[MBZ] Trans flushing

[RELNGSON@aol.com]

<<,I would suggest that you consider doing the flush yourself. If you 
disconnect the tranny cooler lines you should be able to attach hoses onto them. Put 
the suction side in the container of new fluid and the pressure side into a 
container to catch the old stuff. Start her up and pump about 10 gallons through 
and you should have got out pretty well all of the old stuff. Wastes a bit of 
fluid but should be cheaper than having the flush done at the dealer.>>

And I would suggest that you do not try this. Was it on this list or one of 
the other two where someone attempted to disconnect these lines for some reason 
and damaged the fittings which resulted in buying replacement lines? Further, 
just how much does ten gallons of ATF cost? If this were the lifetime (now 
39K miles) fluid, ten gallons at dealer retail would cost $592.40. ATF at 
WalMart would be less, admittedly.

My own car was in for some warranty repair yesterday and today and I directed 
the dealer to change the trans fluid and filter, knowing that only four of 
the eight quart capacity could be changed because the torque converter has no 
drain plug. Of course, I could have put the thing up on stands in my garage and 
pulled the pan to get at the filter. And then measure what I got out so as to 
replace just the right amount since there is no built-in dipstick. And 
although I could probably use the "shop tool" calibrated dipstick I sometimes 
(rarely) use to dip the engine oil, I could not interpret the numbers anyway without 
a printout from the MBUSA tech website for my trans. And then clean up the 
mess and me.

So, four quarts of fluid (of the eight quart capacity) plus the filter and 
gasket was $241.17 of which $147.20 was labor. 

Replaced today was the modern equivalent of the vacuum element on a heater 
door someplace, a stepper motor. Found by stored error code. And the panelo for 
the HVAC system since one of the temp adjustment buttons was getting sticky. 
All covered under the extended factory warranty I purchased in 2001.

And even though the free loaner car with service ended at the four year 
point, they rented me a car anyway. A Cobalt, not nearly as bad as I expected and 
better than a