Hi all. I've recently acquired a 95 e320 with 170,000 miles. Put on close to 15000 miles already in 12 months. I've heard these cars can go over 300,000 easily. I'm using it primarily for commuting to work and back.

Question:

What's the best preventive measure for the transmission and the gear box?

I've heard that if you replace the oil in the gear box/ transmission that would help delay the eventual need to rebuild the transmission.

Is there an easy way to do this? Or should I leave it to the mechanics?

Which oil should I replace? transmission or the gear box? And does anyone know how much a job like this typically cost?

Much obliged!

Theo

transmission/Gearbox are words for the same thing.. do you mean the rear end of the car?

Keeping your transmission healthy, pretty straight forward. Keep the fluid clean, changed in a regular fashion and the filter too. Remember on some mercedes you have a drain on the torque converter, a small little plug you have to line up with an access point on the bell housing.

If you mean gearbox as the rear end of the car, dont use transmission fluid in it. It cannot take that abuse. use the rear end fluid/Gear oil for it as recommended.

If you can, post what you mean by gearbox... as for the cost. you are looking at maybe 10-20 bucks DIY or over 100 to have a shop do it. compared to a rebuilt transmission though... it's not too bad... the rear end fluid is simple to to, Generally 2 plugs remove both to drain, then put the bottom plug back in, then refill rear end with the right fluid till it comes out of the top hole. put the top plug in and you are done. Generally anyways. there's always different setups to this too

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hum.....
1987 300TD 311,000M Stolen. Presumed destroyed

The transmission fluid and filter are supposed to be replaced every 30,000 miles.

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Thanks to Gilly and Aquaticedge. Your advice is much appreciated!

I really like my 95 e320. It's super solid and smooth. I drive it a lot more than my 98 e320 this past year. Putting close to 15,000 in 12 months. Planning to keep it as a commuting car for now.

The shop I go to has been telling me to replace the rear shocks. Can you guys tell me a little about the suspension set up on this vehicle? What are the wearable parts and which ones should I be concerned about?

The car drives fine now. The ride is obviously not very tout given its age. When I'm turning corner at highway speeds, the car does move up and down a bit, not as tight as I hoped.

Is this a wagon or sedan? if wagon, unless someone converted should be SLS, and if those are sagging you'll prolly need accumulators, SLS shocks rarely go funny. if this is a sedan, stick with lemforder or Bilstiens they are OE and do very well... As a side note, if this is a wagon, you might need to adjust the SLS ride height valve. but generally a droopy hind end is accumulators (cheap and easy to replace)

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hum.....
1987 300TD 311,000M Stolen. Presumed destroyed

Hi Aquaticedge,

It's a 4 door sedan with the 3.2 litre straight 6 gas engine.

By lemsforder you are referring to shocks, correct?

So I just need to replace the rear shocks?