How-to Flush Power Steering Fluid?

I am not totally positive, I just want to double check.

 

First start by sucking all the power steering Fluid out of the reseviour. (with a turkey baster or something like that)

Add some new fluid to the reseviour. Pull the return line and place into the the draining pan you are using to hold the old fluid.

Start the car for a few seconds (I mean 5-10 seconds), then turn off the car.

Connect the return line back to the reseviour and refill the tank. Start the car for a few seconds then turn off. Check your level and fill to the level you need. Repeat this untill the level stay constant.

 

Please correct me if this is wrong, I want to make sure before I do it so I don't mess anything up. Thank you for your help! (don't worry this is not for my 05 Legacy GT, it is a 98 Legacy GT)

i wouldnt even take the old stuff out remove return line, block off the nipple for res. start car & keep adding till clean is all that comes out. what would help more is have someone turn the wheel lock to lock at least once during this process. oh & why are u doing this....maintance?

I am not totally positive, I just want to double check.

 

First start by sucking all the power steering Fluid out of the reseviour. (with a turkey baster or something like that)

Add some new fluid to the reseviour. Pull the return line and place into the the draining pan you are using to hold the old fluid.

Start the car for a few seconds (I mean 5-10 seconds), then turn off the car.

Connect the return line back to the reseviour and refill the tank. Start the car for a few seconds then turn off. Check your level and fill to the level you need. Repeat this untill the level stay constant.

 

Please correct me if this is wrong, I want to make sure before I do it so I don't mess anything up. Thank you for your help! (don't worry this is not for my 05 Legacy GT, it is a 98 Legacy GT)

 

 

this is how you should do it:

 

-Jack up the car

-Open fill cap

-Get under car

-Place a pan to catch the fluid under the steering rack lines

-Disconnect hard line from steering rack

-Turn on the car

-Turn the wheel left to right a few times to let the power steering pump out the old fluid

-Turn off the motor

-Turn the steering wheel back and forth from lock to lock until all old fluid is done leaking out

-Reconnect steering fluid line

-Fill new fluid

-Turn on the car

-Turn the steering wheel to get the steering pump to suck some of the fluid down

-Continue filling until all air bubbles are out of the line

-Fill to the correct fill line and close the filler cap

-Turn off car

-Remove catch pan from under the car

-Lower car from jackstands

-Done

Well I doing this because the power steering is whining like no other right now. The Steering is jerky and not smooth. The car sat for about 10 months so I can going to try this before I replace the pump. Its not my car. Its one of my friend's.

ok hold on... level is full. & no leaks.

u could have a blockage in one of the lines pressure or return-- look at that first

If u can find it Lucas oil-- their p.s fluid--- good stuff

yeah... I was planning on doing that when I get under the car. Thank you for the help!!!

So do you have to be as anal about air in the system like you do for brakes?

^^no, it will remove all the air over time(wont take long). air in brakes very bad, air in p.s. system not bad as long as no leaks

what is your recommended PS fluid? Subaru? Others?

Use JDM German synthetic PS fluid if you can get it. Improves the steering feel a huge amount.

What is the capacity of the power steering system? I'm trying to plan out the flush, and I don't want to buy too much junk.

Should I do this as part of my 30K service just to be sure, or is that total overkill?

Every 30k is overkill. PS fluid is intended as a fill for life fluid, but imho, no fluid in the car is lifetime. IIRC, the capacity is right around 1 quart of fluid for the PS system.

 

I have a fluid pump and will just drain and refill the PS reservoir about every other oil change, this seems sufficient to keep the fluid nice and clean. If that doesn't work for you, I'd say do a flush every 60-100k miles.

this is good. my ps at a stand still, will jerk when I start to go and turn the wheel straight. I will have to do this. I have almost 80k and never have done this.

got the new belts on and power steering flush done. No more noise and shaking so far.

I would guess the one that is the return line to the tank.

 

Think it through...

I just went with the lazy way and use a fluid pump to extract the reservoir and fill it with new fluid. I've repeated it 4x so far and plan to keep doing it until the fluid gets cleaner.

 

I notice weird smell the first time I drained the reservoir. The smell gradually went away every time I removed the fluid from the reservoir.

 

Steering is noticeably smoother and the shuddering I felt when stopping actually went away. The whining noise seems to gradually went away as well. Of course, this could be all just in my mind.

 

I might actually keep doing this from time to time.