Original P/S fluid @30k miles

[KrisZ]

The power steering started to groan a bit in our Grand Caravan despite pretty warm weather and I decided to flush the P/S fluid. The vehicle has been with us for only 3 years and it only has 30k miles on it. As you can imagine it is short tripped a lot and driven mostly city stop and go commute. If it gets driven for longer periods of time it is for our family trips.
The original P/S fluid looked pretty good, but there were a lot of break in materials in there and on the reservoir screen. The process it extremely easy and can be done from the top, only raising the front wheel is required.

Here are some pic of the reservoir and the oil with metal shavings floating. You can see where the sun hits the fluid just how many shavings were in there.

 

[mattwithcats]

I put a Wix 33033 filter into the return line of my power steering....

3/8 diameter, 15 micron, came with squeeze clamps and a short length of hose.

 

[vssjim]

Wix also sells the magna pure type of trans/power steering inline universal filters that work good 58963 for 7/16 line and 58964 5/16

 

[JC1]

Thanks for the Pics Kris. I will have to do mine in the spring. Did you use ATF+4 for the refill?

 

[dave1251]

Thank you. That is a bit of break in materials, I assume the whine has subsided.

 

[KrisZ]

I had some Petro Canada Synthetic MV fluid left so I used that, as the power steering pump should not be fussy about fluid type.

I'm intrigued by the idea of installing an online filter after seeing so much break in material in this system. There is plenty of room for it.
How often do you guys change the filter?