Hi all,
Just joined the forum as a long time 300SD owner but with a recently purchased '86 190e 8v automatic. I picked this one up at a local dealer with 96k on the odometer. After running Carfax, I'm confident it is actual mileage. Until recently the vehicle was registered in Chicago, makes sense then with the relative low mileage and little rust-stored in garage. Anyway, in my usual prep before driving a used vehicle, I go through it completely including a transmission drain and filter replacement. It's also nice that MBs allow the user to drain the torque converter, few do these days. Anyway, upon pulling the pan, the three screws that hold on the filter were laying in the pan and the filter was missing. Not there. The pan was relatively clean. What do you think was going here? Did someone pull the pan and not have a kit on hand and just removed the filter? Of course I replaced the filter and I appears to shift normally. But I am concerned if the dealer was attempting to hide something by removing the filter. Should I be concerned? I can go back to the dealer and ask for my money back at this point.
Thanks for any thoughts.
Bill