[Cloud9...68]

I've noticed my car's steering was starting to make a horrible screeching sound when I got close to the limits of its travel, so I thought, "Great, time for a new power steering pump." So I went ahead and flushed and refilled the power steering fluid (actually Dextron III ATF), and the noise is gone! I had been planning to do this for over a year, but never got around to it. So, while I'm glad it seems to have "cured" my problem, I'm assuming my power steering pump is on borrowed time. I should have done this five years ago when I bought the car, and I would strongly urge everybody with over about 80,000 miles to do it, too. I plan to do it to all our other cars as well.

It's very easy. Just take a turkey baster or a suction pump (I used the latter) and suck out as much of the fluid from the reservoir as you can. Refill the reservoir with new ATF, start the car, and turn the wheel to the right and left about ten times. Then repeat the process several times. I started to notice the noise diminishing after the third flush, and it was completely gone after the fourth, so I did it a fifth cycle for good measure. I have no idea how many times you need to go through the procedure to get most of the old fluid out, but ATF is cheap ($3.99 a quart of Valvoline at OReilly's), so five times seems like a reasonable number. Given that mine was already starting to make noise, I plan to do this periodically, like maybe once a year (assuming my pump lasts that long), to help keep my pump alive as long as possible.

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[Scott Collins]

Great reminder. I will do mine this weekend. Thanks!

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[flash]

ya know, people generally never think about the power steering, but that fluid gets pretty hot - it's just trannie fluid after all, and you're supposed to change the fluid in a trannie every so often

so, it makes sense to have to change the power steering fluid

good call

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[rxter]

Does the fluid pick up H2O like brake fluid? Should we change it out every few years? No one has ever included this in any scheduled maintenance as far as I can recall - on this car or any other. I wonder why??

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[caffine]

Regarding the 968, had I not been forced to replace a broken hose a 1000 miles ago I'd be doing this now. Agree that all fluids should be changed at some time interval.

On my BMW I usually get my parts from bavauto.com and several years ago now. 10 years I think, they posted their suggested fluid & filter replacement schedule. Of course, they listed power steering fluid & filter being replaced at regular intervals. My local BMW Dealer at the time did the work for me including replacing the filter which was buried inside the fluid well on my older model.

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[flash]

it's not hygroscopic, but it does break down with heat like any other oil, making it less than optimal - i've also never seen any scheduled maintenance on this, but given that they went to the trouble of adding a cooling coil for the power steering, i'm concluding that it therefore gets hot, and therefore needs to be changed at some point due to breakdown

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[Cloud9...68]

"ya know, people generally never think about the power steering, but that fluid gets pretty hot - it's just trannie fluid after all, and you're supposed to change the fluid in a trannie every so often"

Yes, they syphon was getting noticeably warm as it filled up with the fluid I was draining out of the reservoir after I had cycled it.

I changed the fluid and the reservoir, which containted a filter, on our Chrysler minivan, and it made a HUGE difference in the sound and feel of that car's steering. I did the procedure on my daughter's 04 BMW 325i last night, as a preventative before symptoms appear, and will do the same for our 03 X5. When you have a stable of old cars, this kind of maintenance really helps avoid major headaches down the road.

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[mrmister]

My car was fitted with an automatic drip drain system and I just top it up with about a quart per month. The only drawback is all of the fluid on my garage floor!

[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.gif[/img]

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[Cloud9...68]

I've had cars fitted with this fine option for the engine oil...

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[968rz]

Not to high jack but as long as we're on the subject of PS; what have those that have had to replace the rubber hose to the reservoir used?
When I did my head gasket I just cut the hoses off as they were leaking a bit (like they all do) and really don't want to replace both complete lines. Problem is the hoses are 1/2"x1/2" and 5/8"x1/2" (approx) and I can't find rubber trans line that big.

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