Hi guys, I would like to drain the power steering fluid as it looks like its been in there for approx. 14yrs. It has a thick cloudy kind of look to it! Never seen anything like it before. Question is, how do I flush this oil out completely, even from the rear steering, is there a rear steering drain plug anywhere? Is there a procedure somewhere that I can refer to. Or is there a simple way of doing this. Also how do you bleed the air out again? One other thing, My steering feel is Shiza when cornering, steering develops some sort of freeplay and affects the precission in steering, sometimes badly. Has this got to do with the 14YO oil or is there something in the suspension. The handling still appears to be 1st class though. Its this all of a sudden free play that kicks in, never have experienced this before. Perhaps the nut in the steering rack may require tightning:| Any ideas? Peter
A couple of answers for you.....>> There is a bleed nipple on the rear steering ram just like the ones on the brake calipers, this can be used to drain the rear and then bleed it when refilling. The front could be done by disconnecting a line from the front rack and turning the engine over by hand till all the fluid is "pumped" out. Once that is done and the line is reconnected just refill the reservoir while once again turning the engine. It isn't a sealed system like the brakes so airbubbles should make their way back to the reservoir fairly easily.The sudden freeplay when turning will probably be from deteriorating rack bushes on the brackets mounting the rack to the front crossmember. The rack develops a small amount of left/right play, but those milimeters of movement make a huge difference in steering response.
