Mine had regular service and not a very hard life and I made it until almost 300,000 miles before mine went. I opted for converting to a manual which is the best thing I ever did for mine. From what I hear from many other MB owners, if you make it to a quarter million miles with the automatic transmission, you've done well.

No real symptoms for mine. All of a sudden one day it just wouldn't go more than 5 mph and would just rev and rev if I gave it more fuel.

Len
'83 240D 322,000 miles