The POS 300E has been leaking transmission fluid for a while, enough to leave a good-sized spot when it's parked overnight, so I took it to the coin-op carwash last weekend and gave the underside a good blasting. Before I could drive it there, I had to put in a couple of quarts of ATF, but that made it easy to find the leak: After the car had been sitting a couple of days with a nice clean underbelly, I got under there and rubbed a fresh white shop cloth all over the place. I got a pink streak of fresh ATF on the cloth almost all the way around the pan seal. Is that likely to be just the gasket that needs replacing, or should I expect the pan to be warped as well? (Signs point to the PO of this car having done some pretty ham-fisted maintenance, so I could easily believe that he overtightened the pan bolts and warped it.)
I also noticed a couple of drops of fresh ATF hanging on to the torque converter housing, about to fall from the "grate" that surrounds the access hole for the drain plug. What does this mean (besides "Your torque converter's leaking, dummy")? What's above that grate that could leak? Maybe it's just the washer or o-ring (whichever it is) for the TC drain plug? At least I don't have any leakage at the trans cooler fittings, as far as I can tell---or any ATF getting into the radiator. Thanks, Alex Chamberlain '86 300E etc. _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
