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A MUST MAINTENENCE ITEM: Power Steering fluid flush

36K views 125 replies 47 participants last post by  Kauai Guy 
#1 · (Edited)
A MUST MAINTENANCE ITEM: Power Steering fluid flush

I just did mine, in prep for an HPDE at Road Atlanta. I hate to admit it, being a gear head and all, but I've never changed PS fluid in my cars before, and never had a problem. BUT, the chocolate goop that I just flushed (appropriate term!) out of my SVTF was scary! My car has 59k well maintained miles (er, except for the PS fluid!). After 59k street miles (zero racing), the PS fluid was literally, no exaggeration, chocolate syrup.

I am going to run this new Red Line fluid for a while and then flush it again with more Red Line. It only took an hour, and next time prolly 20 minutes, and takes about 2 quarts. Very easy, don't put it off. You can do it all from the reservoir.

If you have a battery charger, hook it up - it will take some of the load off the battery when doing this: Pop the coolant tank out of the way (leave hoses attached), pull the PS reservoir out of the slots (no screws, just rubber grommets) and dump the reservoir fluid in a milk jug. Pull the small return hose and plug the reservoir barb, attach extension hose to the return hose, drop that in the milk jug. Fill the reservoir with new fluid, pull the electrical harness from the ignitor/distributor thingy, and crank the engine for about 5 seconds while turning the wheel. Fill the reservoir and crank again. Repeat the "crank, turn and fill" until the fluid going to the jug is clear and clean - should take a over a quart. On the last crank leave the reservoir barely empty. Put the return hose back on, replace the reservoir, fill it, and replace the coolant tank. Plug the ignitor back in and run the car, turning the wheel. Check the PS fluid level and top it off if ness. DONE!

DO IT!!!!!!
 
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#4 ·
COSVT03 said:
I must say. I like your write up. Not bad.

Im just wondering if you have pictures?
Yeah, I stood there and thought about it, but I don't have a way to host pics so I couldn't post them anyway. Really tho, the only engineering was the hose extension to get it to the jug. Can you say DUCT TAPE?????
 
#5 ·
SVTFocus101 said:
Okay I'm going to do this today, however, in your write up you say dump it into a milk jug. I do not have one. What do I do.
Hmmmm...... I guess you'll have to go to Publix or Kroger and get a gallon. The real problem comes next - skim or 2%? Or better yet, I recommend getting the chocolate milk - that way the jug won't change color when you dump the fluid in!!!!!
 
#6 ·
The question is, can he drink the gallon of milk in under an hour and hold it in? :lol:

Any old drain pan works. When we flushed my PS system, we used a plastic bucket, and pulled the hose off of the nozzle on the PS pump, then ran the car for a few seconds to get every last drop out. Messy, but effective. A little PS fluid here and there never hurt anything.
 
#7 ·
supersonicsvt said:
Hmmmm...... I guess you'll have to go to Publix or Kroger and get a gallon. The real problem comes next - skim or 2%? Or better yet, I recommend getting the chocolate milk - that way the jug won't change color when you dump the fluid in!!!!!
HAHAHA IT was a joke LOL I am sure I could find something to put it into
 
#8 ·
I do my PS fluid every year (that's with about 36,000 miles of driving). I've heard of racks leaking, and I often wonder whether people who haven't flushed the fluid have inadvertently caused premature failure of the rack.

In any case, the $50 or whatever money you spend is good insurance than spending a few $hundred on a new rack/system.
 
#10 ·
thefrush said:
The question is, can he drink the gallon of milk in under an hour and hold it in? :lol:

Any old drain pan works. When we flushed my PS system, we used a plastic bucket, and pulled the hose off of the nozzle on the PS pump, then ran the car for a few seconds to get every last drop out. Messy, but effective. A little PS fluid here and there never hurt anything.
No, no, no. Pull the excitor wire. No need to run the pump at engine speed and make a mess. The idea is to have everything dry in your engine bay so you'll know when you have a real leak.
 
