Power Steering

Hey Guys,

I was wondering how to flush my power steering system? It whines like a spoiled child and is starting to get annoying. The fluid is dark and it leaks about two drops per week on my garage floor. The level is fine but I want to clear it out and then find out where it is leaking from. Anyone know what the best way to fix this is?

Thanks for the help,

Alex

 

Bump

anyone?

 

First off, you need to find out where its leaking. YOu gotta fix that before doing a flush.

I did a flush on my 96 - but it was a long time ago.
First - check with your owners manual on what type of fluid you need.
The 1st gen trucks use ATF as steering fluid.

I bought a couple quarts of cheap/generic fluid for flushing with and the rest was synthetic ATF.

Jack up the front end of the truck & open the hood. Get the appropriate jug to drain the fluid into. Basically, you open up the low pressure line and have it drain into a jug. Get someone to help you. As your buddy turns the wheel SLOWLY from lock to lock, you will pour cheap generic fluid into the resevoir. DO NOT LET IT GO DRY/EMPTY. The fluid should continue to pump out into the jug. Keep doing this until you've gone through a couple quarts of cheap fluid. Start pouring the good fluid into the resevior and when you're getting down near the bottom, connect the low pressure line and fill the resevoir to the COLD mark with the good fluid. At that point, have your buddy continue to turn the wheel lock to lock.... as you watch the resevoir. This is considered 'bleeding' the system. You should see bubbles come up into the resevoir. You need to keep the resevoir topped off and continue turning the wheel lock to lock until you don't see any bubbles come up (if you have any at all).

THat's it in a nutshell. ATleast, that's how my husband and I did it.

 

Thanks Janster! Yeah i'll start looking for the the leak better now. I will most likely have the AZ crew help me out when we have our mod day. So You're saying I need to buy some cheap fluid and then after we have we run that through a few times we fill it up with the normal good stuff? I'm most likely just going to replace it with OEM stock fluid from Toyota. Its pretty cheap.

 

Check the rack and pinion, slide your boots down if you have to. Had a similar issue with my old taco, fluid would fill my rack boots and leak out during turns. Took a while to realize where steering fluid was going. That whine sounds like you need to replace your pump. You can try a flush. (Has your pump run dry before?)

 

Nope its never ran dry or came close to running dry. It may not be that loud I just notice it maybe. haha


Chris I will let you know if I can't figure it out.

 

The cheaper the better! Since you're just pouring it in and its coming right back out and you're throwing it away - don't waste your money on flushing with the good stuff.

Do the 2nd gens use ATF?

 

be sure to take the reservoir off the pump and clean the screen in side the reservoir it stops up causing many many people to change pumps,rack and pinions,hoses and many hours of heartaches. power steering does not work after it stops up. u can bleed lines until your fingers bleed until u clean the screen. i think changing the fluid and cleaning the screen about every 75000 miles should be done.

 

How do you get to the screen to clean it after you have taken the reservoir off? I also have the whine coming from the pump area. You can start it and after the fan quiets down, you can hear the whine. Turn the steering wheel just a little and it changes the pitch of the whine. I have done my first fluid change in the reservoir. Dark brown fluid that stunk to high heaven. After taking all the fluid out ofthe reservoir (put it in a clear water bottle so I could see what it looked like and if there was any sediments) with a neat little device called a Mix-Mizer (bought at Wally-world for around 4 bucks) I took a few Q-Tips and taped them one at a time on a small wooden dowl and gently tried to clean the screen as best as I could. I could see small particles lying on the screen although there weren’t alot of them. I got what I could with the Q-Tips and then started filling the reservoir. Doesn’t take very much fluid. Started the truck and did the back and forth with the steering wheel 8 or 10 times. Sounded like the whining wasn’t as loud. I have to take a 300 mile road trip over the next two days so when I get back I will do it again and see if it helps. Doing this over time would get all the old fluid changed to new but it would take a while. Thinking about taking the reservoir off and cleaning the screen and then doing a full flush…or maybe doing a full flush to get all the old out and then clean the screen. Any help on getting to the screen would be helpful?

 

Most quick lube shops have a machine to do it (at least where I work we do) The service is $54.99 here and seems to work pretty well

 

10-4 I will check and see if any around here can do it. Thanks!