Automatic transmission: service-or-die and the brass-sleeve failure

Owners repeatedly warn that these automatics fail if the fluid and filter aren't changed on time, contradicting Mercedes' original 'lifetime' stance; the paper filter can shred and destroy the internals. A brass sleeve/bearing in the earlier gearbox fails around 100k miles, while the revised 722.631 fitted to many later-1999 cars is said to fail less often.