Power Steering fluid change
 

Greetings!

I am one of the folks who got in on the Red Head group buy and I am now planning my work. I want to change the power steeing fluid and I saw some of the threads on how to do it. My question is should I flush the fluid before or after I change the box? If I do it before, it seems to be a waste of fluid. After, it seems that some of the old fluid will still be in the system. My Ex has 183,000 miles on it. Any suggfestions would be most appreciated.

Do it before. What you call wasted fluid I call insurance.
Let us know how you like the change to the Red Head, I am thinking that I need to do it soon.

It's not going to matter.

You can go either direction but I did it in this order.

1. Changed the fluid.
2. Go for test drive to make sure all is good
3. Install the RedHead
4. Top off fluid after the change.
5. Turn on vehicle and move steering left to right and check fluids.
6. Take test drive and check fluids - it may be noisy for a bit but should go away if fluids are good

You will not loose that much fluid when you change out the steering pump but it will require more.

Tim M

You're only talking 75+- cents loss in fluid. I thought I was frugal.

If I were installing a ~$400.00 steering box, I would put serious thought to changing that 45.00 pump and relatively cheap fluid anyway, and flushing the PS cooler. just my 2c.

Thanks for the feedback. No, I am not frugal, I am cheap:) but I do want the best for my baby. I priced a box at my local Auto Zone and it is $60.00 with resevoir, $45.00 without. Since my box is due tommorow (yes I called early yesterday), I will order a new box tonight and do it all tomorrow. I am excited to get it done!

Flush system before the swap. Change all the parts out and top off the system.

You could pull the return line and run the engine and drain the system before swapping the parts out.

Whatever MAKE SURE you do flush the cooler!

More cheap insurance... Install the Magnefine 3/8" filter R038M-P. I got 4 of them from eBay for about $12 each. I plan on changing them every year.

Thanks for the feedback folks. I swapped out the pump and the box, then I filled and flushed the system with some mercon v. after everything was clean, I added an in line filter from autozone. Everything is now squeaky clean.