I bought my 92 500SEL used with 180,000km (approx 108,000 miles) and it would click in reverse once in a while. The seller mentioned it to me, so I know it was doing it before (but don't know for how long). Car took about 2 seconds to go into reverse.
I changed the gasket/filter/fluid at about 200,000km (120,000 miles) and there was absolutely no change in the condition.
Now at almost 240,000km (144,000mi) and about 2 years since I bought the car, it has about a 3.0 to 3.5 sec delay going into reverse. The clicking happens about as often as it always did.
I know the slow reverse is an issue, but it's not that bad. My wife's 90 300SL took 5-6 seconds going into reverse before the transmission went bang.
So how long can those of us with this trans issue wait before having to rebuild/dispose of the car? I was thinking of upgrading to a newer car and selling this one, but thought I had about a year or two (say until 175-185,000 miles) before I had to rebuild it. Am I going to end up rebuilding this transmission sooner than I thought??
Will this type of clicking cause the transmission to lose its ability to go into reverse "suddenly" one day or will it take time? I wouldn't mind a bit of notice
