I have a 2000 D2 non-ACE and I replaced the power steering pump with a new OEM pump because the bearings were worn out after 180k miles. I refilled it with the recommended Pentosin CHF202 and bled it extensively. Now with the new pump its quiet but it steers very hard at low speed. The old pump had red fluid in it. I assume it was ATF. I decided to use the recommended CHF and it steers much worse now. Is it possible that ATF would be better since it appears thicker and might give more pressure? I know the cold climate stuff that LR recommends is better for ACE vehicles because the piping and valveblock are outside the engine bay and therefore exposed to colder temps all the time. Thats not an issue for me so Im thinking of trying ATF again see if it makes a difference. Thoughts?

 

CHF was the right choice. For what it's worth, welcome to the season of crappy OEM parts. I had to replace THREE new power steering pumps, all OEM, before finding one that was OK. It's still a little whiny, but I'll take a slight whine over hard steering. The other bad, new pumps were either absolute howlers, or would make steering super laborious at low speed. I remember the first replacement pump nearly left me stranded in a parking lot. Order a new pump and return that bad one.

 

I hope OP sorted his problem in meantime. I opted for CH11s a month ago and it works great, better than the Royal Purple PS fluid is used before. There is some whining at the steering limits, but this is something you will likely never get away with on a D2. I replaced the PS pump with one from AB 5 years ago, because it had failed, BTW.

CHF202 is only slightly different than CH11s and said to be backward compatible to CHF11s.

 

Whining at the steering limits is common to many vehicles.