsible. and it is a great looking car. it was sold as a certified pre-owned after turn-in from a 2 year lease[less than 20,000 miles].

it is a fun car to drive. i drive it no less/no more enthusiastically than i drive the others. but, my experiences with it over the last 10,000 miles are reconfirming my year 2000 decision to avoid the more electronified of the benz vehicles. over these 10,000+ miles, it has seen more repair time than any of my less electronified benzes at similarly low mileage.

the latest illness is one that concerns me. the other day, after getting off an interstate driving at speeds between 65-95, i was driving a country road. after clearing a 4-way stop intersection, within 300 ft, at a speed of 35-45mph, the engine suddenly quit. i was able to muscle the car to make a right hand turn onto a side street so that the school bus on my tail would not rear-end me.

putting the car into p, i could not get the engine to restart using the keyless-go gear lever button. putting the key[sic] into the receptacle allowed for a successful restart of the engine. great, i thought, i could continue on my way. so, i put the car into d thinking that i could move on.

no va.

tried r. also no va.

since this vehicle is still within warranty, i telephoned m-b roadside assistance. a tow was dispatched. and the vehicle was taken not to the nearest benz store[an autonation conjob joint] but to a real dealership 50 miles further away.

now, i was pretty certain that the tranny was going to have to be replaced.

and a few minutes ago, the shop foreman[sic] called to tell me that the transmission pump had disintegrated...that was what caused the engine to quit. but that they had a transmission in their inventory and that they were putting a "new" transmission in the vehicle, and that it would be ready for me to pick-up on monday.

i have never lost an automatic transmission catastrophically before in any of my other benzes[this goes back to my 1973 220, my 1976 450sel, my 1985-6 300e in addition to my current stable]. so, i have been thinking, what if this had happened on I-45 when i was running at 95mph in traffic? what if this had happened while i was really out in the boonies in the oilpatch? these thoughts provoke my thinking of defenestrating this more electronified benz.

so, can anyone tell me about the history of these vehicles and this 7-speed transmission? is my latest experience unusual? or is it the norm for this tranny?

also to the issue, does it sound right that a benz dealer would have one of these trannies in their inventory? or does that send a msg that they have one in stock because it is recognized to be a failure-prone tranny? when this failure occurred, this CL500 had 30,555 miles on it[it was manufactured in january 2006, leased as a new vehicle in november 2006, turned in by the lessee in january 2009, i acquired it in march 2009].

i welcome all comments about these transmissions concerning their reliability, durability.

also, would the benz dealer have replaced the "failed" transmission with a completely "new" one? or would it be a "rebuilt" one? if a "rebuild", how good would that be?

all ears.

The seven-speed (722.9 I think) is a further development of the 5-speed 722.6 electronically controlled transmission, which I have, and which I think is in your '97. From my own experience and those of people on other forums (benzworld, they have a forum for the W215), it's a very reliable and durable unit. Obviously we can't check the diagnosis of your dealer, but it sounds strange that the first symptom of your failed pump was that the engine shut off.

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Prost!

Albert, I would have a long discussion with the MB dealer's personnel who replaced the transmission. Ask how long the new replacement transmission is under warranty as well as your other questions. The invoice should describe exactly what work was done to your 2006 CL500 ... even if all the work was under the new car warranty.

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Fred Hoelzle

the individual i wanted to visit with wasn't in today, but i picked up this vehicle.

orally, after the vehicle was inspected, i was advised that the front pump had disintegrated and the tranny cratered. after all my years dealing with automatic transmission benzes[and others], i have never encountered a catastrophic failure...generally there are incremental warning signals.

and as i said, i suppose that there is a god and that he smiled at me in that this "failure" occurred at low speed on a back road. i shudder to think if this had occurred in traffic, at speed, on I-45. in a lane other than the extreme right or left[where one could have easily pulled out of the flow].

here is what the invoice relates....

1. trans had no engagement in any gear

2. short test...no pressure from trans pump. fill out wsg form. wsg authorization #. r&r complete transmission. replace transmission. check and correct trans fluid level. perform trans software update. code control unit. perform trans shift adaptations[1.0non]

3. cause: no pressure from trans. 272150 autom transmission - transmission removed.

replace 125 w

1 211-250-08-02 converter
1 211-270-08-02-88 automatic transmission
1 211-270-08-02-70 automatic transmission
4 019-997-58-45 seal ring
1 007603-012102 ring, general
11 001-989-68-03-10 transmission 272029 automatic transmission-[veh. with 722.9 trans] - R&R 125 W

there were some diagnostics performed.

all no charge.

reading this, what do you think?

personally, i would like to know if the removed transmission was sent to sindelfingen for analysis. as a manufacturer, i want to know why things catastrophically fail.

and by the way, do you think that this failure will eventually have any adverse effects on the engine?

I have replaced a few of these at work. I have also caught them before they failed. The pump is actually repl. with the pump from the 722.6 5speed. It is not extremely common but pumps do fail. This really has nothing to do with the electronics but that said the newer transmissions are more expensive when they need parts. The control unit and the valve body are one piece and fairly expensive to repl. The other post about the 7speed being a continuation of th 5 speed is pretty accurate. They have a lot of similar looking parts. But both do not have total failure very often.
As far as engine damage, I would not worry about that. If it stalled the engine you were not under heavy load. I cannot imagine that anything was hurt.

so, tell me, what would be the price of these repairs/component replacements without a warranty?