so i renewed the p/s fluid and filter yesterday. thank you everyone for your input. here are a couple a things i did that seemed to work well for me.

1. disconnect the MAS unit (from 10/89 the MAS unit houses the fuel pump relay). this afforded me the ability to have my helper crank the engine without starting. i chose the MAS unit because its right there behind the secondary firewall, and takes 2 seconds to pull.

2. given that there is not a lot of room in the engine bay for a coffee can or other device, i used two heavy duty freezer bags. one inside the other for extra strength. i sent 1 qt at a time thru the system and the bags were more than strong enough for this application. the fact that they were malleable made the job really easy. i just zipped up the return line in the bag, held it with one hand, and with the other, poured in the new p/s fluid. no fuss.

3. i ran 3 qts thru the system. after the requisite 2, there was still a significant amount of contamination. after the third qt, its was much better.

thanks again for the help, hopefully my experience will help others in the future as well!

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Jonathan
1998 S600
2001 E430
1994 E320
1991 560SEL
1994 Turbo R

Nice work! How has it affected the steering of your car??? Or is this more of preventive maintenance ?

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2006 BMW M5 "Heidi" @ 109,000 miles
2005 MBZ C55 AMG "Lorelai" @ 165,000 miles
1991 MBZ 300E "Benzachino II" @ 165,000 miles
1990 MBZ 500SL "Shoshanna" @ 118,000 miles

(On the hunt for a good used M103 engine as of 6/10/23, PM me if you have one to sell!)

without the dirt in the fluid, feel has definitely increased and it requires a little less effort to steer. the differences are relatively small however. preventative maintenance was really the MO behind it.

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Jonathan
1998 S600
2001 E430
1994 E320
1991 560SEL
1994 Turbo R

I think that most drivers must have more sensitivity in feeling the steering wheel than myself. I have flushed some p/s systems that were really nasty and neglected and could still not feel any difference. It is a necessary preventive maintenance procedure however.

The bag method sounds fine, but I've never had any trouble at all by simply dropping the return line down into a regular drain pan. Have never had a mess to clean up when doing this. Maybe a very slight bit of spatter, but as long as the hose lays down in the bottom of the pan it is no problem.

Glad you got it done. It is a necessary PM step IMHO.

Have a great day,