Replacing Power-Steering Fluid

Video Transcript

"How to flush a power steering system. Normal maintenance usually does not include power steering fluid, but on occasion, if you have an older vehicle or if you suspect that your power steering fluid has become contaminated, it's not a bad idea to flush it. The easiest way to flush it is to remove the cap from the power steering reservoir. Now this may be separate like in this case, or it might be mounted physically to the power steering pump. Once the cap is removed, you want to remove as much fluid from the reservoir as possible. The easiest way to do that is with either a umm, a turkey baster or a eyedropper type of a tool. Once the reservoir is empty, you want to jack the front of the vehicle up slightly so that the wheels are off of the ground, and you want to turn the wheels slowly back and forth from lock to lock and what this'll do is this will force more of the fluid out of the system up into the reservoir. When you do that a couple times, you then want to take your eyedropper or turkey baster and remove whatever additional fluid comes into the reservoir. Keep doing this until you're not getting any more fluid in the reservoir. At that point, if you want, you can disconnect the return hose that goes to the reservoir to drain the last little bit of fluid out. It's not necessary, but if you're looking to do a really, really thorough job, it's not a bad idea. Once you've drained the system, you want to get some new power steering fluid. This will be specified in your owners manual as as to what power steering fluid to use, there's a lot of different types and using the incorrect power steering fluid in your system could cause problems, premature pump failure, premature power steering failure. So you want the proper type and proper amount. To start with, you want to fill the reservoir and with the front tires still off the ground, you want to start the engine, let it run, it will start to take the fluid into the reservoir. You'll see the level drop. As the level drops, you want to keep adding more. You you never want to let the pump run with dry 'cause that could cause damage. Once it stops taking additional fluid, you can slowly turn the wheels back and forth, again, with the engine running, and this will work the fluid into the power steering system. The reservoir will empty. Again, we want to keep it topped off and do this a couple more times until the system is no longer taking additional fluid. At that point, it should be good to go. You want to monitor for the next day or two just to make sure that it doesn't need to be, have any additional fluid added, but at that point, your system has been flushed and it's ready to be used."