See Im starting to debate weather I should do it myself or not, because of many reasons. 1) I would have to jack my car up and lay in the street underneath the car to do the pan and converter. 2) I never did a transmission filter or gasket on a mercedes and dont want to mess anything up or have leaks. 3) supposedly a few shops around here will do it for about 150 bucks or so, which doesnt seem like much since the filter, parts and fluid probably run 50-75 bucks or so.


So I'm kind of torn on what I should do.

If you have to jack the car up, it's gonna be a pain. The drain plug for the pan (if it's the same as mine) isn't at the rear of the pan, it's on the side. So with the car at an angle, there's still gonna be plenty of fluid left in the pan even after it stops running out of the pan drain plug. This equals real mess when you drop the pan. Additionally, there's only 1 drain plug on the torque converter, and likely, it's not going to be visible through the access hole when you cut the motor off. On my '92 300SE, I think all I needed was a 27mm socket and wrench on the crankshaft damper bolt to roll the motor around until the plug was visible. I don't know if that's how you'd do it on a V12. I seem to remember it's exceedingly bad karma to roll a V8 the wrong way using this method - something about timing chains skipping teeth, etc. - don't know if this applies to the V12 motor. When a torque converter can be drained, it's a complete waste of time (in my opinion) to service the transmission without draining the converter.

The work is "uber-easy" if the car is on a lift. What I do recommend is a torque wrench that measures in inch-pounds. The pan bolts only require 6 ft lbs of torque (72 inch pounds). The drain plug for both the torque coverter and the pan only require 10ft pounds (120 inch pounds). Under tightening the drain plugs results in leaks. Over tightening risks stripping the heads or the threads - BAD in either case. On the pan gasket, over tightening crushes the gasket = leaks. Under tightening = leaks, but at least you can snug it up a bit and get rid of the leaks.

Over-filling the transmission is also a VERY bad thing - causes foaming and all sorts of other bad things inside the transmission. On my 300SE, I added 3 or 4 quarts initially, then started the car and let it idle while I added up another quart or so (I think). I stopped adding fluid as soon as the level registered on the tip of the dipstick. Then I ran the car through all of the ranges on the tranny and let it idle some more. When the fluid was finally warm, I made sure there was some showing on the tip of the dipstick and then drove it around VERY gently to heat the fluid up. Once the motor was up to operating temperature, I checked the fluid and ended up adding about a pint more fluid to get to the full mark.

I just don't enjoy this type of work enough to get back under the car and do the work twice just because I over or under-tightened a fastener.

Unless you can fully flush the transmission, I'd stick with Dexron 3.

According to AllData, you have a 722.362 transmission. Far as I know, this transmission is identical to the ones used in the 500SEL and 400SE cars, except for stronger internals to support the torque load from that massive V12.

Honestly, there are plenty of places that should do this work for $150/200 max. The filter isn't cheap from MB, the fluid can be purchased from any auto-parts house, even WalMart will have it. The problem is that some shops jack the labor rate and/or the time when they see that 3-pointed star pull up in the lot. Any competent mechanic can change the tranny oil on this car and no reasonable mechanic should want more than 1 hour for the labor to do so. I try getting quotes from mechanics for labor-hour rate only - don't tell them what you want done or what they're gonna work on. A good mechanic is going to charge at least $60-70/hour - possibly a little more or less depending on your location in the US.

While it can be a pain, if you're not going to do the service on your own car, I'd find 2 types of mechanics I could trust - one to do mundane things like oil changes and tranmission services. The other needs to be a MB-specific mechanic - he's going to be much more expensive than the other fellow, but he's also going to have all the necessary computers required to effectively diagnose and fix problems on your car when they arise.

DO NOT take your car to Jiffy-Lube or some roll-in-roll-out shop for oil change and transmission work.

There was a "good california shop" place that was recomended on this site in benicia california. I believe it was called star motors or something like that. He wanted 190 bucks for an oil change, and yet the DEALERSHIP only wanted 90 bucks. I was happy at first when I found that shop in benicia but it seems he overcharges by way way way to much. It sucks cuz I would love to find a good shop in the vallejo/benicia area that doesnt overcharge and does good work.

Update: I called the dealership and wanted to speak to another person to make sure there wasn't an error. I spoke to the guy and he told me the filter was
$109.00, and the gasket was $16.00. that would be $126.00 for parts.
And about 50-60 bucks for transmission fluid he said. So thats $175.00.

So I asked them how did they get to 450.00 (i figured an hour of labor at 100 bucks)

The lady tells me no, we charge $150.00 and they show it would take 2 hrs worth of labor.

I cant believe the dealership. I WILL NEVER go to the dealership for anything. This is a complete joke.



Anyone in the bay area should check out this place, I just scheduled an appointment for the transmission filter and gasket change this week.
The guy was VERY VERY helpful. Talked to me like a normal person would, told me that the transmission filter and gasket change would run 259.00 ( a much better price from the dealership)
also sounded very knowledgable, told me in the 92- 9? that the rear differential fluid doesnt really need to be changed, said he has really never seen one go out in those years. ALso told me he would check over the whole car for free and just recomend some things and let me know. The guy definitely didnt sound like he was trying to rip people off, he explained everything, recomended things I should do and told me the rear diff. would just be wasting money. So It looks like im going to check this place out and let you know what I think.