Repair-It

Yes though their ATF says "Mercedes Benz 236.12, 236.14, 236.15, 236.41"

And ZF.

Viscosity @ 40°C, cSt ASTM D445 29.3

That's thick/normal. 236.15 and 236.17 are considerably thinner. What was it, like 18? 17.5?

I am definitely interested in an engineering response. I am NOT interested in a marketing response. Again, on the spec debate, another thought is, if Honda and the other applications (like ATF+4, DEXRON VI and MERCON V) are less happy with Maxlife, does that mean the other transmissions are fine wit...

Yeah if you want to get involved with all that. But this would cross way behind you just trying to more conveniently maintain your vehicles. I did think of that though.

https://www.transmissiondigest.com/8l90-the-other-8-speed-automatic-general-motors-very-own-production-transmission/ When GM developed the 6L80/6L90 transmission series, they were loosely based upon the ZF 6HP family of transmissions. The 8L90 also has a ZF thumbprint on it, though somewhat less tha...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZF_8HP_transmission Related GM 8L transmission Hmm. I tried looking into this a year ago and never got to the bottom of it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GM_8L_transmission Both gearboxes are based on the layout of the ZF 8HP transmission from 2008, with the only differ...

Side note (new post): this transmission is way older than I realized. Well, "way" is a relative term. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes-Benz_9G-Tronic_transmission But this claims 2013 production and then initially being offered in the 2014 E350 Bluetec (diesel). It's not clear if thi...

I really wish there was a way to know which fluid will help the Benz transmission live the longest, whether there is a viscosity difference or not. Agreed - but all we can really do from here is compare specs and make an engineering assessment. Anecdotally (I haven't done any research), I believe D...

I did see the possibility on FCP Euro that you can use the 236.17 (gold/yellow) in 236.15 applications which tells me they are equally thin. https://www.fcpeuro.com/blog/mercedes-benz-722.9-transmission-service-modifications On the 7G-TRONIC PLUS transmissions, we recommend running the latest versi...

236.15: A89 update for the FE spec, thinner fluid. They didn't just change the fluid - they changed the pans, filters, possibly frictions (looking for proof though), and added the A89 coding to the datacard. We can see how much thinner it is. This would cover all 7-speed applications from 2010 or 2...

That viscosity is WAY thinner for the FE fluid, and Maxlife magically claims they can handle both applications with a single fluid. I believe 236.17 has a similar viscosity to the 236.15 update. However, Mercedes (and the aftermarket fluids that target these specs) say you CANNOT interchange 236.14...