Hi guys,
New to this forum, as I just bought a 50,000 mile 2002 XJR 100. I am looking to do most of the maintenance myself. I have the Mercedes WA580 transmission in my car. I know this transmission is in a ton of Chrysler Corp. vehicles. On Jeeps particularly, there is a dipstick tube but without a dipstick in it, instead just a cap that says on it, "FOR DEALER USE ONLY". I understand Mercedes claims the fluid in these transmissions is lifetime and that people go tons of miles on the factory fluid without issue, but I do not buy into the lifetime fluid. So with the lower miles I have on my car, and with the hard driven miles to come, I wanted to drop the pan, change the filter and add new fluid, but the Jaguar doesn't have a fill/dipstick tube that I could find. If there is a special filling tool required, a part number would be great. Thanks guys!

 

Tube should be there, back by the throttle body - might be easier to see if you remove the plastic cover panels. The cap is pretty near the top of the engine, it's not really buried down below. There's no "tool" exactly, but you'll need to purchase a dipstick checker to check your level which can be had from like 10 bucks on up on Amazon, and you may wish a new locking tab for the cap. Some people will just go without since the cap does fit snug, but others like the completeness of putting a new locking tab back on.

 

Thanks so much, very helpful. I will look into it this weekend, thanks!

 

The dip tube has a tamper cap - the replacement will show it's been opened. They sealed them up because back in the late 90's the fluid was expensive and not widely available -- there was a good chance that people would either not use the correct fluid or not do the service correctly. They also have a service life typically north of 150k ... so they outlast most of the cars. The MB box is very robust .. but does not like having the incorrect fill .. and obviously incorrect fluid.

Make sure the connector plug is not wet -- it's a somewhat common problem... although, I have had 6 different cars with the box and never had a leak. If wet it needs to be replaced - use only the original MB plug (they are cheap $15). I would also only use the OE/OEM filter and gasket .. again, not expensive.

The only one I ever played with was my MB wagon .. and only because an accident fried the transmission.

 

Search my posted thread . I did it on both of my 2 XJRs.

​​​​​​get all of the ATF, electric plate, connetorc, filter, dip stick

It's actually an easy job.

 

I also posted a thread on how to carry out the service, I'll try and find it because it had all the Mercedes Benz parts numbers, which would be very helpful to me because I'm due to carry out the same job shortly.

Be careful which tool you select, look at the genuine MB trans dipstick end, this is plastic and fits an internal seal, it doesn't hit the pan bottom as some do leading to underfills.

Another neat tool is an infra-red thermometer, point at the trans sump to get near enough temperature values for expansion of fluid, and correct level.

Oh by the way, Mercedes was surprisingly cheap on fluid and parts, much less than Jaguar and all OE. But it's worth checking Jaguar because they've started to subsidize the prices (as they do when their vehicles get to 'classic' age)