#12 ·
I've been changing mine the "slow" way. I drive it to work and back and I use a turkey baster to remove all of the fluid from the reservoir and I refill with fresh fluid...I don't think anyone pointed out that the SVT used ATF in the PS and not PS fluid. My fluid was also chocolate colored and thick and after going through this process with 2 quarts of fluid it is almost completely changed out. Yes this process does take longer and uses more fluid but it is not messy at all.

Gary
 
#84 ·
I've been changing mine the "slow" way. I drive it to work and back and I use a turkey baster to remove all of the fluid from the reservoir and I refill with fresh fluid...I don't think anyone pointed out that the SVT used ATF in the PS and not PS fluid. My fluid was also chocolate colored and thick and after going through this process with 2 quarts of fluid it is almost completely changed out. Yes this process does take longer and uses more fluid but it is not messy at all.

Gary

I've been using this method over the past couple of days and I must say it sure beats possibly spilling ATF everywhere. (I'm a little uncordinated sometimes)

I couldn't find the Motorcraft ATF (anywhere) so I substituted for the Castrol Mercon V ATF that is approved by Ford according to Castrol.

(http://www.castrol.com/castrol/sectiongenericarticle.do?categoryId=82915490&contentId=7028223)

Is this a good substitute? I don't do track days, nor do I beat on the car as it is my DD. I really hate not using Motorcraft products, I even go out of my way to make sure I get a Motorcraft filter for oil changes. The Castrol fluid seems to be a rich red in color which I am hoping is similar to the Motorcraft product. The reason for the flush is I was hearing a slight whine from the PS pump every now and then so I thought fresh fluid couldn't hurt. Out of the turkey baster now seems to be very clean fluid coming out. Just want to make sure I don't cause any problems here. Any insight would be appreicated.
 
#13 ·
I was todl to use red line ps fluid not atf fluid
 
#14 ·
^^I can't speak about Redline, but I can tell you that Valvoline Synth PS is not the way to go. Within a couple of days there was a squeeking during any steering load. It feel like rubbing a wet finger on glass sort of. A week later I changed the fluid out and filled with Amsoil ATF that I had in the garage. It took a couple of days to return to normal; no more squeek.

FWIW, I've never read of anyone complaining about Redline PS though.
 
#16 ·
I have not done it to my SVT yet, but on my ZX3, I used Mobil 1 synthetic ATF fluid with no problems. I put about 60,000 miles on the car with the Mobil 1, and changed it once at 90,000 miles. This fall I will change the power steering fluid on my SVT.

Thanks for the reminder!
 
#18 ·
I got the idea from someone else on the forums. You're slowly diluting the old fluid with new fluid. I've read of people doing something similar with their automatic trans...drain and refill repeatedly to get a complete change (to account for what stays in the torque convertor).
 
#19 ·
ZX5GO said:
I got the idea from someone else on the forums. You're slowly diluting the old fluid with new fluid. I've read of people doing something similar with their automatic trans...drain and refill repeatedly to get a complete change (to account for what stays in the torque convertor).
A "transfusion" is the technical term you're looking for.

In pulling my motor, I pulled the PS pump out of the way (disconnected) and I lost a lot of fluid... So I'll add fluid and crank with out the coil pack plugged in. I'm going to use all Royal purple fluids with my new motor.

..and yes, ATF for the trans...ATF and PS Fluid is a bad bad mix! I'm pretty sure it gums up almost instantly.
 
#21 ·
Is Redline PS fluid available in local stores?
 
#24 ·
I took the power steering resivour and took off the return line and put a hose barb on the end and had it pump into a drum i keep for oil. And then filled the P/S resivour with a milk jug (redline P/S bottles don't pour quick enough) and then flushed the system while I had someone move the tires back and forth.


Jakub











 
#25 ·
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