S-Prihadi

Guys,

If you are still using the mechanical belt driven power steering, this is a must watch.








I never knew the filter-strainer exist inside the reservoir.
I am on EPS, so its not a worry for me but I did get my Indie to replace my friend's C200 W204 power steering fluid in 2022. Only the fluid.


Our oval-round radiator coolant reservoir bottle has a bag of coolant "conditioner" inside it, that I have seen. I have replaced my coolant reservoir for
crack prevention and also to renew that "conditioner" at 8th year. This conditioner is basically the re-supply of the chemical in the coolant which does the anti corossion protection.
Imagine a chlorine tablet in your pool, but a slow 10 year dispensing one.


Look at the color of the power steering fluid here :






If the owner were carry on say a 3-4 year or 40,000 miles power steering fluid replacement, he does not need to suffer the pain of damaging his power steering pump and spend much more $$.
On all my cars using belt driven power steering, I will replace the oil usually per 2 years and never any car I own ever has power steering problem, let alone needing a new pump.
The only time I had power steering problem was the hose exploded...ha ha ha, on a Toyota Supra MK2 back in 1986 at 3 years of age.... very Uncle Murphy, if at such young hose age and a Toyota.

Oky dokey.....go and save some money on your power steering.

ygmn

I can say I have never changed PS fluid on any car/truck of mine.
Never had PS issues either.

Also does not the 212 use electric assist steering now in lieu of hydraulic so no pump anymore?
Or I guess most of them have electric steering with distronic +

S-Prihadi

Non facelift W212 , some still uses hydraulic power steering, can't you see I attached a W212 screen capture and the video ?

PS fluid will suffer more if in tropical country like mine with very bad traffic jam.
Also please..... don't believe that any lubricating oil can maintain its goodness pass 4+ years in a duty like a PS fluid.
Not having failure does not mean the worn out parts when you measure them are NOT out of spec.

W211 was claimed to have lifetime tranny oil ....right ? do you believe that ?

juanmor40

That means you have never owned a Honda, the Odyssey in particular. If you pay attention most of them tend to whine a bit. Either the seal at the suction side of the pump lets air in, the filter in the reservoir gets clogged easily (several redesigns of the reservoir over last 2 decades), the pump is weak for the weight of the car at idle or parking speeds, and Honda hydraulic components are allergic to not-Honda fluids.

MB pushes to 60K+ miles for automatic transmission services, and Honda pushes towards 25K miles for transmission services and lifetime transmission filter ( , ) . Basically every 5 to 6 engine oil services.

ygmn

For video and such no I did not watch - skimmed most of it actually, sorry just scrolled thru and ask my question.

I am hydraulic engineer. What I do for living over past OMG, 30 some years...dayum I am getting old

IF system is kept closed, any air entering is filtered, desiccants used, proper oil temps ... Then yes hydraulic oil can be used for many many years.
Heck we sell filter carts to come out and clean the oil and remove water at Steel mills. reason is gets expensive to change out 10,000 gallons of hydrailic oil in a steel plant versus cleaning it.
The oil is still good just needs to be cleaner like say the car needs a wash.

Whine you hear is the pump or relief valve - they make noises - for most part normal especially when you hit steering lock.
Some noises can mean a part failure or crappy valve.

Can hardly find an owners manual for any vehicle in my stable owhere the PS fluid (if ya have that) requires some sort of change cycle.

I will save my money on this one and skip any PS changes on my vehicles....

Just saying yeah, I am not perfect super duper maintenance guy but my wallet likes me, car has not failed and Life is good.

One can get carried away with maintenance and spend way too much money. Car is tool to haul people and stuff around.

NOW if a racer well then skip this post as top perofrmance is your game.

nc211

Reminds me of an old Lexus LS400 I used to have. It had a solenoid screen in the rack, and if you pulled the solenoid out and cleaned its screen, it would return the back to one finger steering. It was fantastic!

I miss how easy that car was to work on. That puppy was a true road cruiser like no other......when everything was right on it. But God help you when the soft rubber bushing start to go and the vibrations arrive. On a car like that, it'll drive you mad! Did me!