Can you post the transmission adaptation data?

This is all I received from the independent that diagnosed it as unsavable. I do have another page of codes but it only has minor stuff like door contact errors, alarm set offs and the like. This is not a dealer SDS printout. The mechanic also said he detected a noticeable whine from the pump and he said the fill rates were off. chris

Transmission adaptations well show wear tolerances

Off positive or Negative
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Steve Cattaneo www.mastertechtrans.com


03 SL500
02 MB AMG
87 560 SEC
87 300D
928S 83
85 928 S2 EURO

If i were starting over from scratch I would have taken this to a dealer first to get the diagnosis and full SDS report.

what i got was 3 indy bottom line opinions, little factual data and all somewhat different but totally confusing to a lay man.

I left the vehicle at the third where i was promised a working vehicle with a 24/24 trans warranty in a week for 4500-5000. they were kind enough to call me in after tearing down the trans to pieces/parts.
Assuming what i saw was all mine, all 3 indy's were correct in their diagnosis of TOAST, however they each got there. The overdrive was completely frozen, many gears and the planetaries were completely chewed up and the valve body was completely jammed with metal chunks. The bottom was full of metal which included several bearings which had fallen out of their races. I am frankly surprised i was able to limp anywhere in the vehicle.

I'm sorry it turned out to be a worst-case scenario, but I'm glad you finally got the right answer.

Every time I hear a story like this though, I'm amazed that any repair shop would condemn the complete transmission without dropping the pan first!!!

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Make sure they flush the transmission cooler completely. There's sure to be lots of potentially damaging debris in there. Hopefully, they know this, but it wouldn't hurt to remind them.

Iluvmils, I'm confused. You say you're happy to hear that he finally got the RIGHT answer, it seems to me that the first place had the right answer. They told him his trans was no good... It was no good. What better answer was needed? In this case it seems that the customer wanted further convincing, and perhaps the first shop wasn't able to explain to his satisfaction, but they told him what he needed to know. They wern't wrong were they? I think it's just a shame that he had to waste a week and probably several hundred dollars to come to the conclusion that had already been stated.

MV

What he finally got was a sound, properly researched "right" answer. There's plenty of transmission shops that say "rebuild" on every customer that comes in the door and they are right part of the time. But it's like the proverbial blind squirrel finding an acorn - the sinister version.

BTW, how many miles on the car - just curious. The thing that amazes me is that there are people who continue to defend 722.6s. I can get a 722.3 rebuilt for $1250, including in and out of the car. There's a lot less anxiety in the process at $1250, especially when it's likely to last longer.

109250

The first place recommended replacing the transmission based on pulling the dipstick, and seeing nasty-looking fluid. That's a more than reasonable opinion, but before offering to take a few thousand dollars from the owner, they should've dropped the pan, just to make sure. The mess that was found by the third shop would've been all the explanation that was needed.

When the trans is toast, it is way cheaper to swap it out for a rebuilt one from Mercedes than to tear it down. When you tear it down, you are incurring the time and labor cost of tearing down the trans just to see the broken parts.

__________________
85 300CD Signal Red/Tan sold
83 300D Manganese Brown 109K
97 E420 Midnight Blue 197K sold
98 BMW 328i Vert White 100K, sold
95 BMW 525i White 125K, sold
93 BMW 525iT Red 193K, sold
95 E320 Green Wagon 125K, sold
94 E320 White 127K, sold
85 300SD 156K Grey (Annie), sold
84 300D Lapis Blue 170K (Judy), sold
99 ML 320 Black (lease), 1998 C230 White (lease)
00 Honda S2000 Red (lease)
86 Mercedes 300E (sold)
84 Porsche 911 Red (sold), 1965 Porsche 911 White (sold)

How much is "way cheaper", i.e. for rebuilt 722.6xx from the dealer?

Well, for starters you are paying the hourly rate $80 per hour for my indy to tear it down. Should he change out the parts and put it all together again, you're paying hourly. He's quoting me $3000 to get a rebuilt trans from Mercedes and installing it with a one year warranty and an extra $1000 with the toque converter. He says that the torque converter typically doesn't go bad so I'm going for the $3000 job. 6 months ago, the trans was missing gears and not shift up from 2nd to 3rd and 4th. He changed the filter and fluid and it didn't improve. Finally the trans went into limp mode 2nd gear so I brought it in to do the trans job. I have a rip-off Penn Warranty that wanted him to tear it down and replace the worn parts but he refused saying that it would cost me more that way. That is Penn Warranty's way of ripping you off because you would then have to pay for the tear down and the diagnosis. Then I read on the internet how Penn Warranty was ripping off people with trans malfunctions by forcing them to pay for the tear down diagnosis and then locating a cheap junk yard trans with no warranty to swap in. So I went with my trusty indy who has been doing my MB work for 6 years and 5 Mercedes,

__________________
85 300CD Signal Red/Tan sold
83 300D Manganese Brown 109K
97 E420 Midnight Blue 197K sold
98 BMW 328i Vert White 100K, sold
95 BMW 525i White 125K, sold
93 BMW 525iT Red 193K, sold
95 E320 Green Wagon 125K, sold
94 E320 White 127K, sold
85 300SD 156K Grey (Annie), sold
84 300D Lapis Blue 170K (Judy), sold
99 ML 320 Black (lease), 1998 C230 White (lease)
00 Honda S2000 Red (lease)
86 Mercedes 300E (sold)
84 Porsche 911 Red (sold), 1965 Porsche 911 White (sold)

FINAL CHAPTER:
I got the car back today and must say that it is driving very smoothly right now but...........the final bill was even outside the top end of the estimate at $5098.34 as follows:

removal/ install 782.00
overhaul 1380.00
master kit 742.80
used gear train 885.00 from good core
rblt valvebody 950.00
fluid* 218.52
tax 231.11
misc. 5.06
nice customer dsct (100.00)
TOTAL $5098.34

*The thing that scares me most is that he used Mobil 1 Syn ATF @20.37 a qt and 10 oz. of Lubeguard Platinum and told me they find it better than oem and a big savings to me. Everything I've read in here says NEVER anything but OEM fluid.
and I think the OEM is less.
MERRY CHRISTMAS, chris

Chris, glad the car was fixed! I feel your pain, I'm facing an engine rebuild/swap problem, probably bring me to a similar amount.

Perhaps the techs can weigh in, but when I had my transmission fuild changed in my E430 (Im not buying that 'lifetime' crap), my tech also stated that I should only use the MB tranny fluid. He has no problem recommending other fluid brands for certain models/applications, but he specified for the 722.6 tranny, you use the MB fluid only. The MB fluid is expensive as well.

You may want to look into that...don't want to spend all that money and have a non-spec fluid ruin it.

Just my non-tech $0.02...good luck!

__________________
Chris
2007 E550 4Matic - 61,000 Km - Iridium Silver, black leather, Sport package, Premium 2 package
2007 GL450 4Matic - 62,000 Km - Obsidian Black Metallic, black leather, all options
1998 E430 - sold
1989 300E - 333,000 Km - sold
1977 280E - sold
1971 250 - retired

"And a frign hat. They gave me a hat at the annual benefits meeting. I said. how does this benefit me. I dont have anything from the company.. So they gave me a hat." - TheDon