How to Check Power Steering Fluid

Video Transcript

"I'm Dave Erb from Dave's Ultimate Automotive in Austin, Texas and we are talking about checking the power steering fluid. The power steering fluid is the hydraulic fluid that helps drive the steering system and helps it make it easier for you to steer the car. This is accomplished with a pump and either a rack and pinion or some sort of sector gear that does the brunt of the work. When we are checking the fluid it is usually either in a reservoir on the pump or an isolated reservoir off the pump. In this case we have an isolated reservoir off the pump. What you are looking for is some sort of insignia that will tell you that this is a power steering fluid and in most cases there will be a picture of a steering wheel or it will say power steering fluid on it. Some have a dipstick that you would pull out and check the level of the dipstick. This one has the reservoir with a minimum and maximum. You just want to pull the lid, look down inside and make sure it is between the minimum and maximum level. Also you want to get some on your finger or check the color and what you are looking for is a red tint, clear, type fluid. It doesn't look dark or dirty in any way. The useful life of power steering fluid is about 30,000 miles. You want to have that flushed and changed at about that point. Because of the small bits of material that do come apart in the system will gather in the fluid, the fluid breaks down over time, it does absorb a little bit of moisture and those things can all advance the deterioration of the power steering rack and pinion and the pump. If you flush the fluid every 30,000 miles you can greatly extend the life of these components and if it does get low or you have to add fluid that would indicate a leak. That's not something that would naturally get low. So checking your fluids every oil change is a good time for you to check this fluid and once again get it changed every 30,000 miles. That's checking the power steering fluid."