changing power steering fluid

[FIRE and ICE]

My power steering fluid is the original fluid that came in the Ex in '92 and no longer is pink in color ( more like maroon) there appears to be no change out recommendations from Ford or easy way to drain and change.
It has been subjected to temperature extremes from Alaska (-20F) to FLORIDA ( +100F) and I'm sure like every other type of fluid it must wear out or reach an unacceptaple level of contamination.
Any ideas or comments on a way to change out fluid to extend life of power steering unit. I have 125k on vehicle now.
Thanks for any suggestions/input

 

[biggs85]

The way I did it was I bought a fluid pump from pep boys for like $10 and pumped all the fluid that I could out of the reservoir. Then I bought some Mercon automatic transmission fluid(which is what is recommended in owners manual) and refilled it. I'm planning on pumping it out again and refilling it with some power steering conditioner just so it gets more of the old fluid out and puts in the stuff actually made for the power steering. There might be a better way but this is the way I do it. It does help out a little and makes the steering feel a little better. It also makes you feel good that you got 11-12 year old fluid out and replaced it with brand new stuff.

 

[aldive]

I did the same thing except I used synthetic PS fluid and repeated the process each day for about 4 days till the fluid was clear.


Good luck.....

 

[VairKing]

Al, I am just curious as to what the benifits are of running a synthetic PS fluid? TIA...

 

[aldive]

Originally posted by VairKing
Al, I am just curious as to what the benifits are of running a synthetic PS fluid? TIA...

The synthetic PS fluid helps quieten the PS pump; thats why I changedto it.

 

[Hartman]

Oh, it doesn't improve gas milage?

 

[RocaFellaRanger]

Saw this over on RPS:

Originally posted by gopher_6_9
Umm, if it is black you deffiantly need to flush it, the easiest way, you will need 3 quarts of ATF fluid and then 3 quarts PS fluid. The low pressure hose (the one held on with hose clamps) and plug both the line and the outlet thing (I use a bolt in the hose then a scrap piece of hose of the same size with a bolt in it on the outlet), drain the old fluid (using that hose) and then refill with ATF fluid m start the truck and cycle the wheels a few times, drain and repeat till all 3 quarts of the ATF are gone, then Fill and flush at least 2 times with PS fluid. This is how we do it and it clean it out and stops the infamous "ford squeeling" ford about 6 months to a year.

EDIT: that is for a 93-97 I don't know if it will be the same on yours or not because you have a rack and pinion system I think.

If any of you try this, let me know how it goes.

 

[Rick]

I picked up 4 mpg from going to synthetic PS fluid

 

[Chew_12]

Good way to get it out is using a cooking baister! Real Cheap too. Thats what i did

 

[Hartman]

Originally posted by Rick
I picked up 4 mpg from going to synthetic PS fluid

 

[Rick]

I did the turkey baster too. Char just about killed me. Ya know, they're cheap and you can pick them up with the groceries so what's the big deal??

 

[LStoudenmire]

"You know, this turkey is Great this year, but..........you know...... it has a strange after taste. Makes me want to work on my Ex' after dinner."

 

[acastell]

I am interested in this post as I have 87K miles on my 96 AWD and the Steering fluid has never been changed. Would you recommend changing it?

If so:
With my level of mechanical competance, I would rather use biggs85 approach. I am not up to un-doing hoses.

With biggs85 approach, can I do this all at one time...drain, fill w/atf, turn wheel, drain, fill w/atf, turn wheel then drain and fill with PS fluid.

I am assuming that I can do all of this in about 15-20 min.

 

[VairKing]

In order to get all the old fluid out and new in, what you will want to do is syphin (sp?) all the old fluid out best you can, put new in, drive it for a day, syphin it all out, put new in, drive it for a day, and keep doing this until the fluid is purely clean. That ensures that you have all the old fluid and contaminates out. Good Luck!

 

[sodjer6]

So I got curious and looked at my fluid, it's more of a brown color. Come to think of it, it has been making more noise latley. What about a real lazy approach? Carefully using a shop-vac, with the smallest attachment? I did the baster thing with my Bronco II, so I guess I could do it again....

 

[VairKing]

I would use a turkey baster over a shop vac.....

 

[acastell]

Thanks VairKing...I will start the process tomorrow. I assume you use the 'book' recommended Mercom or do you prefer Synthetic?

 

[acastell]

Alright...my inexperience is shinning. I just called Kragen to ask if they carried Mercon, as this is what the manual said, and he told me this was ATF?? I asked if he had a synthetic for the PS fluid and he said he had Mobil1 ATF. Is it safe to say that Ford is saying that I should us ATF as PS fluid???

Sorry if this is a novice question...really confused.

 

[FIRE and ICE]

Thanks for all the advice.

I finally did it with a slight variation on the turkey baster method - I used the pump sprayer that comes with liquid bug repellant .
It comes with a long vinyl? hose that i threaded into the pump (along the inside outer edge) and pumped out all i could. It takes quite a while to pump it into a jar!
I refilled it with the recommended type F fluid and will repeat this process until it runs clean

Thanks again for all the replys

 

[VairKing]

Originally posted by acastell
Alright...my inexperience is shinning. I just called Kragen to ask if they carried Mercon, as this is what the manual said, and he told me this was ATF?? I asked if he had a synthetic for the PS fluid and he said he had Mobil1 ATF. Is it safe to say that Ford is saying that I should us ATF as PS fluid???

Sorry if this is a novice question...really confused.

Mercon is just a type of ATF...I dont think it is nessisary to use a synthetic PS fluid, and I dont really see much of an advantage to it (no offence Al!) I would just use regular ATF...