Your car calls for 236.10 ATF. I'm sure you've seen that there are several complaints by people who have tried the newer 236.14 (7-speed).

 

OK, I'll take your recommendation and get the 236.10.

Thanks a million!

 

You're very welcome!

 

Check Codes, I am completely prepared to purchase the spec fluid, at the moment, I have a leak, fluid is very low, and I'm in a small town an hour away from home. There is a Napa Auto Parts store here; I thought I would just see what they have.

My plan is to take the car to my mechanic on Friday; just need to get it home safely.

Thoughts?

 

NAPA should have at least one of the fluids CC mentioned. Just top it off, making sure the level is correct, and drive it home. Then find/fix the leak and replace all the ATF with whatever you decide to use.

 

napa carries german febi-bilstein atf which is a 236.10 fluid (from febi), it even carries the 236.10 part # (0019892103). NAPA AUTO PARTS . it's around $11 and that would be my first choice.
also napa carries pentosin atf1 but it costs $15 NAPA AUTO PARTS .
regarding maxlife atf, i have it in my cars but maxlife has changed their formulation and now it is a thinner fluid making in closer to 236.14 spec rather than 236.10 spec. either way it would be perfectly fine to use in our transmission, just the fact that few members have complained of harsher shifts with the thinner 236.14 fluid. next fluid change i'm using febi atf from napa.

 

GREAT. Merci!

 

It looks like it might be the transmission seal.

 

I've read the whole post, and still confused. I would like the drain and refill my '99 E320 tranny. should I use Wal Mart tranny oil? Or NAPA? Huge diff in price!

 

If you feel lucky taking your chances, Megamillions has $320 mils to take this week.
Get yourself familiar with MB approval sheet.
Approved fluids change almost weekly, so won't even post what is approved today, but I am strong believer in original MB fluids.

 

And the MB oil is $11 a quart? what color is it? Mine looks greenish

 

Mine was pinkish.

 

Greenish? Do you have a leak in the cooler?

The current spec for fluid is 236.14. In the US, generally the least expensive is the Shell 134 if you buy a case from a distributor, maybe $5-6 a quart. After you drain the transmission and converter, I'd flush another two quarts through via the yumling trick in the stickies, may as well clear out the cooler segment.

Don't forget to get a proper dipstick took.

Good luck.

 

"If you buy a car from a Shell distributor?" Please explain, and where would one buy Shell oil?

 

shell134 transmission fluid is reasonably commonly available at many good auto parts store. (good= NAPA etc., NOT wallmart etc.)

And, in my case, the local MB dealer sells the shell134 at better prices than the auto stores. They only use the MB bottles when it is a warranty work or the customer insists on MB bottles. The shell 134 is the same fluid as the MB bottled fluid.

I've used 236.10 fluid in the E420 and SL500 and now the 236.14 shell fluid and personally haven't noticed any difference in performance or shifting. Although others have. But then, I change fluid every 25K miles or so, that may be part of the reason.

 

I posted a silly video of the tranny oil check using a speedo cable. I found a Ford dipstick cable lying on the ground at a junkyard, trimmed the lead end a bit to make the tite curve, but it's several inches too short to hit the bottom of the pan. Should I buy the filter from Auto Zone? It's in stock, and I'll be hitting the road for a 3,000 mile drive home.

To re-cap, I flew out to San Fran with a friend on the 21st, found the Merc on CL, filling it with junk Corvair parts and Chevy truck parts, staying with a nice friend for a week, and lvng Monday. We'll stop in Durango Colorado to visit a friend with a Volvo repair shop. I hope he lets me use his shop to change the oils, and we'll continue east...

I don't know if there'l be enuff time to order and receive a dipstick and filter kit from an online seller. What should the local MB shop get for a filter gasket and quarts oil? I'm a good talker, if that helps get the price down, and how many Mercs do you think they see with 422k?

