Old Car, low mileage. What original fluids would you change?

[Clubber_Lang]

2004 Toyota Solara 48,000 miles

So far:
-Changed oil, Mobil 1 5w-30 HM and Bosch filter
-Flushed (with Prestone Flush) radiator, then distilled many times, now red Valvoline 50/50 coolant. (was original coolant, was nasty!)

To Do:
Gear oil to Redline GL-4 (5 speed manual)
(Edit) Turkey Baster out old dark power steering fluid

Should I change the brake fluid? (it's dark!) How about the clutch Fluid? (looks fine) What about the Headlight Fluid? (Just joking)

 

[HyundaiAbuser]

Brake flush and clutch fluid are a great start. Also check out all rubber boots for rot since its so old and little used.

 

[2010Civic]

Definitely flush the brake and clutch fluid. Not fluid related but I'd recommend checking your caliper pins. Make sure they aren't frozen in the caliper bracket.

 

[E150GT]

I changed the brake fluid in my Buick last year. It was looking pretty bad. I did transmission fluid and coolant as well. I also replaced the radiator cap and thermostat with OE parts.

 

[slacktide_bitog]

Redline MT-90 is good

The brake fluid you can probably wait until you do the pads and rotors. Speed bleeders are awesome

I change the oil, transmission fluid, air filter, cabin filter, and also the coolant and spark plugs when buying a used car.

 

[JeffKeryk]

Service all the fluids. Only way to fly.

 

[Nick1994]

Do them all.

Changing old power steering fluid with a turkey blaster is like [censored] (censored word is other word for flatulence) in a wind storm. Use a 3/8" hose coupler to the return line to a 2' hose into a bucket, block off the reservoir nipple. Start the car for 2 seconds. Top off reservoir. Start car for 2 seconds. Top off reservoir. After just a couple minutes the fluid will be bright red (DEXRON III ATF).

 

[maxdustington]

They made stick Solaras? [censored]!

A worthy successor to the 3.8 W-body.

 

[Oro_O]

Lot of good advice above. Especially re: pins and boots.

I use Sil-Glyde for that. Cheap and easy to find, also does your brakes. Smear it on door seals, trunk gasket, etc. and it will keep them forever.

Quote
Gear oil to Redline GL-4 (5 speed manual)
(Edit) Turkey Baster out old dark power steering fluid

Should I change the brake fluid? (it's dark!) How about the clutch Fluid? (looks fine)


OK, 5spd manual means 4cyl. I had a 2003 of these a while (4cy, 5spd.). Some thoughts:

1) First off, you need to treat this engine with kid gloves because it has two serious design flaws that can get out of hand. One is the head bolt threads were not adequately supported in the block casting. They generally pull out and then create a failed HG and all the massive, dirty, obscene fun those entail. Read up on that.

2) some years suffer from a weird Japanese tendency of the period to reduce oil control ring drain holes and skirt drain inlets. So they hold oil near the ring and they coke up and clog. Then they burn oil like a Saudi Prince heating his Swiss ski chalet. I know a lot about this because I have an Isuzu from then with the same problem. Saturns have this, too.

Your fluids are your first concern, but then you need to get on these issues and learn how to prevent them (very high quality oil in the correct climate-appropriate grade, like M1 10w-30 or similar, is your best bet for the 2nd issue. Maybe better is Redline 10w-30; the ester base has an arguably good chance to clean up the rings/drains. I am not sure what for the 1st issue as we got the car new and got rid of it before this was widely known and I had to deal with it).

Back to your fluids. IF IT WERE MY CAR, knowing what I do, I'd do this:

a) Run the M1 5k miles or so, then dump it and the Bosch filter (it's made by Purolator I think, and they didn't work on our Lexus w/o the ADBV failing). Listen on start-up in the morning and if you hear loud noise quieting after a few seconds, dump that filter and get a Fram Ultra. I'd put in Redline 10w-30 and a Fram Ultra, 10oz of Lubegard Biotech.

b) I'd siphon out the brake fluid res, PSF res, Clutch (is it combined with the brake? I can't recall...). Don't use a turkey baster, it's messy and not effective. $1 worth of hose and siphoning is way better. I love this tool. I had a proper/expensive MityVac and it got stolen. This works really well for a fraction of the money when I had to replace it:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07P9G1K35/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Ok, its' not available now (it was $17 delivered), but you get the idea.

I would refill the PSF with this:

https://www.amazon.com/Lubegard-209...d=1578292321&s=automotive&sr=1-2

I would refill the clutch and brake, PS res, and then repeat a 2nd time after a week or 100+ miles of driving. No need to bleed clutch or brakes unless someone let air in them somehow.

 

[Clubber_Lang]

Thanks for all the replies so far, especially Or

In reference to the motors design flaws, this car has oil change records since day one. Apparently the old guy was big on 6? months or 3,000 miles because there are lots of oil changes sooner than 3,000 miles. All with conventional and a wix filter. Hopefully that helps the car out. As stated, the coolant was pretty disgusting though....

Drain and fill with Prestone flush and distilled, then drain fills and drives with lots of distilled water prior to a fill with Valvoline red 50/50

 

[FT92]

headlight fluid should be changed every 24 hours lol

 

[geetar]

I change all fluids and filters with any car purchase, but I'll confess, I often neglect power steering fluid. I've only ever changed it once and it was using the turkey baster method over the course of a few weeks.

 

[Olas]

brake&clutch&power steering fluid.
aircon if oyu have it?

cheack all belts, check all earths, be prepared to have to replace wheel bearings and rubber bushes soonish (depending how much you drive it)

 

[WyrTwister]

Do not forget to check the hoses and belts on the engine . If the coolant is drained , might consider replacing the tstat , too .

Check the wiper blades and tires .