Follow up: My wife traveled back to pick up the truck and she says it is running great. No problems uncovered. Total cost for the rebuild was around $2500. As mentioned earlier, comes with one year warranty on everything except the planetaries.

I was favorably impressed with the indie transmission specialist -- Steve Warble of Warble Transmission in Benwood, WV. Only time will tell if this was the right decision, but Steve seemed to know what he was talking about and apparently he didn't have any problems rebuilding this transmission.

Thanks to all for your comments and knowledge sharing.

Hey, thanks for the followup and detailing your choices. As to the MB quote, I believe $5100 is for a NEW transmission, plus installlation ($800) and a necessary computer upgrade for the new trans ($800). My SE felt that 125,000 miles was par for the course on these trannies.

Of course, that was before MB announced that the "lifetime" fill has been revisited and now the oil should be changed every 37,500 miles. My 98 ML had 123,000 on it when I got it and the trans fluid had never been changed. It was shifting erratically and would sometimes shudder to a stop in one of the higher gears.

I put the new filter in, the recommmended magnet, and about 7 quarts of Mobil 1 ATF. I just passed 147,000 and the trans is shifting better than before I changed the fluid. I plan to change filter and 7 quarts again when I get 30K on the present fluid. Since about 4 quarts will not get changed, I think 30K is a good compromise. NO FLUSHING for me!

Anyway, thanks again,

Jim in Phoenix

(Holy thread resurrection, Batman!)

Must be something related to cold weather. I'm back in my hometown two years after having my transmission rebuilt and I'm having another issue. My 99 ML 320 has 245,000 miles on it. It had 185,000 miles on it when I had the transmission re-built two years ago.

The truck is sometimes refusing to shift into high gear. The weather is in the 20's here, but it does it when the truck is fully warmed up. It was running fine with the selector in the 4 overdrive position. Yesterday I entered an interstate and it wouldn't upshift. I was only doing about 40 MPH and the tach was reading about 4000 RPM's. I lifted my foot, bumped it into neutral, and then back to 4 overdrive. Pressed the gas and the engine freewheeled like it was still in neutral. I coasted to a complete stop, put in in park, then backed up a bit, stopped, then started forward. The truck ran normally from that point on.

Started it this morning and let it idle for 10 minutes to warm up. In the first minute of driving, it refused to upshift again. I did the stop/park/resume routine and it ran fine all the way to the transmission shop I used two years ago.

(Note: I am aware the computer limits the upshifts in cold weather to let the engine warm up faster. I don't have the exact MPH/RPM numbers in my head, but it was a lot more RPM's per MPH than normal.)

The transmission guy scanned it and came up with 10 codes. I remember codes related to upshift solenoid, a transfer case, oil temp and then a problem communicating with the computer. He stopped and told me I needed to take it to a dealer becasue he suspects the computer is bad.

Q: Is there a separate transmission computer, or does the main computer control the transmission?

The truck ran flawlessly the 15 miles back to where I'm staying.

The nearest dealer is 50 miles away. I asked the transmission guy if he thought I could make it 550 miles back to my home. He said these problems wouldn't burn the tranny up, so as long as it upshifted OK, it probably wouldn't hurt to try to get it home.

My wife will be following me in our other car. I figure if mine craps out along the way, I'll have it flat bedded to the nearest dealer. I see no difference between working with the dealer 50 miles from where I am now or a dealer somewhere close to my route home. I will be working with them remotely and I have no experience with any of them.

Any words of wisdom for me?

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