Power steering question.

Hello tacoma owners: I have a power stearing question . I have a 2009 tocoma 4wd 4 door, v6. I wanted to do a flush and refill of my power stearing resovior. I called the dealership today to get a price quote to get it done. I was told that they do not do it or never have for that matter! Now I can tell you this much that from being on this site everyday for months that that statement I was told was not true! Meaning if you do good vehicle maintance I would think this would be a must do in the preventive maintance area.

My truck only has 75,000 on it but my resorvor fluid looks pretty dark! I saw the tutorial area and have read on how to do it myself. My problem is I have no tools to do the flush nor do I feel confidant enough to do the job where I would not suck air into my system or come across any problems.

Anyone know a good shop who would do the flush and put proper fluid back in?? Any suggestions greatly appreciated. I'm in south jersey area.

Thank you
Matt

 

Also interested in how many miles this should be done at.

 

Thank you rock lobster! I will give that a try.

 

Our Tacoma's call for Dexron II or Dexron III, I usually use Mobil 1 synthetic ATF. Any Dex 2 or 3 should be fine though. You should note that the only licensed Dexron ATF available now is Dexron VI, so anything that says Dexron 3 isn't actually licensed(The Dex 3 licenses are all expired and GM will not renew them as it is an old and outdated spec). I have recently started using in my own and my brothers Tacoma Valvoline Maxlife ATF, the jury is still out on it, as I have just recently started using it, but so far so good. The Mobil 1 is great though, I'll likely go back with it over the Valvoline the next time, even though the Valvoline appears to be fine.

What I do is:
1) Suck the fluid out of the reservoir with a pump or syringe, or whatever other means you have available.
2) Pull the return hose (small hose, 3/8) off of the reservoir by pinching the clamp and sliding it away from the reservoir.
3) Use a spare piece of 3/8 hose to seal off the nipple on the reservoir (it does not matter what you use to accomplish this, so long as the reservoir is sealed).
4) Then I put the power steering return hose into a container to catch the dirty fluid. (I usually accomplish this by using a 3/8 hose to hose joiner and attaching an extension of hose, and placing my catch can on the ground, so that if the hose comes out of the container I won't have a mess in my engine bay).
5) Now use a jack to jack up the front end of your truck so that both front tires are not touching the ground. (use jack stands, if you wish)
6) Turn the key on, but DO NOT start the engine.
7) Next, turn the wheels from lock to lock, then check the fluid level in the reservoir. You may wish to have someone watch and add fluid as you turn the wheels from lock to lock, but you can stop every full rotation or two (lock to lock) and add fluid by yourself. Repeat as many times as necessary to flush out all the old fluid. ATF is red and the factory fill is clear/brownish so it should be easy to tell when you have gotten most of the old fluid out.
8) After you feel that you have sufficiently flushed the fluid, remove the return hose from the catch container.
9) Then remove the hose that have used to block off the reservoir nipple. (note that unless you have an empty reservoir you will lose some fluid from the reservoir, potentially making a mess)
10) Reconnect the return hose to the reservoir (don't forget about the clamp).
11) If you wish to make less of a mess you can turn the wheels and empty the reservoir before you remove the return hose from the catch container and reservoir. You will introduce some air into the system by doing so, but that isn't an issue*(see step 12).
12) Top off the fluid after you have reconnected the return hose.
*If you have introduced air into the power steering system by letting the reservoir run out of fluid at any point in this process you will need to turn the wheels from lock to lock repeatedly until the fluid level ceases to drop, often you can feel and/or hear air in the system as you are turning the wheels from lock to lock.
13) After you are confident that any air is out of the system, you can now let your truck back down onto the ground.
14) Double check that your fluid level is satisfactory and that you have securely reconnected the hoses and removed any tools, extra hose, catch cans...or anything else that you may have had under the hood. You can now start you truck and check for leaks, if you don't have any leaks you can take it for a test drive. After you drive it you should inspect the fluid level again and top up as necessary.

It shouldn't take you much over a quart of fluid to flush the entire system. But be sure to have extra to top off with at the end of the process, or in case of spills or if you wish to flush a little extra out to be sure that you have removed all the old fluid.

I think that's everything, if you have questions just ask or feel free to PM me.

 

Wow! Thank you so much 07 sport 4x4! Great right up! Seems easy enough with what I just read. Maybe I can accomplish this! As far as my concern for getting air in the system I guess I could play it safe and put a little extra in and drain it if I had to. Thank you everyone for you responses!

 

Thanks for the write up. I did it this morning. I used the Power Steering Fluid that I purchased from my local Toyota dealership though.

 

I just pull the hose off the bottom of the reservoir and drain out what's in it and refill. Drive it for a week and do it again. Do this a couple of times and you'll have the bulk of it swapped out in short order.
It may be the lazy way but it works pretty well considering the effort and risk involved.
I just stick my ratio rite under the outlet to catch the old fluid.