Engine Oils; Brake Fluid; Premium Unleaded Gasoline; Fuel Requirements - Mercedes-Benz 300 SE 1989 Owner's Manual

Engine Oils

Engine oils are specifically tested fo r
their suitability in our engines. There­
fore, use only engine oils recom ­
mended by MERCEDES-BENZ. Infor­
mation on recom m ended brands is
available at your authorized
MERCEDES-BENZ dealer.

Brake Fluid

During vehicle operation, the boiling
point of the brake fluid is continuously
reduced through the absorption of
moisture from the atm osphere. Under
extrem ely hard operating conditions,
this moisture content can lead to the
form ation of bubbles in the system
thus reducing the system 's efficiency.
The brake fluid m ust therefore be
replaced annually, preferably in the
spring.
It is recom m ended to use only brake
fluid approved by MERCEDES-BENZ.
Your authorized MERCEDES-BENZ
dealer will provide you w ith additional
information.
102

Premium Unleaded Gasoline

Caution!
To maintain the engines durability and
performance, premium unleaded
gasoline m ust be used. If premium
unleaded is not available and low
octane fuel is used, follow these pre­
cautions:
• have the fuel tank filled only par­
tially with unleaded regular and fill
up w ith prem ium unleaded as
soon as possible,
• avoid full th ro ttle driving and
abrupt acceleration,
• do not exceed an engine speed of
3000 rpm, if the vehicle is loaded
with a light load such as tw o per­
sons and no luggage,
• do not exceed of maximum
2/ 3
accelerator pedal position, if the
vehicle is fully loaded or operating
in m ountainous terrain.

Fuel Requirements

Use only Premium unleaded meeting
ASTM standard D 439:
The octane num ber (posted at the
pump) m ust be 91 min. It is an aver­
age of both, the Research (R) octane
num ber and the M otor (M) octane
number: [(R + M )/2]. This is also
known as ANTI-KNOCK INDEX.
Unleaded gasoline containing oxy­
genates such as Ethanol, MTBE, IPA,
IBA and TBA can be used provided
the ratio of any one of these oxygen­
ates to gasoline does not exceed
10%.
The ratio of Methanol to gasoline
m ust not exceed 3 % plus additional
cosolvents.
Using m ixtures of Ethanol and Metha­
nol is not allowed. MTBE may, how­
ever, be added up to 15%. Gasohol,
which contains 10% Ethanol and 90%
unleaded gasoline, can be used.
These blends m ust also meet all other
fuel requirem ents such as resistance
to spark knock, boiling range, vapor
pressure, etc..