Power Steering Flush and Reservoir Cleaning

@Timmah!

I performed the flush today, and while it was ultimately successful (got the fluid changed) I consider it a personal failure in planning.

I was thinking about how to further improve upon my setup and I had the brilliant idea to install a compression ball valve in the vinyl tubing to allow me to accomplish two things: 1) I could start the truck and perform the flush by myself. 2) Control the fluid flow rate to prevent running the reservoir dry and getting air in the system.



What I didn't account for is that starting the engine with the ball valve shut would put a lot of pressure inside that vinyl hose that my rig wasn't designed to handle. The instant the engine started, the vinyl tube slipped out of the power steering return line and spewed the dirty fluid everywhere. It was a disaster. On the bright side, with a now-empty reservoir I could look in and see that the fine mesh screen was clean and free of debris, so I skipped the reservoir deep clean.

On the second attempt, I kept everything the same except I opened the ball valve (essentially going back to my original design) before having a helper start the engine, while I stood in front and poured new fluid into the funnel. The gallon size ATF did not help prevent running the reservoir dry because the pump sucks the fluid out faster than you can gravity fill the funnel through the small reservoir opening. No big deal, I let the air bubbles escape and topped off the level and everything seems to be in order. I even had a good excuse to degrease my engine compartment today.

I still like my ball valve idea, but next time I would use a hose barb adapter between the two pieces of hose instead of using a weak slip joint.

 

Awesome vids. Great thought provoking ideas here. This is on my to do list in the 2000 Tacoma and 98 Camry. Ease of access to my pumps (2.7 Tacoma and V6 Camry) will determine which methods I use. I'd like to pull the reservoir on both but we'll see.

 

If you have a decent air compressor this is an awesome tool sucking automotive fluids. Mine is 5 years old and still works great.

 

I wish I had that now, I definatly need something. I swapped fluid by pulling the line and hooking directly. The 2.7 is pretty easy cause the resevoir is high. I pulled the resevoir and cleaned the filter out using Tim's method and it worked great.

Problem 1: I can't get the front resorvoir bolt back in. The holes in the pulley don't allow a straight access to the front bolt. I barely got it out. It was around 25 degrees this evening and my fingers were too frozen to work right. I hope to be able to get the bolt started using the two finger method.

Problem 2: I managed to get air in the system. I have a hand vac pump but need a way to create a seal to help pull the air out of the system.

 

Hey Ryan, all you have to do is turn the 19mm crank pulley bolt clockwise as you're staring at the front of the engine to move the belts and get one of the slots on the crank pulley to line up with that front bolt.

 

Back in the day, we used to add a clear / opaque filter in the return line. I think we used a fuel filter. Just an added level of filtration as the Saab racks weren't known for longevity. In the Saab 900's we could easily mount it to the firewall at a height that allowed minimal gravity fed fluid-loss mess when changing.

 

Thanks for the suggestion Tim. I agree that it should be that way but the holes in this pulley don't exactly line up with where the bolt hole is. The holes need to be more toward the outer edge of the pulley so a socket will be able to hold the bolt straight going in. I have a 2.7 and the pump/resorvoir is easier to get to but is a bit different than the 3.4. The bolt to turn the pulley is 17mm too. I'm pretty sure this is the original pump. My FSM shows removing the pump to pull the pulley. I don't want to have to do that and plan to try to get the bolt back in the way it came out(socket was a little bit an an angle in relation to the bolt but would still turn it).

 

I don't have one of these engines to reference but maybe a flex head ratcheting box end would be the right tool to get between the pulley and pump to get on the front bolt.

 

This is actually what a lot of people choose to do but the common filter people use is a magnetic type of filter. Magnefine is one company that makes them. I added an in-line Magnefine filter for my transmission when I installed an external trans cooler. I should have mentioned this option when making the video but I forgot to. I did however mention it in a pinned comment so people know this is an option after performing this flush. When I get around to doing this on both of my 3rd Gen 4runners, I think I am going to install an inline filter. This would pretty much eliminate the need to ever take off the reservoir for cleaning because the filter would capture all those deposits that end up blocking up the fine mesh filter in the reservoir.

 

I think for transmissions I would put it on the line that is about to hit the cooler/radiator, to keep the cooler from getting clogged.

 

I actually put mine in after the fluid runs through the stock radiator cooler and heads towards the external cooler. I ran my external cooler in-series with the radiator cooler. Honestly, I don't think it really matters where you put it in as long as you have one. Once the filter is in the system, it's going to keep everything cleaner, including the cooler.

Now, it does matter for certain circumstances. Say you had a transmission failure but you're not replacing your radiator. In order to protect your new transmission from possible debris stuck in the cooler, you'd want to put the filter in the return line so it would pick up any left over debris in the cooler and keep it out of your brand new transmission

 

another good idea. Mine is ran in series but the cooler is before the radiator.

 

Got the bolt back in and tightened down. I also got all the air out of the system by raising the front wheels off the ground and then without starting the engine, I cycled the steering rack back and forth quite a few times and added fluid as needed. All is well now. I'll do swap fluid in the old Camry soon.

I used Orielly brand ATF and it seems fine. I wonder if I should have used Mobil 1 ATF or some other synthetic.

 

That's interesting you were able to cycle the fluid really well with the engine off. When we replaced a steering rack and were trying to work the air out of the lines, it didn't seem to be that effective but maybe we should have been more patient and just kept turning it back and forth more. We just did short start and stop cycles until the fluid didn't drop anymore and then we knew we got most of the air out.

I don't think you need to run a name brand or synthetic. The key is renewing it at a regular interval like everything else. I would do this flush procedure at a minimum every 30k. Or, you could do the turkey baster renewal method more often to keep the fluid in good shape.

 

I actually have a manual air vac pump that is mean for multiple fluid. Couple of pumps and it will keep on sucking til the job is done.

 

Thanks for the response. I did let my truck sit overnight before attempting to get any more air out. I just know that when I first put the resorvoir back on and filled it up with fluid, I had a lot of squealing turning it lock to lock. I should have raised the front wheels to keep the pressure lower from the get go.

I have a manual vacuum pump but don't have the adaptor to that works with the pwr steering resorvoir.

 

Psshh..just find an adapter at the parts store, another rubber hose and connect the the return line to the vac pump. Try not to put too much vacuum pressure, trying to not blow any seals.

 

I'll keep an eye out for an adaptor. I think I read 20-25 in/Hg max for vacuum on the PS system.

 

I used an electric pump that was designed for oil etc. i hooked it up to the return line to the
reservoir which i plugged the input .I then ran the pump and kept adding fluid to reservoir which was then drawn through the whole system until the fluid came out clean.
only took about 2 minutes

https://www.amazon.com/XtremepowerU...=1516117804&sr=8-1&keywords=electric+oil+pump

 

That's pretty cool. It makes sense it could pull the fluid out of steering rack but actually pulling it through the pump is something that I wouldn't think was possible. I don't have any clue how the power steering pump generates the pressure to push the fluid through the system but I'm thinking there would be some type of chamber that generates the pressure that your oil pump couldn't pull the fluid through. Thanks for sharing this.