Power Steering Flush procedure?

[Pasta]

Hi Everyone, working on a “new to me” 2009 Forester and would
appreciate your expertise on a PS fluid flush possibility.  The PS fluid
looks like tea, not clean red fluid.  I saw YouTube videos of this for
both AT and PS  flushs on a Honda, but haven’t seen it on any Soob
boards during my lurking. Here it goes...

Front of vehicle jacked up on stands.

1.
Disconnect the PS return hose from the reservoir.  Drain, then plug the
reservoir and refill with Valvoline MaxLife full synthetic ATF.

2.
Place clear plastic tubing over the PS return hose and secure with a
hose clamp. Free end of tubing goes into a collection bucket.

3. Helper starts the vehicle and turns the steering wheel Right/Left to end ranges (lock?)

4. I would continuously pour new PS fluid into the reservoir until clean, red fluid comes out of the collection tube.

5. Reconnect return hose, top off reservoir, and keep a close eye on the fluid level for a couple days.

Intuitively,
it makes sense to me that this is a safe method. The PS pump
(hopefully) gets a steady supply of fluid from the reservoir that I keep
full.  My concern would be if the pump sucks fluid from the reservoir
faster than I could add it back in.  Potentially, that could burn up the
pump.

 

Has anyone tried this? 
Is this a really bad idea?

The
FSM says to drain the PS fluid, then look for bubbles when replacing
the PS fluid (not sure what that means). It does not describe a flush
procedure.  It seems that if I just did a drain/fill of reservoir-turn
wheels-repeat, it would take at least a dozen repetitions and about 1.5
hours to get clean red fluid coming back to PS reservoir. 

Looking forward to becoming educated in how to do this if my plan above is not safe for the vehicle.

Thanks, 

Pasta

 

[Stevo F]

You actually shouldn't need to run the engine to use the P?S pump to pup the fluid out. I usually disconnect the return line to the P/S reservoir and put in a container to collect the old fluid, pout the fron of the vehicle up in stands, and turn the steering wheel from one side to the other a few times.

 

The steering rack will push the old fluid out into the collection container. Refill the reservoir and repeat several times until you begin to see the new fluid coming through. 

 

I've changed out the steering fluid on my of our cars the past year and each car was a little different. I used the above method on our 2006 Sienna van (original fluid was yucky) as well our 2005 Impreza. Last year, on the '98 Legacy, I couldn't get the return line off (and this car has the reservoir integrated to the pump, so i used the less desirable turkey baster method to suck out the old fluid, refill, run engine and repeat. With this method, you tend to suck out more of the new fluid, so it's more wasteful.

 

On my son's 2001 Honda Accord I tried disconnecting the hose and running the engine and that seemed to work well but I ran out of the special Honda P/S fluid before I truly had the old stuff flushed out.

[Fairtax4me]

That method will work fine. Just have extra fluid on hand since you may use over a quart before clean fluid starts coming out. Mention to your helper to be ready to turn the engine off if the fluid level gets too low.

 

Zip tie something heavy (like a large socket) to the end of your drain hose to keep it from flying around like a loose fire hose.

[johnceggleston]

you can do the same thing with less risk, imho,

if you remove the PS belt and turn the pump by hand.

it will pump just the same but way less pressure less mess, less chance of running it dry..

[naru]

I`ve done it on customer cars.

It is not something me or any of my mechanic friends would do on thier own cars though.

It is a waste of time and money.

Shps often reccomend it because it is easy money,but,like any good lie,there is a kernal of truth to it.

 

It is a 2 man operation.

Have several litres of fluid already opened and ready to pour.

[Pasta]

Good advice, everyone. 

johnc, taking the PS belt off seems too intimidating for me.  I just cant do that on my own right now.

I think Steve-o's method seems the safest.  Going to go try it now.  Will let you all know how it goes.

Thanks.

[Pasta]

Steve-o's method worked great!  1 hour start to finish.

 

1. Front of car on jack stands

2.  Turkey baster with 7/16 OD / 5/16" ID clear tubing to suck out old fluid from reservoir. Fill reservoir with Valvoline Max Life synthetic ATF

3. Disconnect PS return line and attach 1/2" OD / 3/8" ID clear tubing (couldn't find a hose clamp to secure, so used a zip-tie)

4. My 10 year old daughter was in the car turning the wheel Left/Right.  I caught the fluid in an old can

5. Just keep the reservoir full as the helper turns the wheel.

6.  At 2 quarts, beautiful, clean red ATF was coming out of the return line!

 

Maybe I was biased, but it felt like the steering was noticeably easier on the test-drive.  Thanks for your advice, everyone.  This was an easy maintenance.  Anyone can do it with a helper.  I hope this write-up helps others.

[Stevo F]

Glad it worked well for you. I think that method worked best for me too. I've done all 4 of our older cars in the past year. I also got a brake bleeder and started flushing brake fluid as I hear that should be done every 3- 5 years (the 2 Subraus done, still need to do the Sienna and the Honda). 

 

I realized you should flush out power steering fluid periodically when I had a steel power line rust out and leak on my old Nissan truck (mind you it was 16 years old at th etime, but it was a very that wasn't used every day so I'm sure the moisture got into the fluid over time and rusted the lines out).

[Crazyeights]

You can use a drill and a belt around the outside of the chuck in a pinch (be careful). You can spin the p/s pump up plenty fast enough to flush out the system.

Edited September 14, 2014 by Crazyeights