The top pix is the junk Suburban I didn't buy... Lying seller, he got m for $350 deposit, oh well, made it up on the E320, paid $1500, everything works, cold A/C, 30mpg

 

Holly crap that's kinda high miles . My indie charges 150,00 for transmission service and that includes draining the torque converter . I'd be surprised if you can find a place that stocks what you'll need to do a service yourself .


Dave

 

When I 1st saw the miles, I thot it was nuts too! But the seller was totally honest, and the car looked great. 2,000 miles later, it's been a fun ride, and still 3,000 more cross country miles to go, loaded with heavy GMC step bumpers, Corvair clutches etc...

 

Have s safe trip and read up on the transmission in the FAQ section . My dad had Corvairs in the late 60s.

The w210 is great for road trips . The gassers don't quite make it as long as the diesels .


Dave

 

This thread has drifted off a bit, but I just bought some Valvoline Import multi-vehicle full synthetic ATF, that says,"Recommended for use in: Mercedes Benz- NAG-1, 236.10 and older". I don't recall hearing anyone mention this particular variety, but it sounds like it would be a good choice. I plan to just suck out the unknown stuff in the pan and sweeten it with this Valvoline fluid. I know the PO changed the fluid 50K miles ago, but I don't know what was used. The transmission is working well.

 

I just bot 9 qts of Valv Max Life, $7 a qt. at O'Reillys, Taiwan filter was $17. Wix was $37. I'll prolly sell the car, so overseas junk will hv to do. Local MB dealer quoted $50-ish for the gasket and filter, and $54 a qt for tranny oil?!?!?!

If I decide to keep the car, I'll change the oil again as it looks pretty muddy. I plan to drain drain the TC too, tmrw is our last day on vacation before we depart on our cross country road trip.

I repaired a '63 Corvair Spyder today, new fuel pump and fuel tank return line T, made from PEX fitting and Vacuum T. I'm in the black shirt, my road trip buddy is in white, friend/owner is in stripes

 

I used the Valvoline Import stuff. Car shifts just fine. I plan on doing the Yumling thing every 30,000 miles, change the filter every 60,000. Maxlife in the W140, also great.

Unlike many here, I don't believe there are crazy magical properties to the Mercedes or Shell ATF. Now I am not going to pick an argument over it - to each his own.

But I would be very interested to hear from anyone that has hard evidence that non-Mercedes ATF damaged a transmission, or even that shifting/performance/mileage were compromised. All the stories are anecdotal.

Not to be a troll, but the same is true for engine oil. I use Mobil 1 0W-40, but am not going to lose any sleep over adding something else - the car will be just fine.

 

So what would happen if I used plain old $3qt WW oil? What makes the MB trans so special that is needs thicker/thinner/purer fluid? Is the Max Life a different viscosity or what? And why is the tranny so fussy about the level, especially about being overfilled?

I will try my best to catch all the oil tmrw, and measure and replace exactly what I remove. I don't have a dipstick, just an old speedo cable, and no thermo gun, so I'll drive it till warmed up, drain, and do my best upon re-fill. I will attempt to measure the level with my speedo cable touching the bottom of the pan.

How much oil can I expect to capture, inc the TC?

 

Just dump in some Wesson oil. Pour kerosene in the gas tank. There's no difference in any of these things. And feel free to ignore other things, too, including fluid levels. Put as much fuel and coolant and power steering fluid (two stroke oil is good here) and brake fluid (what a joke, just use water) and differential oil as you wish. Same thing with the tires, just fill them until they look good. And don't worry about torque specs, either, just tighten things to your best guess.

Heck, why not extend this philosophy to your life, if you ever need blood don't worry about the type or rh factor. After all, red is red, who cares, right?


Seriously, your Ford/Chevy/Toyota attitude spells trouble for the longevity of your car. While you may not have paid much for it, it cost over fifty grand when new, and much of that cost was spent in engineering and design. The transmission itself was revolutionary in many ways. That's why you need to use the PROPER products in the proper way.

If you are not going to do that, then either take it to a shop that will do the jobs correctly with the specified products, or sell the car.

