Usnagrinch

I have owned this 2008 SL55 AMG for 18 months…..it had 28,000 Miles on it when I bought. I have had the “B” service done since I owned it……now has 41,000 miles on it.

It is due for “A” service. I asked the dealer to do the “A” service …and ALSO change the “ABC” (Active Body Control) fluid and filter (Which I believe has never been changed)

THe dealer told me they would NOT change the ABC Fluid unless something was wrong. I want to be Preventative……Please let me know if anyone has an opinion on changing this hydraulic Fluid as a preventative measure?

MJ50

moved to R230 AMG forum...
always change fluids and filters...

smithwn55

Maintenance and actual repair costs for my 08 SL55 attached. 48000 current miles

Bill

NHSl550

WHAT? I'd find a new dealer.

Hendrik Koster

Good to see you enjoy driving your car, I'm the same way!

The difference with you is that I do all my own work in house and I can tell you it's essential to change and flush your ABC fluid every 30-40K miles. The simplest way to see if your fluid is due for a flush is by pulling the ABC dipstick from the reservoir and strike the fluid (pentosin) on it off on a clean white rag if the color on the rag is clear green transparent color you are OK, if there is a brownish tint in it but still transparent you are due for a flush, if it's dark brown and no longer transparent you have exceeded what I consider an acceptable condition.

In order to properly flush the car needs to be put into "Rodeo mode" in order for any/all contaminated particals in the ABC fluid to be lifted into suspension so they will be flushed out (search youtube to see examples of this procedure)

The attached picture has my grandson in the SL55 - P30 (a computer science student) who loves to come down drive my cars and get educated in all the features of what the Star diagnostic does for these cars (he just got to see his first MB rodeo this week)

Enjoy your car,

Best H

cdk4219

Yea the fluid needs to be changed very frequently. It is a marginal system at best, and with contaminated/ old heated fluid, destined to fail sooner than later. The best maintenance for this system is frequent fluid changes. The worst is to rely on the dealer saying it’s fine. No hydraulic pump in this world likes to deal with dirty burned fluid, and the ABC system has no tolerance for any of this to begin with.

I switched to redline power steering fluid snd did a 2 gallon or so complete flush. This has since fixed the car off corner drop( which had been getting worse) and the car running in park raising up. The ride seems a bit better now too.

I am not a great fan of chf11s , and decided to take the plunge and try the redline product. I had been previously changing the reservoir for the ABC with fresh chf every oil change at 4000 miles. When the dipstick would come out and was wiped on a white rag, it looked green, but when I sucked the contents of the reservoir out, it was very dark.

Clean fluid for this system isn’t going to hurt anything, but dirty fluid will kill it quickly.

poppyboy

Change the ABC fluid and filter every 40k miles or sooner. Why anyone uses stealerships for anything beyond warranty or recall work is beyond me. If you can’t/won’t DIY, find a local competent independent mechanic to do honest and reasonably-priced work.
BTW, don’t use anything other than CHF 11S.