After seeing this thread the other day, I realized that I have had 4 qts. of new ATF in a cabinet in my garage gathering dust for years. Since I am down to a couple of gals. of fuel in the tank, I decided this morning to pour the ATF in and see what happens. The old girl runs smooth as silk and noticeably quieter than it did on diesel alone. I am very impressed. 30% ATF works great!

RayG

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1985 300SD, 203,000 miles, dark blue

Lil Sarah says: "Poor old Grandma Blue Car...She's sad."

I was calling around yesterday looking for some more 55 gal drums, and happen to ask the local Cat dealer (shop mechanic) about getting some of their used fluids...oil, tranny, what have you. Anyway, I told him that I wanted to run a blen of trans. fluid with my diesel/bio....The mechanic there said that while yes it is alright to throw in a little now and again for an injector cleaner, he advised not using it in any large quantities saying that I would have trouble with my injectors at some point if I did. And they recently converted their shop over to burn oil/ trans. fluid to heat the shop, so they no longer dispose of their used fluids like they used to. I hear everyone on the forum banging the burn tranny fluid drum, and then my local Cat mech. says that I might not want to do it...? We talked for over 15 min. and he did not seem to be a mis-informed type. So what gives???
Tony

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83 300 D Turbo 330k mi.
83 Honda GL-650 Silverwing 40k mi.
81 Rabbit Diesel Pickup 170k mi.

What gives is that even the people who seem to be very well informed on certain issues may still be wrong on specific aspects of those issues. For instance, I've had well reputated mechanics who have worked on MBs for over 30 years disagree with many of the ideas that are generally well accepted here. The thing is, no one knows these beasts (MBs, diesels, etc) as well as the combined know how of this forum. Yes, I can proudly say that. The people here live and breath these cars day in day out. Those "informed mechanics" don't.

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1999 Mercedes-Benz S600, 103K miles - garage queen
1988 Mercedes-Benz 560SEL, 89K miles - daily driver
2007 Hyundai Sonata Limited, 31K - daily driver

Amen.
Now pass the ATF, SVO and diesel, my car is hungry.

Hi, I tried to use used oil from my work(mechanic), this is a mix of motor oil, gear oil, ATF, rear/front-axle oil, brake fluid and coolant, not so much of the two last.
The car started easy but much smell/smoke when cold, I noticed increased power after a while, then it stopped, and I had to wait 5-10 minuts before start, more and more often.
Drove to my work and drained the fuel tank, cleaned the filter in the tank and the pre-filter, changed main-filter and filled it with engine oil, filled up with diesel oil, started the car, no more trouble after that.

This was on a 300 TDT 1983 with OM617Aengine.
With some cleaning and no coolant I think i could drive on it without problems(maybe coldstart, its -25 degrees Celcius here now).

It will burn good.I never go above 50% in the summer,with line heaters on.
However waste atf,and waste engine oil, has some nasty stuff in it for people behind you.
So I'm back burning wvo, and using waste engine, and trans oil for my oil burner furnace.
Got bad neighbors hehe.

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1999 w140, quit voting to old, and to old to fight, a god damned veteran

I don't use it, but found this information regarding the matter......


http://dieselpower.automotive.com/98518/0901dp-automatic-transmission-fluid-fuel/index.html

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96 E300d

How do u keep injectors from coking over solid in less than 20K miles?

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2004 Infiniti G35 3.5L 6mt Coupe 73K miles 25.6mpg ytd
2001 Green Audi TT 225 AWD Roadster 71K 6sp 30.9mpg >>STOLEN<<
1982 300D Turbo 231K 120hp? 28.1mpg YTD

In our boats we never dilute the fuel more than 5%. That is five gallons of used oil or tranny fluid to one hundred gallons of clean diesel.

I don't think ATF belongs in any engine! Even when new it has chemicals in it called friction modifiers to allow the clutches and bands to grip better than they do with just oil.
That does not sound like something i want to subject my $$ injection Pump $$ to.
I am not a lubricant chemist but it makes no sense at all to me that ATF would have anywhere near as much detergent in it as regular motor oil as in the trans it has no combustion products to deal with or soot or much of any contaminants other than the wear residue from the friction materials.
Personally i think the idea of it cleaning injectors etc is an old urban legend that refuses to die.
Many oils that can be run Through the engine will quiet it down, not because it is better for the engine but simply that it has a different burn rate.
You could run bio-diesel that was contaminated with microscopic metal particles
and it would run nice and quiet while being destroyed.

Don

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Red Green "This is only temporary,Unless it works!"

97 E300D 157000 miles
87 300TD ?141k? miles

I add a bit of NEW ATF to my ULSD diesel fuel.
I recommend you do a web search for "USED ATF abrasives" before adding it to fuel.

The 617 favors it more then the 603 does. no more used ATF for my 603. a friend at work runs 100% of the used ATF on a 500K+ 617. last 100,000 have been on ATF.

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1980 500SE/AMG Euro
1981 500SEL Euro
1982 380SEL
1983 300TD
1983 500SEC/AMG Euro
1984 500SEC
1984 300TD Euro
1986 190E 2.3-16
1986 190E 2.3
1987 300D
1997 C36 AMG
2003 C320T 4matic

past: 1969 280SE 4.5 | 1978 240D | 1978 300D | 1981 300SD | 1981 300SD | 1982 300CD | 1983 300CD | 1983 300SD | 1983 380SEC | 1984 300D | 1984 300D | 1984 300TD | 1984 500SEL | 1984 300SD | 1985 300D | 1986 300E | 1986 560SEL | 1986 560SEL/Carat | 1987 560SEC | 1991 300D 2.5 | 2006 R350

About the only Straight petroleum product I find sensible as an additive is
Synthetic TCW3 (Two Stroke) oil ,Which is designed to be burned in an
internal combustion engine.( A little Dab [Pint in a 13 Gal. tank] 'll do Ya.)

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'84 300SD sold
124.128

An interesting discussion. One of the local transmission overhaulers, to whom I have given some business over the years, says that I can have as much as I want from his dump barrel, he has to pay to have it hauled away. Since all he does is transmissions, it ought to be relatively clean unless someone has had a severe leak of green coolant into the transmission cooler. I do need to find out what kind of cleaning solution they use in their parts cleaner and if it goes into the same barrel.

I need to figure out how much I'll have to spend on pumps, containers, and filters. If I were to filter the used ATF and mix it 50-50 with B20, I could save a maximum of $600 per year at current prices (we don't drive a lot). As the price of fuel goes up, it becomes more cost-effective, of course.

Then there's the question of whether I should send the state and the fed a few bucks now and again as road tax or whether that will just alert someone that I'm doing something that they might want to find wrong. Question: does California's waste-oil hauling permit requirements apply to hauling used ATF? I know that it has been applied to discourage biodieselers and WVO'ers but don't know if it is broadly written.

Lastly, I've never been 'dipped' to see if I am illegally using off-road (dyed) diesel. Since ATF is pink, will a 50-50 mix with regular diesel look like dyed diesel?

Jeremy

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"Buster" in the '95

Our all-Diesel family
1996 E300D (W210) . .338,000 miles Wife's car
2005 E320 CDI . . 113,000 miles My car
Santa Rosa population 176,762 (2022)
Total. . . . . . . . . . . . 627,762
"Oh lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz."
-- Janis Joplin, October 1, 1970

You might as well move from the Commie State.I left in 83.

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1999 w140, quit voting to old, and to old to fight, a god damned veteran