transmission fluid change

[John in Santa Cruz]

geez, all our cars are way over 15 years old, and have muchos miles.

tow vehicle is a 2002 F250 7.3 turbodiesel, has 242000 miles and no holes in the seats

wife's daily driver is a 1994 Mercedes E320 wagon, has 280000 miles and no holes in the seats

my daily driver in the summer is a 1993 Mercedes 300CE Cabriolet, 260K miles, no holes in the seats.

my winter driver is a 1990 Mercedes 300E 2.6 sedan, unknown mileage (probably at least 200K now), some dents on the exterior from the original owner, but the seats are perfect.

[thrifty bill]

"The only car I’ve seen recently that was over 15 years old is my neighbors 1953 Studebaker .
I’ve only owned one vehicle in my 70 years that made it over 100,000 miles before the car rusted away."

Location, location. Our current two daily drivers have 175,000 miles and 130,000 miles. Not much rust here in the SE, even in the MTNs of NC. Both 2010 models, both bought used. One only had 25,000 miles on it, the other had 12,000 miles on it despite being 5 years old when I bought it. My prior vehicle had 135,000 miles on it. Still see it around town five years later. Heck, my motorcycle has 135,000 miles on it.

Really, 200,000 miles is not unusual outside the rust belt. I have a friend with a Subaru Outback, closing in on 400,000 miles.

If/when my wife gets her new car we will keep the Element (175,000 miles and climbing).

No holes in upholstery. Could use a good detail.

[Raspy]

Originally Posted by Cliff Hotchkiss

🤔
In my entire life including the 10 years as a mechanic I can count the differentials I’ve seen fail from normal wear and tear on 1 hand with fingers left over. Now if you’re talking drag racing or serious off-roading different story. In today’s vehicles the best oil your differential will probably ever see is the original. The recommended change interval for my F150 is 150k, 60k for severe use. I’ll loose no sleep and save a bunch money and resources by going on the factory recommendations. Things have changed a lot since the “early” days of the automobile and for the better.😎

Thats fine, but I'm not comfortable with hardface going through the bearings. And during one change, I found water had gotten in from an unknown event. By waiting a couple more years it would have been in there all that time. I would never make my first change at 150,000. BTW, I've had two Jeep diffs fail from spider gear thrust. So I got the message. I consider the factory interval to be the minimum that is acceptable. Auto trannies are famous for having lots of metal in the pan. I don't like that. I'd rather get it out of there, but that's just me, and since I'm doing it myself, I can monitor the results. The best oil my diff will ever see is the fresh full synthetic I pour in.

[Raspy]

John, I admire the full Mercedes fleet! Cool.

I've had two Mercedes 5 cylinder diesels and currently have a 1983 300 SD. Just can't kill them, but they don't have much power.

[Glenn Baglo]

Maybe the metal is supposed to settle in the pan?
My RAV4 is now going on 12 years ( 116,000 kilometres / 72,000 miles ).
No rust. Probably because it seems most of it is made of plastic.

[John in Santa Cruz]

Originally Posted by Raspy

John, I admire the full Mercedes fleet! Cool.

I've had two Mercedes 5 cylinder diesels and currently have a 1983 300 SD. Just can't kill them, but they don't have much power.

the 1990 is a 2.6L I6 gasser, its a bit down on the power, the other two are 3.2L DOHC I6's and have plenty of pookah to go way faster than is sane.

[k0wtz]

Well raspy I am in your camp. lots of things to go wrong most advice I have read to get good milage out out of your car is to check everything constantly.

After learning some of this stuff I found doing a ritual at fill up just made me feel better and for some reason cars starting going a long long ways before I replaced them.

I finally learned a car is just a mode of getting around. so I developed a method to make them go longer.

everyone can co things their way I like mine I guess!

bob

Originally Posted by Raspy

Thats fine, but I'm not comfortable with hardface going through the bearings. And during one change, I found water had gotten in from an unknown event. By waiting a couple more years it would have been in there all that time. I would never make my first change at 150,000. BTW, I've had two Jeep diffs fail from spider gear thrust. So I got the message. I consider the factory interval to be the minimum that is acceptable. Auto trannies are famous for having lots of metal in the pan. I don't like that. I'd rather get it out of there, but that's just me, and since I'm doing it myself, I can monitor the results. The best oil my diff will ever see is the fresh full synthetic I pour in.