If you really maintain it as you are suggesting, you'll shorten it's life and go off talking about what junk Mercedes makes, because that's what you'll turn it into.

Good luck.

 

Jeez CC, I was jus askin... I buy near junk cars all the time, and drive them for years because of the care I give them. Just because one asks, doesn't mean I plan to dump old dish water in the tranny. I'm at quite the disadvantage being on the other side of the country using WW tools at a friends fancy house. And I'm unfamiliar with the ins and outs of the Mercedes specifics as far as oils go.

Has anyone used WW trans oil and had a failure related to the inferior(?) oil? Does the WW oil react in a bad way with the clutches, seals or something? I DID buy the Valv ML oil, but admittedly a cheap filter.

I remember years ago (70's) that Ford used a specific oil. The difference was Ford used clutch discs with a harder surface, and the Ford type oil was meant to cushion a harsh shift. As far as I'm concerned, a harsher shift means less wear in a clutch pack. Prolly oversimplified, but putting in Dexron didn't harm anything. Obviously things are far more complex now-a-days than an old C4 tranny. So instead of making fun, just explain pls.

And per your standing request, I filled in my profile. And I'm very impressed with the way the E Class has held up at 423k. I could easily pass it off as 123k, it really operates as new! EVERYTHING works! No door sags or creaks or poor functioning parts and such things related to a worn out hi miles car.

 

Technically, nugent, I'm speaking hyperbolically to try and make a point.

And you're misreading my hyperbole, too. I never said anyone had to use MB branded fluids (good Lord, how could I recommend Shell 134 if that were the case????); rather, the key is to use products of any brand that meet MB spec. I also did not say it would turn the car into a Ford. Rather, I said that carrying a (generic vehicle) mentality towards maintaining a Mercedes (or Porsche or BMW or Ferrari or...) was not going to lead to proper maintenance.

OP...

You can either choose to use MB spec fluids, or you can choose to use something that is not spec. Once you head down the latter path, you're on your own, so to speak. Maybe it will work okay, maybe it won't.

Same thing with technique. Either you can set the fluid level properly with the correct tool, or you can try something else. If your "something else" isn't reliably calibrated back to the proper level, then you risk damaging the transmission or creating other problems with functionality. So if you don't know the offset measurement between the bottom of the pan and the stop-shoulder for the proper tool (which let's face it is $15, why not buy the correct tool?), then you are ultimately just guessing.

OP, neither were you "just askin.'" That is what you did in your FIRST post in this thread, and it was answered pretty quickly. (And actually it was answered in the 722.6xx FAQ sticky long before you posted your inquiry here.) Since then you've simply bounced around in the thread discussing alternatives. (My apologies for the typo from autocorrect, that should have been "buy a case" from a Shell distributor, not "car.")

So you have two choices. Either USE THE SPECIFIED PRODUCTS for your car, or don't.

But continuing a discussion about what else may work is absolutely nonsensical, which is why I reached into the hyperbole drawer and tried to point out the ridiculous other end of your position. Seriously, if you're not going to use MB-spec products, then how do you decide what is okay to use?

If you buy a product that meets MB spec, you KNOW it is okay for the vehicle, right? There are hundreds of variables in fluids (three huge ones in engine oil are shear strength, lubricity and cold-flow characteristics) and engineers specify oils based upon the best combination of factors based upon the design tolerances. Same thing for the transmission, but there you also have to contend with clutches (that don't like lots of lubricity) and valve bodies and...etc.)

Thus, you either use the products that you KNOW meet spec or you start guessing. How do you know whether Dex IV is okay? And if it is, why not Dex III? How about the special fluid that Toyota specifies? Or Honda? Maybe some good old Type A will work fine. How do you decide?

My point, which you seem either to misunderstand or don't want to accept, is that this is YOUR decision. Either you accept the design and technology that went into the car and respect the fluid specifications promulgated by the people that actually built the thing, or you substitute (for that wealth of knowledge) your hunches and some marketing materials, perhaps, maybe price in combination with a coupon discount...and heck, toss in some random opinions from youtube, a car forum or maybe even facebook.

