Diesel RVs: [diesel_mercedes] Routine Power Steering Service [3 Attachments]

[Attachment(s) from Nate included below]

I was remiss in not addressing this before ~ the Mercedes power steering uses ATF (the lid insists upon ATF) so it's cheap and easy to do , there's even a filter inside the pump's resivoir you can change out .

What I did was misplace my oil suction gun so i went to The Dollar Store and bought a .99 Cent turkey baster and used it to suck ou all the old dead black , stinking like third shift Police Dept. or navy coffee , then I used a deep 10MM socket to remove the plastic retainer and a war surplus dental pick top lift out the old nasty looking filter , sucked out more dead black ATF and then used clean and (! important !) LINT FREE towels to wipe out the sludgy good left behind .

My system was / is really dirty yet it works fine , no leaks but the inside of the resivoir os hard coated with dark baked in residue I can't wipe off , you can see it slightly above the fluid level .

First I removed the old filter , cleaned out the resivoir , dropped the filter back and , re filled it with fresh ATF then drove it a few hundred miles to flush it , then i drained it again , wiped it clean again and was pleased to see the very bottom of the resivoir is now clean and shiny , in time and a few more flushings the sides should be too .

Pic. # 1 is the resivoir full of fresh ATF , you can see the red translucence :

Pic. # 2 is the air bubbles bleeding out as I let it idle a while , after the bubbles stopped I gently turned the steering full lock left then right a few times :

Pic. # 3 is after 20 minutes of driving , the ATF is once again dead black , maybe really dark brown , it stinks again but not as bad :

This is an important routine service that tales less than one quart of ATF , I highly suggest buying fully synthetic ATF that's specified for Mercedes automatic transmissions .

I seem to have mis placed the photos I took of the filters old and new , the part # has changed slightly so I matched them up and they appear the same .

-Nate

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Attachment(s) from Nate | View attachments on the web

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