Power steering

Hey y’all,
I was just wondering if there’s any video or information on how to do a power steering flush?

Also any tips on any maintenance I should be worried about getting done my truck is currently at 90,000 miles and is a 2016.

 

Not a 'Taco but I finished a power steering fluid flush on my old lady's Murano not long ago. Just disconnected the return line to the P/S reservoir and redirected it into a container. Jacked up the front end slightly to make turning the wheels easier. Had the old lady turn the wheels slowly to the left and right (while engine was off) and added fresh P/S fluid into the reservoir as it was being cycled through the system.

I imagine the 'Taco is pretty much the same. You do want to do this without the engine running because the fluid will forcibly come out of the return line if it is running.

Took 1.5 quarts to fully flush and renew.

 

Thanks, good description there, don't think I've ever done this, going to do it on the Tacoma though.

My question is, which fluid satisfies the owner's manual specs? I've looked around and there's plenty of dextron vi. Nothing says II or III.

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/power-steering-flush.416379/

Super easy to do, I just did this a couple of nights ago.

Lift the front wheels off the ground, disconnect the return line at the reservoir and point it towards an empty coke bottle.

Plug or cap the reservoir return nib. I skipped that part and made a small mess.

Then crank the steering wheel slowly from center to 75-80% to the left. refill reservoir with new ATF Dexron III fluid.
Crank it back to center. Refill reservoir.
Crank it to 80% to the right. refill reservoir.

Keep going until the top of your coke bottle looks like it has new fluid.

Reconnect hose, top off the fluid to the appropriate mark, then crank the wheel left/right several times to make sure you don't have any air bubbles. Check fluids again and button her up.


Have a beer, you're done.

 

I found Dex III at Autozone, it was their generic no-name brand. Lots of people run Dex IV with no complaints.

 

No need to flush the power steering, suck all the fluid out of the reservoir with a fluid extractor or a turkey baster (just not from the kitchen) and replace it with fresh. You won't get every last drop of fluid out but you will get a percentage. You can repeat a few times over a week or two if you wish to get more fluid changed.

With older vehicles I routinely extract the reservoir (once only) during oil changes, perhaps not every time but frequently.

Fluid extractors are really handy, you can use them on your mower, generator, etc. too.



A suction gun is a cheaper alternate:

 

I respectfully disagree. It's wasteful to just replace the P/S fluid in the reservoir several times, until it's visually clean. Especially with the exorbitantly expensive cost of some proprietary P/S fluid's, such as Nissan Murano's requirements.

A power steering flush and renew as we have previously discussed in this thread is so easy, even a caveman can do it.

 

In your example of the Murano (which I am unfamiliar with) I would agree, fortunately the Tacoma takes fairly inexpensive Dexron fluid.

My occasional vac and fill method (one cycle during an oil change) keeps the fluid reasonably fresh without much effort.

 

There is a good writeup about doing a flush as described above in the 2nd gen section. Pretty sure its exactly the same on turd gens.

I used the standard Valvoline Maxlife ATF. P/N VV3246

That way I can use the same fluid to top up my PS or transmission.