Mercedes-Benz ECO Gear (TSG 360 / TSG 480)

Mercedes-Benz's six-speed manual for its rear-drive vans — the Sprinter, the Vito and the Viano — sold under the ECO Gear name and carried in the workshop documents as TSG.

The number is the torque rating in newton-metres, and it tells you which of two gearboxes a van has. The ECO Gear 360 goes behind the four-cylinder diesels, including the 300 Nm and 330 Nm versions; the heavier-duty ECO Gear 480 goes behind the V6 — the OM642 — whose output the 360 would not stand. They are not interchangeable in the sense that matters: a 480 is specified because the engine in front of it needs one.

The name is an economy claim rather than a badge, and the two things behind it are stated by Mercedes plainly enough to repeat: a wide ratio spread — a low first and a tall sixth, so the van pulls away loaded and cruises unstressed — and a low-friction oil. Together they were credited with something in the region of half a litre to a full litre per hundred kilometres against the gearbox they replaced.

Do not confuse it with the G56, which is Mercedes' other six-speed manual of the period and has its own page here: that is the heavy unit sold to Dodge for the Ram, and it is a different gearbox for a different vehicle.

The low-friction oil is a specification, not a preference. A van refilled with ordinary gear oil will not fail, but the economy the name refers to is the first thing it loses, and a notchy cold change is the usual first complaint.