Help - auto transmission problem!

denmerc

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Hi fellas, this is my first post to the forum and just want to say how great it is for a DIY mechanic like me for info that I would not be able to get anywhere else..

Sorry to bore you with a long story but this is my tale of woe ….

My dad bought a 2005 C200 CDi in England last summer and imported it to Ireland. Car had 33k now has 45k and service light has been on for about 700 miles.
I said I would do the oil change so last Sat I bought oil and oil filter to do engine oil change
Started sucking oil out of the dipstick (red cap) on right as you look into the engine from front of car
Wasn’t too sure if I was taking it out of the correct dipstick tube so searched on this forum for more info and D’oh! ….. found I was using the wrong one…
At this stage had about 2 litres sucked out so I poured em back in and thought – well at least I am leaving it as I found it….

Then did the engine oil change which went fairly ok… altho cud only suck out about 3 litres – and then had to remove undertray and sump plug to get the rest – and then added up what I had taken out – a whopping 7.8 litres – the car is only supposed to have 6.5 litres as an oil change so I can only presume the last ****** mechanic over-filled it!

But after doing engine oil and filter, I took it for a spin – very slow to take off and wouldn’t change gear. So back to the internet to see what I could find. Most obvious solution was that box was low on fluid. Didn’t have dipstick but had a wire rope – about 8mm in dia. – so used that. Car was fairly cold but the wire rope showed a massive 130mm length of oil on it ! there is a pic on here somewhere of a dipstick and seems to show approx. 65mm as the right place to be once the box is warmed up – so now I’m thinking that maybe the problem is that there is too much oil in it??

Was really annoyed about this now… told my Dad and then he said the car had done this twice in the last 3 months – at least now it looked like this problem was there before I went messing with the car!

Now I remembered another detail re the car – when we brought it home last year I went underneath the car just for a look and noticed an oil leak – didn’t take off the undertray – and wasn’t really sure where the leak had come from -- just told my dad to take the car to a local mechanic. This he did and I can just about remember him saying it was something to do with the dipstick tube on the auto tranny…..

Anyway I made a few calls during the week – 1 really helpful guy was Mike Parsons at Sussex Autos – and most people said u must get it checked on the diagnostic.

So still trying to go down the cheap route (and not goto big Mercedes dealer) I heard about a Polish guy who had a diagnostic kit and called him today.

He found and error code P0730 – Incorrect gear ratio. We drained the pan of the tranny and there was only about 2 or 2.5 litres. He turned the engine looking for a drain plug on the converter but said there was none (think I had seen this mentioned on the forum here already). He said the best thing to do was change the oil and filter & see how it drives. Then he took the pan off so we would have the filter in our hands when seeing if any of the motor factors had one. No surprise that none of the factors had it in stock.
Now he felt around the magnet of the pan with his finger and there was some thick sludgy stuff – he says this is metal fragments – I felt it but didn’t think I cud feel actual metal bits --- suppose I cud just remove pan again after couple of thousand miles and see if there is more build up here (hopefully at least it will drive properly after new oil and filter) - Mike Parsons said if i found any metal bits in the pan that you would HAVE to remove the box and send to a repair shop to see what was wearing as this would wreck the box at some stage in the future.

So a few questions..

Can anyone get me the proper dipstick measurement please – Mike at Sussex Autos is ordering me one but he hasn’t got them in stock yet

Is the wire rope bending in the sump and going further than a dipstick would go.. and therefore “showing too much oil”? draining only 2 litres from the pan wud seem to say too little. And how much should we put in to fill it properly? At the moment is it completely empty or is there some still in the converter? One of the motor factors today had a booklet which said the box had 8 litres capacity?
I must get the engine code from the car – will the gearbox type (722 whatever) be shown somewhere?

Any tips on a good workshop manual – paper or online?

Any thoughts or pointers would be most gratefully received. & thanks for reading this!!!!
Denis:(
 

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Hi Denis,,do not worry about the little bit of sludge on the bottom of the box.

There is no torque converter drain so disconnect one of the cooler pipes and spin the engine for a few seconds, and that will empty it. This means it is totally empty and you can fill with 7.5 liters of new fluid.

for new box 7.5 litres (+0.5)

MB 236.10 ATF A001 989 2303...MB 236.10 001 989 2103..........

Shell ATF 3403-M 115

65mm is the max hot mark on the dip stick
 

lulu

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Just to clarify, the engine dipstick tube is the one on the right (B). the gearbox dipstick tube is the one on the left (A).

c220enginebay.jpg


If I've read correctly, I think you've got your fluids and amounts in a complete muddle with both your engine and gearbox. I can't help feeling it's a start again with new fluid in both.

The engine should take 6.5 litres of MB229.3 or MB229.5 oil (or 229.31 or 229.51 if DPF fitted)
The gearbox should take about 7 litres for a complete change, but just dropping the sump and refilling will only release about 3-4 litres since your car's too new to have a torque converter drain plug. (See other threads elsewhere about getting the remainder out - which you're almost certain to need to do if your fluids have become mixed up)
 
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brianbrian

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I agree with Malcom & LuLu sludge in the bottom of pan,about time atf was changed.
 
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denmerc

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Thanks guys – your help is much appreciated.:)
Lulu is spot on – I had the tubes mixed up. I read the following thread you see…. but didn’t read far enuf down the thread to get the REAL answer as to which was the gearbox dipstick!
http://forums.mercedesclub.org.uk/showthread.php?t=44679&highlight=dipstick+RED+BLACK


Oh well its such a relief to finally know where I went wrong….. my engine oil situation is ok as I drained at the sump plug and simply refilled thru the oil filter hole, and then used the dashboard procedure to test for oil level.

But as for the autobox., … as stated in my 1st thread, I sucked out as much as I could from the black dipstick tube (approx 3 litres) (thinking it was engine oil) so when I started the car and tried to move off the autobox was missing 3 litres it previously had!
And of course the reading on my wire rope was the engine oil level!

In my defence nothing went right for me this week – in particular, I couldn’t post my thread on the forum as the activation code sent to me wouldn’t work, and the contact admin facility wouldn’t work either – all week long thinking “if only I cud post a thread to get a bit of help /info” …..

Ah the pleasures(!) of doing the job yourself…… :rolleyes: wud have saved so much hassle and strife by agreeing to Dads proposal i.e. get it done at a garage…..

But it will provide good fodder for Sat nite in the pub with my friends – with a few details changed of course!!
Cheers again fellas
Den
:)
 
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denmerc

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BTW Malcolm, how do you spin the engine without starting it? Thanks also for the dipstick readings and oil capacities:)

Cheers
Den
 

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You can let it start,and 5 secs or so should empty it,,or take the wire off the CPS it will not start
 
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denmerc

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Again - many thanks for quick reply
Denis:D
 


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