New boy

[Divemonkey]

Hi to all
Got a c250 sport about 6 months ago and I must say what a car, never had a Mercedes before, loving it, God can it move, anyway can you tell I like it. Just wanted to say hello and will probably ask questions that have been asked and answered but I'm new to Mercedes so don't know what to look out for, it's on a 59 plate auto with 76000 on her full service history. Would like to change the oil in the gearbox. Do I need to???? Nothing in service history to say it's been done what else do in need to look out for/ change is it a w204????? Cheers for any help

 

[Craiglxviii]

Hi and welcome.

MB moved to "ATF for life" a while ago but I believe that people here recommend you do so every 5 years or so.

Lovely car by the way, great engine too.

 

[A.J.]

Hi Dave and welcome

 

[Larkone]

No such thing as 'ATF for life'. It was a marketing ploy for transport managers in corporates and what it means is 'ATF for the life of the contract' - typically 3 years/60K miles.

Audi insisted that their boxes are 'ATF for life' when I tried to buy a filter and gasket to change the ATF on my A6. When I questioned the Service Manager as to why it had a filter as these are required to filter out debris therefore there must be debris and therefore there must come a point when they no longer work effectively his response was 'I see your argument'. I then checked with Borg Warner who made the box for Audi and they said that the box I had needed an ATF change every 80k-100k miles. When I did drain the oil it was in serious need of changing as it was as thin as water, black and smelt burnt.

Since then I have changed the ATF in all of my cars at regular intervals and never had a any issues with any of my gearboxes. Changing the ATF is cheaper than a new box.

 

[John Laidlaw]

Welcome
I would change the ATF regardless

 

[Yugguy]

It should have been done at 38k - I would do it if I were you.

 

[Divemonkey]

ATF

Ok thanks for the help I think I'll change the oil now