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I bought a Mercedes 300 SDL Turbo Diesel a few years back and just got it running last year. The question I have is what type of fluids should I use in everything and how often to do the service work?
There is not much service information available to me and this is a list what I have done for maintenance in the past 1,000 miles since I got the car running.
Power Steering: Flushed out the Power steering and filled it up with a blend of the Lucas premixed fluid in the white bottle and topped it off with standard P/S fluid with some stop leak additive (considering Amsoil P/S fluid or Pentosin OEM).
Brake Fluid: Flushed the brake lines with Pentosin Dot 4 fluid as suggested by MercedesSource but have some air in the ABS pump. Found instructions online how to deal with that.
Transmission: Installed a new filter and filled it up with the Dex III sold at Wal-Mart in the gal jug for $12. I purge the ATF out the cooler line to dilute the oil in the TC, changed out about a gallon 3 times as a cheap flush because the fluid was awful as reported by UOA.
Engine oil: Been running Wal-Mart 15w40 and frequent oil drains to clean out the engine after replacing it with a used neglected engine, but it runs good. Just changed it to Rotella on the last service and plan to go with Mobil Delvac in the future.
Decided to buy engine oil filters from Amazon because they are European spec at a decent price (Mann, Mahale, Hengst). This is just better than going with whatever the local parts store can get, (Pure-O-Lator, Wix, STP) or some other over priced cheaply made filter.
Also added a Frantz Toilet Paper bypass filter system to this engine to clean up the solid particles that showed up on the UOA. This is a cool system and I replaced the Scott 1000 roll with blue Shop Towels. The flow rate is slower and that's a plus at trapping small particles.
Coolant: Did a flush of the cooling system, added the Napa branded coolant (Peak Extended Life) and added coolant boost sold by Amsoil due to the heat transfer coefficient. *Not sure if I need to buy better quality coolant for the aluminum head?
Rear Differential: The fluid is clear with a slimy feel to it as if it's 'top treated' with an additive, really don't know what oil is in it. Not planning to change it right away because the OEM oil is expensive and unsure what to get other than the Mercedes packaged oil.
I know this is a really long post, just looking for real opinions of when to change these fluids. The odometer quit working and I put in an hour meter to keep up with the running time. Any experience with Mercedes fluids will help me out because I am not sure what to use and all the mixed opinions all over the net complicates the problem.
I bought a Mercedes 300 SDL Turbo Diesel a few years back and just got it running last year. The question I have is what type of fluids should I use in everything and how often to do the service work?
There is not much service information available to me and this is a list what I have done for maintenance in the past 1,000 miles since I got the car running.
Power Steering: Flushed out the Power steering and filled it up with a blend of the Lucas premixed fluid in the white bottle and topped it off with standard P/S fluid with some stop leak additive (considering Amsoil P/S fluid or Pentosin OEM).
Brake Fluid: Flushed the brake lines with Pentosin Dot 4 fluid as suggested by MercedesSource but have some air in the ABS pump. Found instructions online how to deal with that.
Transmission: Installed a new filter and filled it up with the Dex III sold at Wal-Mart in the gal jug for $12. I purge the ATF out the cooler line to dilute the oil in the TC, changed out about a gallon 3 times as a cheap flush because the fluid was awful as reported by UOA.
Engine oil: Been running Wal-Mart 15w40 and frequent oil drains to clean out the engine after replacing it with a used neglected engine, but it runs good. Just changed it to Rotella on the last service and plan to go with Mobil Delvac in the future.
Decided to buy engine oil filters from Amazon because they are European spec at a decent price (Mann, Mahale, Hengst). This is just better than going with whatever the local parts store can get, (Pure-O-Lator, Wix, STP) or some other over priced cheaply made filter.
Also added a Frantz Toilet Paper bypass filter system to this engine to clean up the solid particles that showed up on the UOA. This is a cool system and I replaced the Scott 1000 roll with blue Shop Towels. The flow rate is slower and that's a plus at trapping small particles.
Coolant: Did a flush of the cooling system, added the Napa branded coolant (Peak Extended Life) and added coolant boost sold by Amsoil due to the heat transfer coefficient. *Not sure if I need to buy better quality coolant for the aluminum head?
Rear Differential: The fluid is clear with a slimy feel to it as if it's 'top treated' with an additive, really don't know what oil is in it. Not planning to change it right away because the OEM oil is expensive and unsure what to get other than the Mercedes packaged oil.
I know this is a really long post, just looking for real opinions of when to change these fluids. The odometer quit working and I put in an hour meter to keep up with the running time. Any experience with Mercedes fluids will help me out because I am not sure what to use and all the mixed opinions all over the net complicates the problem.
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