Hello, new to this site so hope some help is at hand: I recently purchased a 1992 200E W124 saloon with manual gearbox. The car has very low milage (less than 40000) and has been kept in a dry garage. It has only covered 300 miles last year and is due a service. What grade of oil is recomended for the manual gearbox?.Also, any usuful tips for the service which I hope to do myself.
W124 gearbox oil
- Thread starter twild25
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Thegemmesabogie
Senior Member
I have had two 124s with manual boxes. There is a commonly held belief that any auto trans fluid (ATF) will do however I did a tranny part No search at the dealers and they came up with a different part No for the oil than normal. Thinking maybe I was getting something special I got them to order it from M Keynes. What arrived (@£16.00 per ltr) was Shell Donax TM. This is branded as 'automatic fluid' on the container but is clear not red like normal ATF. I would recommend you change the oil in the box as often as the engine. These boxes have a habit of throwing layshaft bearings. from memory it takes about 1 1/2 litres. What else transforms the gearchange is to renew the rubbers on the gearbox end of the shift rods. They get soft and the change gets sloppy which results in condemnation of Merc manual boxes. Other than the normal service items I would recommend that you change (completely) the brake and clutch fluid. It will be 'off' after lying for a time.
N.B. The clutch fluid reservoir is part of the brake master cylinder reservoir, the rear part actually, and it takes some careful topping up when bleeding.
N.B. The clutch fluid reservoir is part of the brake master cylinder reservoir, the rear part actually, and it takes some careful topping up when bleeding.
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I would go along with this, we use semi synthetic EP80/90 on our sprinters as recomened by MB, I would have thought ATF is a bit thin. But I could be wrong, EP80/90 semi synthetic is quite a common g/box oil.
wireman
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- nice 201 2.5D 1993 & very nice 129 SL500 1994
Had a new 1884 Cavalier CD with attrocious syncro on 3rd and 4th gears and a tendency to crunch engaging 1st or 2nd at standstill. the agents cure for this was dextron2. I drove that car for 170,000 miles and the box survived.
