Power Steering Flush and Reservoir Cleaning

Howdy My 1st Gen Tacoma Brothers and Sisters,

My buddy Sean and I have another video for Y'all. If you ever wanted to know how to flush your power steering system, here's a video that shows you how to "Getter Dun". As a bonus, we show you how to remove the power steering reservoir and clean out the fine mesh filter. Over time, especially if you haven't renewed your fluid on a regular basis, the fine mesh filter on the bottom of the power steering reservoir can become blocked up with black gunk and starve your steering rack of fluid. Cleaning the filter screen ensures a good flow of fluid to your steering rack and puts less strain on the pump.

Here's the video and Enjoy the Show!

https://www.youtube.com/embed/5k61KXRK8bM

 

Thanks man I always enjoy youre vids, cant wait to see how you do this as I have my own proceedure. You have cool tricks! points for removing the timing belt tensioner.

 

I just used a turkey baster, remove old fluid, fill, turn steering wheel a couple of times. Did those steps until it was clear fluid.

 

I did this last Friday, not the full flush and reservoir cleaning but the turkey baster trick. When I bought the truck from the 2nd owner last April he told me the PSP would probably need to be replaced at some point, said it groans pretty bad in cold weather, sure enough, once cooler weather set in and it was time to start it it sounded like somebody was being beat to death in my driveway and took forever to get warmed up enough even drive.
I was about to leave the house last Friday to buy a new pump and ATF but decided to YouTube the fluid flush one last time and find Timmy's video on the turkey baster trick, figured "what the hell" its worth a try.
After removing that first baster full of old fluid its a wonder i could even turn the steering wheel, i could not believe how nasty that shit was, almost like molasses. Did the steps that Opteron described about 8 times to get clear fluid but man did it make a huge difference, cracks right up know with no groaning whatsoever. I know its probably not the proper way to do it and its just a quick fix but the shit worked.

 

We also have a video for the Turkey Baster method. In fact, here it is:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/GOb5yF2Xv8Y

 

Also the turkey baster cleans out the screen.

 

The screen I yanked, lol. It causes clogs easily.

 

I'd have to see that to believe it. The reservoir screen we cleaned out in the video was caked with gunk. It took two full cans of cleaner to free all that black crud from the screen. I don't see how a turkey baster can effectively clean the screen. You must have serious Turkey Baster Skills.

 

This is not a good idea. You just removed all the filtering for your system and guess where the deposits are going to end up? It's going to end up gumming up your pump and steering rack.

 

This is great, I need to do mine. My brother showed me how he learned to do it via siphoning out the old fluid, turning the wheel side to side to bring the old fluid up and slowly replacing with new...I tried it that way but it didn't seem to help much (I don't think we got too much of the old stuff out). Pump still whines when turned especially when cold. This seems much more comprehensive, thanks!

 

Loved the video, Tim. It was nice to see you take that extra step of cleaning the screen - I'm sure even Toyota dealerships don't go that far!

Side note: It didn't appear that the dirty screen slowed the flow rate much, with the way it spewed into the catch container!

 

Well I guess I was lucky mine was not that bad. Too bad for you.

 

You're right about the flow rate seeming sufficient and I was wondering if Jax was going to have an improvement with his steering after we were done. He said without a doubt the steering improved a lot. You could see how blocked up the screen was before and how clean it was after so I wasn't shocked that it had a positive effect.

Yeah, I doubt any mechanics would do this as part of a power steering flush.

 

Not too bad for me. It wasn't my rig. I would assume anyone who has bought a used rig might need some cleaning if the previous owner never renewed the power steering fluid. Unless you pulled off the reservoir like we did in the video and shined a light through the bottom port, you probably don't know how clogged your filter screen is. So, maybe too bad for you.

 

Thanks man, I know Im crazy, lol, but thats not a service part I overlook. I clean out the rack every season. It goes on stands every season and I run royal purple ps fluid to waste turning the steering lock to lock. Never had a problem yet, fingers crossed. Years ago alot of people were yanking the screen out...I fell victim, my steering came back to normal after I did it, go figure. Hope it dont bite me back now, dang it. I appreciate youre advice you know youre stuff!

 

Will have to do the turkey baster method this spring when it warms up outside enough, I don't think mine's ever been done and it's at 127k right now.

 

Great video Tim! Don't have my first gen anymore but still enjoyed the great explanation of everything.

 

Great video Tim, but for clarification, the diff drop doesn’t have to be removed when you’re replacing the steering rack. You can pull the rack back off of the bolt that’s under the front diff after you’ve loosened the top half for the steering column sleeve. You only have to remove the diff drop if you’re just replacing the bushings because you can’t remove the large bushing while the bolt is still in place. I bet that kid learned a lot while working with you; hopefully he cares the wrenching bug like the rest of us!

Edit: just realized I commented on the wrong post. Lol. Oh well, you get what I’m saying.

 

I am going to do my power steering flush this weekend, unsure if I'll clean the reservoir, we'll see how motivated I feel when I wake up that day. My plan is to make a modification to the Timmy method:

Find clear vinyl tubing with outer dia. matching inner diameter of the return reservoir line - insert and use existing tension clamp to hold them together. The other end will go directly to my 3 gallon enclosed used oil bucket to prevent backsplash. I bought a gallon sized ATF dex/merc to allow one continuous pour into the funnel. The smaller dia. tubing should help regulate the flow rate and prevent the reservoir our from emptying and getting air in the system. The clear tubing will show me when the dirty fluid changes to clean.

 

I'm interested to hear how this works out. I like the idea of using one of the larger ATF containers because we wouldn't have had to stop and start the flush procedure. I originally wanted to have a container that I could have a tight fit with the drain tube but I didn't have anything that big and clear. Your clear tubing sounds like it will work out well too. Good luck with the flush.