Power Steering Fluid

My wife had a Dodge Charger (2009) - and she had a service where they said her PS fluid was "dirty". So I looked - pretty muddy flushed the system and refilled with the "PS fluid" shown in the CAR manual. A few months went by and the new fluid was "dirty" again????? WTF? There isn't any ready access of "dirt" into this system and her rack seals were good. Then it started turning funky turning in one direction.........So started reading up on the trouble - the recommended PS fluid was found (not by Dodge) to be eating the composite piston in the rack. The Dodge trucks were using part from the same manufacturer - trucks delivered with ATF and supposed to be serviced with ATF (per the manual). Spoke to the dealer "service expert" .... they replaced the car's rack and filled the new rack with the same worthless PS fluid (I asked about using the ATF and they declined). Turns out that rack had the same junk piston as the first - and the fluid went "muddy" in six months. Traded the car for an Explorer - ASAP.

 

I have run Maxlife in the power steering of all maner of Toyotas for many years and many 1000s of miles without issue