Petrol Pete
Hardcore MB Enthusiast
Read on here a member paid a squillion quid for a power steering pump that had worn out and as mine has 130000 miles on it and makes a bit of a noise when turning a low speed I decided to replace the fluid by the turkey baster method.
I bought 3 litres of the correct fluid from the MB stealership , I did that because of the conflicting advice I was getting from the interweb about which fluid to use and it was no more expensive than anywhere online anyway. Plus I have a nice MB receipt for the fluid with all the car details on it.
Now everybody with half a brain knows that syphoning out 180ml of oil at a time and topping up is a sure fire way to leave dirty oil in there after the job is done but its another experiment I wanted to try and I am using the car everyday for work at the moment so needs must.
Anyway the first oil that came out was black , watery and stunk of burning , at each end of my 33 mile commute I sucked 180ml of oil out and topped up, I did not use a turkey baster but a large syringe (available at any decent equestrian supplier for pennies) with a bit of rubber tube on it to reach right down into the expansion tank.
The end result is very much quieter steering noise and the bit of oil I sucked out after all three litres were eventually used up was nice and green and pretty clear considering it was mixed with the old black stuff that was previously in there.
Why 3 litres ? no idea. For all I know the steering rack might have a volume of one litre but 3 seemed like a good number to start with and I am happy with the result.
A full flush and top up would obviously been better , but this way in my opinion is better than doing nothing.
I bought 3 litres of the correct fluid from the MB stealership , I did that because of the conflicting advice I was getting from the interweb about which fluid to use and it was no more expensive than anywhere online anyway. Plus I have a nice MB receipt for the fluid with all the car details on it.
Now everybody with half a brain knows that syphoning out 180ml of oil at a time and topping up is a sure fire way to leave dirty oil in there after the job is done but its another experiment I wanted to try and I am using the car everyday for work at the moment so needs must.
Anyway the first oil that came out was black , watery and stunk of burning , at each end of my 33 mile commute I sucked 180ml of oil out and topped up, I did not use a turkey baster but a large syringe (available at any decent equestrian supplier for pennies) with a bit of rubber tube on it to reach right down into the expansion tank.
The end result is very much quieter steering noise and the bit of oil I sucked out after all three litres were eventually used up was nice and green and pretty clear considering it was mixed with the old black stuff that was previously in there.
Why 3 litres ? no idea. For all I know the steering rack might have a volume of one litre but 3 seemed like a good number to start with and I am happy with the result.
A full flush and top up would obviously been better , but this way in my opinion is better than doing nothing.
