gioshag

Hello everyone.
I have a Mercedes-Benz W209 CLK320 VIN: WDB2093651F112333 (M112 engine / year: 2004) mileage 50 000 km . I bought it in Japan (it has a left side steering wheel from the factory). I need your advice please. Recently I measured the level of power steering fluid and noticed, that it needs to add a bit. I researched your recomendations and learned, that for every W209 it is used a hydraulic fluid with specification 345.0 (A 001 989 24 03) and color of this fluid is green. But my car is factory filled with yellow (I guess 236.3 / A 000 989 88 03 ?) power steering fluid. I asked about this situation to our official Mercedes dealer, and they told me, that cases like this happens quite often, and it's not a problem. Also they recomended me to buy and add "A 000 989 88 03" (236.3) yellow fluid, instead of "A 001 989 24 03" (345.0) green one. Now I'm a little discouraged. I doubt that on the official service I was informed the right decision, and would like to double-check that with your help. Can it be, that the car that was manufactured in 2004, was factory filled with "236.3" specification hydraulic fluid, instead of the recommended at that time "345.0" specification?

Rudeney

Nothing in the system changed when they decided to change the fluid spec, so I'd use the newer 345.0 spec fluid. It will likely be easier to find (it's Pentosin CHF-11s)

c32jet

What is the difference in CHF-11s and the regular stuff you can buy for a fraction of the price? Am very interested in the tech spec as my power steering is leaking badly and I have been putting in the cheap stuff while I diagnose it. Turns out the leak is coming from the top pressure line (passenger side) and dripping out pretty steady. Not sure if the preston cheap stuff is too thin... or even if I were to refill with Pentosin 11s it would do the same. Is the pentosin much thicker and not likely to lead or .... is this wishful thinking. Wondering what would cause it to start leaking so badly so suddenly. Is there a seal or gasket that can be replaced?

Leak is coming from here...

Audi Junkie

Mixing Pentosin and ATF is very bad. I don't care about mixing other fluids, coolant, oil etc....but Pentosin is not miscible in ATF. It will froth into a non-lubricating foam. Pentosin is PAO based, which does not dissolve in real "mineral" oils.

My CLK came with a brown fluid I assumed was ATF, so I used ATF. I flushed it thoroughly, so either way it was 99% pure ATF when I was done
https://cdn.opieoils.co.uk/pdfs/pent...in_CHF_11S.pdf.

This is what I'm trying. Dex II/III marine ATF from Lubro Moly, dirt cheap. 236.3 is a Dex II fluid....

​​​​​​​