Power Steering fluid help??

Hey guys! I have a 2003 4x4 Tacoma 2.7 4cyl automatic. I just got home from work and parked the truck in the driveway. It sat for a little bit and I was looking underneath it and noticed a couple of small drips on the driveway underneath it. I wiped it off the black top with my finger & It looked like it was reg. oil. Light brownish looking. I looked around the oil filter & the bottom half of the engine for leaks and could not find any. It was dripping off the back of the skid plate.

So I thought well maybe its power steering fluid. I go up and check the pwr steering fluid in the resivoir and it wasnt even registering on the dipstick. I looked down inside the reservoir and I could see fluid. I was able to dip my pinky into it and the fluid was a clean oil looking color. Looked like a motor oil looking color not ATF fluid (red Color) like what it calls for.

Right now it is steering fine and not making any noises, but I need to add some fluid b4 it starts. I went to advanced auto and asked them and told them the color of the fluid and he said not to put ATF in it now since there is a unknown fluid in there already. Maybe the previous owner just used regular pwr steering fluid in it b4 I got the truck.

Well all I know is I needed some fluid and I didnt know what to buy so I bought this Valvoline Max life Power steering fluid with stop leak in it. I didnt add it yet. I thought I would come on here and ask if I should add this type or not. I didnt really think it would hurt since it is already leaking??

I hope you guys can help me. Ive attached the following pics of the bottle to see what you all think?? It says it can be used in a Toyota!

 

Ya, go ahead.

 

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You need to FIND the origin of the leak.
Have had a couple mechanics say-'Do NOT use stop leak products".
they can cause more difficulties.
Did you have your oil changed recently?=Sometimes there is a delay in the runoff from the change.

 

Added note--are there rubber hoses in your system?
On my old 91--had the same problem--the return line was old and needed replacing.

 

Keep us posted on what you find!

 

Thanks all! I went ahead and added that stuff that I posted on here about 3 weeks ago & it doesn't seem to be dripping/leaking anymore. Going to keep an eye on it though. I didn't really know what to do at the time and I needed fluid. I showed the guy that I work with( he seems to be pretty mechanically inclined) and he smelled the fluid on the dip stick before I added the new stuff to see if he could tell if it was reg. power steering fluid & he said it smelled like reg. PS fluid to him. So I added that stuff. I also had reg. transmission fluid with me that I bought. But the guys at advanced auto told me not to put transmission fluid in there until I could verify what was in there already. Said its not good to mix PS fluid & tranny fluid. I have no clue how to drain the old stuff and put in reg. tranny fluid like it calls for. Apparently the previous owner had put reg. PS fluid in there instead of what it calls for. So I guess im taking a chance..

How will I know if I damaged the steering rack by using this stuff? What would the symptoms be?

Thanks

 

bump

 

Definitely inspect the system, paying close attention to the condition of hoses and checking for leaks at joints. If everything is working, not leaking, and the truck drives good, I wouldn't worry about damage. The Tacoma does not require fancy PS fluids so just about any standard product from the parts store (especially if the label says OK for Toyota) should work fine.

I am curious if the "stop leak" fluid actually stopped your leak. If it did, I would not use any more "stop leak" fluid than you already have - use regular PS fluid.

 

Hey I had the same issue recently with my 2003 4x4 V6 auto Taco, a slow drip leak and noticed my reservoir was pretty damn low I should have checked it sooner when I bought the car but I forgot that specific fluid
I almost threw in power steering fluid but looked at my manual first and saw you are actually supposed to use Automatic Transmission Fluid DEXRON II or III.
I had a manual Jeep before this one, so I had never heard of ATF... but you use it for the transmission and the power steering in these tacos apparently.


Obviously I'm a few years too late but I would definitely recommend trying to flush out that random fluid and replace it with the correct ATF, not sure what damage would happen from using the wrong fluid but probably isn't the best.

Yeah I took my skid plates off it was pretty quick, then inspected closer. My leak is coming from where the pressure line meets the rack, so I took off the hose and am trying to replace it, but might end up replacing the entire line itself.

Not sure if you solved it but removing the skid plates and wiping everything up might help locate the exact leak if something similar happens again.

 

I take a turkey baster about twice a year and suck the reservoir dry on my power steering and then fill it up with Valvoline Max Life. Which reminds me that it's been over a year since I did it and should do it again. I may switch to something of higher quality like Amsoil in the future which is what I use in the engine, tranny, transfer case and diffs right now but for the last 3 years the Valvoline is doing the job just fine.