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FWIW, on my wife's Benz, dealer charges $102, which includes draining the torque converter. I decided it wasn't worth the small savings to do this messy job myself, especially because there are MANY horror stories of MB tranny's failing after a service because they are sooooo sensitive to foreigh matter.
For oil changes, I do all my own with white gloves on! I use a Topsider! It's a device that looks like a bike pump screwed onto a gas can with a tube haning out of it. You pump up the thing 50 times to create a vacuum, put the tube in to the dipstick and SUCK all the oil out. This is actually the preferred way of changing the oil in MB's. It gets all the oil out, ACTUALLY MORE THAN WHEN YOU DRAIN IT. And while it's sucking the oil out, you go back inside and warm up. Return to change the filter and add new oil. Close the cap on the can and drive it to the recycling center.
Oh, and for the record, on my Benz, the filter (cartridge type) is top mounted, so I never need to get dirty. Hence the white glove oil change.
I spend the extra money saved on better, Mobil 1 oil. When it gets warm out you can crawl under there and inspect all the goodies that you missed by not being under the car to change the oil in this freezing weather!
Topsiders can be bought for around $40 from marine shops, both mail order or locally. (Boats don't usually provide easy access to the bottoms of their motors ;-)
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