Power steering fluid

[Idrivefokused]

Dumb question: Does it matter which brand of power steering fluid goes in the SVT?

[FORDSVTPARTS]

The SVT owners manual specifies Mercon ATF.

[the machinist]

If you track your car it is highly recommended that you use a good synthetic fluid like the Redline full synthetic power steering fluid. If not, like mentioned above Mercon for ATF is fine. You will need two quarts, one to flush out the old one and one to fill up.

[blackbird]

When the dealer body shop was putting a new bumper cover on my car and replacing the power steering cooler that had got bent they used a regular power steering fluid in the car. When I picked it up it had essentially lost power steering assist and after talking with one of their techs in the service department he thought the bypass valve in the rack apparently got stuck. So yes, the proper fluid is important. A few flushes and some time later mine was back to normal. The synthetic Ford Mercon should work fine but if you're looking at other fluid I'd make sure they meet the same specifications. Quite a few people have used the Redline fluid already mentioned for quite some time without any issues, but I wouldn't just be dumping random fluids in the car.

[carlingskie]

+1 on blackbird's post

[Idrivefokused]

Awesome, thank you guys for the feed back!

[SVTADAM]

I recently purchased a SVTF that the previous owner used regular power steering fluid instead of the Mercon ATF. Looked like chocolate pudding when I swapped the fluid.

[TennTechMan]

Any suggestions on where to buy the redline stuff?

[SVTADAM]

Summit sells it. You can also do a google search. Other than that, it can never hurt to try a sponsor!

[blackbird]

Here's a few pictures and description of how I went about flushing the fluid in my car.

1.) Loosen the coolant overflow bottle attachment fittings. This is done so that you can gain access to the power steering return line.


^- ~10mm bolt to the side below the coolant lines and hood prop rod holder.


^- Clip on back side near strut tower. Use flat screwdriver to carefully pry plastic tab out while pulling up on bottle.


2.) Loosen the power steering fluid reservoir bottle from the bracket. Do this by lifting straight up on the bottle. It is retained by an interference fitting with the rubber grommets. Leave it sitting near stock location with cap on. The two hoses should keep it from moving around and with the lid on won't leak anywhere even if you tilt it onto its side.




3.) As shown in above picture with it already removed, the lower hose on the bottom of the reservoir is the return line (the larger hose that's near the bottom of the side of the bottle is the feed line to the pump). Remove the return line and place it into a container such as an empty gallon milk jug. Then place a cap over the fitting on the reservoir. I used a large 1/2" vacuum line cap (which is available at most auto part stores in the vacuum fitting section) then place a small hose clamp over it. You might be able to get away without using a clamp, but since even the largest vacuum cap I could find was still a little on the small side I went ahead and used one since it kept wanting to slip off. Better safe than sorry. After doing this place the reservoir back into the retaining bracket.


^- Closeup of the vacuum nipple/cap over the return fitting with the hose clamp in place.


4.) With the coolant overflow bottle loosened, move the return line and bottle to a stable location where it can't tip over. With the engine cold I placed it on the heat shield over the exhaust manifold between the cylinder head and the radiator support.







What you've done up to this point is move the fluid return line from the bottom of the reservoir into a capture bottle while leaving the feed line that provides fluid to the power steering pump in place. Remove the cap to the reservoir and fill it up close to the top.

The next step is to crank the car without it starting which will draw fluid into the power steering pump, through the system, and pump it out into the jug vice back into the reservoir like it normally would. You don't want the car to start or it will pump the system dry in short order. What I did was push and hold the accelerator pedal all the way to the floor. This tells the computer you flooded the car with fuel and it won't fire the injectors. (As a side note I also do this after doing an oil change to refill the empty oil filter and prime the system prior to firing it up the first time.) You could also remove the fuse for the ignition or fuel pump but this is an easy way that works great for cranking but keeps the engine from starting.

Crank for just a couple seconds and check the reservoir level to see how much fluid it pumped out. Depending on factors like battery charge, outside temp, etc., it will probably be around a couple seconds before you have to stop and refill. On my car I was doing this by myself and found I needed to fill it up after one or two "one-thousand one, one-thousand two" counts. If you have two people and one can watch the underhood area it would help speed up the process. After refilling the reservoir I'd let it sit for a moment so air bubbles in the fluid could purge out.

I had to put about five quarts of fluid through the system to flush all the dark nasty stuff out. Also while cranking the engine I found that if you turned the steering wheel one full turn left, stopped to refill, then on the next crank turn it fully to the right, stop to refill, then repeat a couple times helped to clean out the rack faster.


A couple last words of caution. The biggest thing to watch for is spilling fluid while taking the return line off and capping the reservoir. It sits right over the alternator and you don't want it spilling onto that and getting inside alternator the housing or all over the belt. You'll probably want to put a trash bag or something down to catch anything that leaks but be sure to remove it prior to cranking so that it doesn't get caught up in the belt. For me I pulled off the return line, immediately placed my thumb over the fitting so the reservoir wouldn't spill out while at the same time holding the return line hose up until I could get it into the jug. Once that was done I quickly capped the reservoir and then moved the jug and return line up to the front of the car where it couldn't tip over.

While first trying to move the steering wheel while cranking the engine over I ended up emptying the reservoir. You probably don't want to do this as it can cause air to get ingested into the system. Not a good idea to do often but after filling up and repeating a couple times didn't seem to cause any issues.

My power steering reservoir was also pretty nasty on the inside so I decided to pull it off and clean it. Parts cleaner, degreasing agents/detergents, you name it and it didn't work. I ended up using some parts cleaner soaked paper towels I placed into the reservoir and then moved around with a long screwdriver. Be careful of the screen at the bottom that the return line pushes fluid through. I'm guessing it's to trap debris from getting into the power steering pump and may also help deaerate the fluid. If mine had been much dirtier I might have just ordered a new reservoir.


When finished, reattach the return line onto the reservoir then reseat it onto the bracket and reattach the coolant overflow/purge bottle. Before removing the line at the start of these procedures you might want to make note how the line lays out going from the pump area to the reservoir.

There are other flushing tools on the market but this worked really well for me. Being careful and not having to stop to go get more fluid I probably could have done the whole thing in around twenty minutes start to finish.