Help a Transmission Dummy
 

Took 1989 Mercedes 300 E to Shop this morning...........they said transmission fluid is burned.................$485.00 to diagnose what is wrong......................a NEW transmission would run between 3 -4 thousand dollars......and to rebuild this one would cost me roughly $2,000.00. Does this make sense?? or am I just being un-trusting??

Yvonne:) :rolleyes:
v

If it drives ok, service it and keep going. most failures are preceded by shifting problems or delayed engagments into reverse.



Joe

Thanks!!

Yvonne;)

Yvonne,

How many miles on car? I remember reading some where that it is normal for the fluid to smell burnt when old. (A trick to get you to agree to $$ service.)

Had a mechanic tell me also that when cleaning screen, it is typical to smell this. No damage to trans. Just change fluid.

How does it drive? Does it shift normal? Did you bring it to the shop because it was having trouble? If it was ok, I'd follow the advice of the above post: service it, and keep on going. Maybe try another shop too.

Transmission
 

I was driving fine around town................no problems. It just slipped a couple of times while on the Hwy.

Slipping is bad! It often happens on the hiway when the debris from failing reverse clutches packs the filter.

I would service the trans, with a new filter and see if the problem continues. I too might make similar recommendations (as did the shop) if the level of clutch material was of significance (very experience driven evaluation). I would not condemn a trans on fluid alone.

The prices you quoted are a problem. There probably is no such thing as a new transmission. MB sells rebuilt units and they are much less than the price quoted. The rebuild price is a little high depending on local labor rates. We do them for about $1650 and are at 68 an hour. Most of the cost is labor about 17 hours if I recall.