Does the E53 take any special kind of Power Steering fluid?
 

I can not find a exact call out on the PS fluid. Does it matter what I get? I am assuming standard Dexron III is fine?

I used Mobil 1 Synthetic ATF on mine. As long as your cap says "ATF only" on it you are fine with standard ATF (although i prefer synthetic). The 4.8's I believe use a different fluid, CH-11S if i recall, but its clearly marked on the cap.

I use Dexron III

@Ricky, mine says ATF, so im assuming all other 4.8is 04-06 is same.

Weird, I am certain that there are some 4.8iS that use CH-11S (SlickGT1, maybe PropellerHead) because we had this discussion a while back and someone said "just use ATF" and then a 4.8 guy posted that his cap said differently.

I guess the general consensus is just use what it says on your fill cap haha!

I swapped Redline Syn ATF into mine.

Used a turkey baster.

That is not just the general consensus, that is the exact correct approach. Some 4.8 models, and some other models (including 3.0) have the Pentosin CHf-11s fluid. If they do, the PS reservoir cap is so labelled. And it isn't an upgrade to go to the Pentosin fluid if you have ATF in there now, as the two don't mix.

Nice call JCL,

Had a guy the other day at the bank who had a 02 E53 3.0 and his indy swore up and down Pentosin CHF-11 was an "Upgrade" needless to say he has a whine and the steering has been dodgy since.

Some 4.8is's call for CHF-11 Ex. SlickGT1 has an '06 4.8is that calls for CHF-11, mine is a '04 and calls for standard ATF. Its all different.

Now time to do a search on the differences between the two and why the switch up.

The CHF-11s is a synthetic, unlike ATF, so I suspect people are seduced by that word and relate it to quality, thus terming it an upgrade.

The viscosity is different, particularly at cold temperatures. So I could see BMW might have used it to address a specific issue related to cold, or one related to a noise in the pump related to production tolerances with a batch of pumps.

There is at least one post on here with a 3.0 labelled with Pentosin CHF-11s on the reservoir, so it wasn't just 4.8 models. Killcrap made reference once to the fluid being changed, so it may have been a campaign and some vehicles were impacted over a specific serial number range.

All that matters is that people don't mix them. Nothing wrong with the fluid that came in the vehicle, whatever spec it was.

Yes, some form of ATF for the E53. I use Redline (did a flush when I changed a leaking line).