At the end of the day, though, and as I always say, one great thing about owning a car is getting to decide how to maintain it. No one can override your decisions about that. If you want to experiment, please do so and enjoy yourself. But continuing to beat this dead horse serves absolutely no useful purpose.

Good luck.

 

Going back to the ATF, should I use the Max Life, or the Import oil? Or are they the same???

Certainly a $15 dipstick is a no brainer, but being on the road, I wish I would have ordered one a few days ago, before preparing to leave for the 3k trip home. Maybe the MB shop will check my level after I change the fluid.

And I'm sure folks have dumped Dexron into their tranny, and maybe some have posted results, for better or worse.

In have read many posts regarding oils, but frankly, there's too much info, thus I re-asked the same questions, mostly to have the response in my thread, for ease of future reference...

If any find the Hallow'een pix offensive, they can be deleted

 

Going back to the ATF, should I use the Max Life, or the Import oil? Or are they the same???

I assume that Valvoline's Max Life and Import ATFs are different in some way that only they seem to know. The import lists the Mercedes spec. 236.10 on the bottle, which leads me to think it is the one for your car. At $7 to 8 for a synthetic fluid I'm sold.

I bought a '63 Corvair convertable new (4 on the floor). It threw a rod at 2000 miles. The local dealer fixed it under warranty, and I drove it 99,000 miles. Fun car, but was a bit tail happy,(loose).

 

Bare in mind that Dextron was not design for electronic transmissions.
Sure you might get away with different stuff for some time, but I doubt your car made over 400k miles because PO was cutting the cost.
Even educated owners have no way to test results of different fluids, but for me it is easy.
I can save 20 bucks buying cheaper fluid, but how much towing from middle of Nebraska to nearest dealer will cost you?
I doubt Colorado has MB dealers every 20 miles as well.
Define "rich people"?
I live in 7 digits house, we have a fleet of Mercedes cars on driveway, but I am poor .

 

Dood, I'm nowhere near rich. I live in a small apartment in one of the most expensive places in the US and own a 12 year old motorcycle and a 13-year old benz (that I bought used). Yes, since I own a car and have a roof over my head and food in the pantry that makes me richer than 90% of the world's population, but I'm barely middle class where I live. And I can't transfer my salary to a place with a decent cost of living, so...

But your impressions of me are irrelevant anyway. Think what you like about me, but try and get away from the personal attack side of your perspective and consider the factual points I made. Can you do that?

My Benz works because I maintain it (no way could I afford it if I were taking it to the shop for everything). But...I don't think I'm smarter than the people who designed it, so I respect what they say about the fluids and maintenance procedures* to maintain it.

So just think about your end result and what you want to accomplish. You can dump in regular gas and any old oil and any old transmission fluid and any old (other fluid) and you'll "save" a few bucks. But you're heading towards large repair bills or, more likely, simply dumping the car to a junkyard when something expensive dies prematurely due to poor maintenance practices. There is definitely NOT too much information. There are FACTS about approved fluids, and there are "opinions and advice" about alternatives to approved fluids.

As to your other question about MaxLife vs. Import fluid: YOU STILL FIRST MUST DECIDE IF YOU WANT TO USE MB SPECIFIED FLUIDS. If you do, then check the BEVO list in the stickies and buy a fluid that is on it. (Heck, Napa stores have one that is pretty cheap, are there no Napa stores along your route?)

But if you DON'T want to use approved fluids, then you either have to rely on what marketing people tell you (Valvoline will tell you that MaxLife is compatible, but they cannot tell you it's approved by MB) or go off a hunch or something.

Of course, you can get back on your soapbox and yell about rich people sucking or whatever you like if you prefer. That's not doing much more than continuing to ignore the answer you initially sought, but if that's your personality, have at it.

_____________________________
* With the sole exception of the nonsense about the sealed for life transmission.

 

The Rich People was something I saw on an F150 going down the road... I'm a landlord, property rich, driving ancient vehicles. Anyone can spend money