Power Steering fluid capacity?

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I want to change the PS fluid in my wife's Ford Exploder.

The maintenance manual doesn't give any interval or capacity information. I guess they figure "it's good for the life of the car".

Any ideas on how much fluid is in one of these things?
 
I'm guessing less than 2 quarts but I'm not really sure. I have an Explorer I would like to do the same, how do you plan on draining it?

[ December 20, 2002, 08:52 PM: Message edited by: Giles ]
 
I’ve never owned a car with power steering before so I don’t really know what I’m doing.

I plan on sucking the fluid from the reservoir with my mityvac, disconnecting the return hose, which is located just below the reservoir. Then use gravity or the mityvac to drain/suck as much fluid as I can from the system from the return line. Plug the hole in the reservoir, fill the reservoir, drain more fluid from the return line, cuss, swear and ***** a lot, etc.

I plan on my wife taking my car to work so she will think everything went smoothly and I’m a regular mechanical genius.
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It may not be as much as you think.

The reason I say that is I decided to change the Power Steering PS fluid is my Saturn. I didn't not know how much to buy so I called Saturn.

16 ozs was what he called a full overhaul fill.

Don't know what I expected but 16 ozs wasn't it.
 
I've heard that some have siphoned out as much fluid and then refilled with fresh. Drove a bit, then repeated the process a couple times. It taks more fluid, but it simplifies and its harder for anything to go wrong. It probably gets 90% of the old fluid out this way depending on how many times you do it.
 
quote:

Originally posted by Giles:
I've heard that some have siphoned out as much fluid and then refilled with fresh. Drove a bit, then repeated the process a couple times. It taks more fluid, but it simplifies and its harder for anything to go wrong. It probably gets 90% of the old fluid out this way depending on how many times you do it.

I'm in the process of doing this now. I bought a bottle that's about 500ml I think, and on the first try I got about half of that out of the reservoir, have driven a week or so, and will use the other 250ml today. This is on a 95 LT1 Firebird.
 
quote:

Originally posted by Giles:
I've heard that some have siphoned out as much fluid and then refilled with fresh. Drove a bit, then repeated the process a couple times. It taks more fluid, but it simplifies and its harder for anything to go wrong. It probably gets 90% of the old fluid out this way depending on how many times you do it.

I've done that. The results aren't what I had in mind.
 
The easiest way for me has been to use a turkey baster to pull out what is in the reservoir. When I get close to the bottom, I use the hand pump from a small pump bottle to get as much out of the bottom as possible. Refill to proper level, run for a while, and repeat two more times.
 
I have a vacuum pump that I used on my Explorer PS fluid a few weeks ago. I was able to remove almost a full quart from the pump.

I was trying to cure a shudder in the steering on low speed turns. It is fixed, but I don't know if it was the new fluid, or the new brake pads...???
 
I finished up my second drain and fill on my PS fluid. I ended up using the full 473ml bottle to do this "suck out" and fill method twice.
 
I prefer to do a flush the first time (remove return line) if the fluid is older in order to remove the sediments in the fluid. Not that hard and more thorough than sucking it out imho.
 
quote:

Originally posted by **** in Falls Church:
The easiest way for me has been to use a turkey baster to pull out what is in the reservoir. When I get close to the bottom, I use the hand pump from a small pump bottle to get as much out of the bottom as possible. Refill to proper level, run for a while, and repeat two more times.

that soOOo does not work for me...i have some pressure plate inside my resavor and there is more fluid under...i cant stick ne thing down there to suck it out..with turkey baster i probably got umm 20 % of the fluid out. then i used a psyphen pump...put it in the line..and got a little more out but not much..so maybe got like 40 % of the fluid out...pissed me off. i wish i can use a vacumn...but i dont have one made for oils....that is probably just for my accord..GM and other cars are much easier...i cant even take out my resavor without removing the crusecontrol unit, and a couple of wires, and the inner tire wall.
 
quote:

Originally posted by RobZ71LM7:
I prefer to do a flush the first time (remove return line) if the fluid is older in order to remove the sediments in the fluid. Not that hard and more thorough than sucking it out imho.

how do u know which is ur return line?? i got 3...one from the bottom of the resavor going into the power steering pully...one comming back to the resavor, and another going to the resavor..
 
quote:

Originally posted by digitaldrifter91:

quote:

Originally posted by RobZ71LM7:
I prefer to do a flush the first time (remove return line) if the fluid is older in order to remove the sediments in the fluid. Not that hard and more thorough than sucking it out imho.

how do u know which is ur return line?? i got 3...one from the bottom of the resavor going into the power steering pully...one comming back to the resavor, and another going to the resavor..


I used my Helm's manual (factory GM service manual). My Camaro has a remote reservoir and the smaller 3/8" line is the return line. You can only idle the engine for a couple seconds this way (pump goes very fast), but this is the factory method.
 
By the way, I found out the LT1 f-bodies have a 2.5 pint PS fluid capacity. I assume the LS1 f-bodies are the same too.
 
my helms dont tell me at all what lines are what for my power steering. it just gives me 4 steps and thats onyl to get the air out of the system...sucks..
 
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