Have a 245DL wagon with 180,000 kms. Got the car in 1993 from Grandma when it had 101,000kms (It had sat in her garage alot) and I noticed the three speed transmission made a wirling noise in reverse and first gear. AT first I thought it was the universal joint because it sounds a little similar to the sound a worn universal joint makes (More whirring and less howling though) but with a little testing by shifting into neutral while the car is rolling in 1st or reverse I was able to isolate the noise to the tranny. Is this noise normal? Are these trannys normally noisy in these gears? I then noticed (not sure if this noise is related to this)on long hot drives it would spit out ATM from some white plastic cover vents close to the engine. Apparently it had been doing this for quite some time with granny at the wheel. The ATM would spit onto the hot exhaust pipes and lay out a hugh white smoke screen behind us - Lots of hilarious storys about this as you can imagine people behind us would get rather excited. I took the car to Mr Transmission (in 1993) and had the filter cleaned - the mechanic took the cover off and told me it did not need cleaning. He then sprayed something onto the filter and let it drip out and told me that this is all it needed. Are these filters re-usable or should he had replaced it? Anyway the problem persisted so I flushed the radiator (since the tranny is cooled by this). The car ran cooler and the problem with the tranny improved (not solved) so I guess it was overheating. Anyway to cut a long story short everybody scratched their heads at the problem so I took matters into my own hands and installed a transmission cooler. Problem solved - with the ATM spitting out that is. Anyway I have since put on 80,000kms and I have been so impressed with the car I thought I would fix it up and keep it indefinitly. I am going to have the ATM changed because it is a little dirty. Is it worth spending the $ on having the ATM changed and filter replaced at regular intervals. The original maintenance schedule book does not mention anything about this so I assumed it was not a regular maintenance item. Also noticed some slack in the drive train (propellar shaft area maybe, hopefully its not the tranny). When I'm coasting in 2nd or 3rd gear I punch the gas and there is a bit of play, and a slight clunk then everything engages. Any ideas on what this could be? What should I be checking and looking for.