Power Steering Fluid needs changing
01-20-2007, 10:26 AM
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Power Steering Fluid needs changing
Myh '04 Pilot is right at 60K and I thought I would change the PS Fluid. (according to the maintenance schedule) Does anyone have success stories on doing this? Pic would be great also. Thanks.
03-02-2007, 12:34 PM
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I have a 98 Civic and 03 Pilot. Have not done the PS swap in the Pilot, but have done it in the Civic. It CAN be a PIA task if you let it get to messy. The basic principle for the Pilot should be the same as the civic:
Option 1 (which I probably won't do again): I went to home depot and bought some disposable rubber tubing. I then disconnected the PS return line from the PS reservoir and rigged the tubing to the return line itself. I plugged the PS reservoir with some little squishy ear-plugs. When my wife started the car, the PS pump started, fluid started flowing, the reservoir started to empty, and the fluid came out the return line, and down into a bucket. I had a big ass jug of PS fluid and manually filled the reservoir as it drained. Stop the car and reconnect the return hose to the reservoir. You do not want air to get into the system, so fill quickly and when the jug is nearly empty, stop the car.
Option 2: Buy a cheap $3 turkey baster at your local store, suck out all the PS fluid from the reservoir, and refil with fresh stuff. It won't be even close to a full PS swap, but will surely dilute down the old stuff with new stuff. You could probably do this several times and by the time you were done, the overall condition of the fluid would be much better via the principle of dilution. I will probably take this route with my Pilot. I'm not convinced you have to do a 100% PS swap to keep 'relatively' clean and sediment free stuff in your system.
Someone may be a better idea than me, other than taking it to the dealer and spending money (i'm such a cheap bastard).
William
98 Civic + 03 Pilot
Option 1 (which I probably won't do again): I went to home depot and bought some disposable rubber tubing. I then disconnected the PS return line from the PS reservoir and rigged the tubing to the return line itself. I plugged the PS reservoir with some little squishy ear-plugs. When my wife started the car, the PS pump started, fluid started flowing, the reservoir started to empty, and the fluid came out the return line, and down into a bucket. I had a big ass jug of PS fluid and manually filled the reservoir as it drained. Stop the car and reconnect the return hose to the reservoir. You do not want air to get into the system, so fill quickly and when the jug is nearly empty, stop the car.
Option 2: Buy a cheap $3 turkey baster at your local store, suck out all the PS fluid from the reservoir, and refil with fresh stuff. It won't be even close to a full PS swap, but will surely dilute down the old stuff with new stuff. You could probably do this several times and by the time you were done, the overall condition of the fluid would be much better via the principle of dilution. I will probably take this route with my Pilot. I'm not convinced you have to do a 100% PS swap to keep 'relatively' clean and sediment free stuff in your system.
Someone may be a better idea than me, other than taking it to the dealer and spending money (i'm such a cheap bastard).
William
98 Civic + 03 Pilot
