michiganstar
Senior Member
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2014
- Messages
- 111
- Reaction score
- 3
- Your Mercedes
- R230 SL500, R171 SLK300
I recently had a leak from the front valve block - failed washer replaced with a copper one. I noticed then that the ABC was quite black and smelt a bit burnt and certainly not sweet smelling like the new oil.
At that time I knew it was time to change the fluid - the car has barely ticked past 60k for reference.
Fast forward to today and armed with 8 litres of CHF11S and a new filter I did the oil change. What ended up in the bucket from the existing oil was black as anything and in my view desperately in need of a change.
There is no perceptible difference to doing this but I look at this as a similar job as changing the gearbox oil - it may be OK for the life of the car but all the failures seem to point to that not being the case so my advice is to change it. If you'd seen what came out then you certainly wouldn't have put it back in.
At that time I knew it was time to change the fluid - the car has barely ticked past 60k for reference.
Fast forward to today and armed with 8 litres of CHF11S and a new filter I did the oil change. What ended up in the bucket from the existing oil was black as anything and in my view desperately in need of a change.
There is no perceptible difference to doing this but I look at this as a similar job as changing the gearbox oil - it may be OK for the life of the car but all the failures seem to point to that not being the case so my advice is to change it. If you'd seen what came out then you certainly wouldn't have put it back in.