Hi Guys

 

Plan on fitting chromed Power steering reservoir, thought good opportunity to drain and replace power steering fluid. Whats the best method? Thought about removing one of the pipes on the steering rack and letting it drain out, will this drain the Hicas as well? Whats the best process to do all this, are there any gaskets/seals i will need to complete?

 

Can i use power steering pump to pump the fluid out for me and will this drain HIcas, will it blow it out too quickly, can the motor run without fluid as it drains?

 

All advice appreciated

 

Regards

Kev

I stuck a Pela oil draining pump in the reservoir and sucked it out. Got most of it out but there will still be some left in the hicas pipes.

 

Don't know about using the p/s pump..

Don't run the power steering pump to remove oil. Do as above or remove lower pipes off the 'resy' connections(with a suitable flatish container underneath to collect the oil) and allow the resy to drain. Top up and bleed if required. If you manage to keep the pipes fully primed, then you wont have to bleed the system, just fill up the resy, move your steering around and top up.

I thought i read somewhere that to bleed the power steering system, you just turn steering wheel left and right, the pump moves the fluid to get rid of air keep topped up.

 

Where would be the best place to drain the whole system, as i guess all the piping from front to rear of car would hold a reasonable amount of fluid.

Unless there is someone else on here who knows of another way?

 

On the rear HICAS actuator situated on top, there is a system bleed valve. With this in mind, the only way I can think of to change ALL/MOST of the fluid is to flush the complete system through with new oil from the resevoir to the HICAS actuator. This would/will be expensive to do as you will need enough fluid (Dexron III) transfering through the system until the old is replaced with the new.

 

You will also need three pairs of hands; one ensuring that the resy is continuously topped up, one to turn the steering wheel back and forth and someone under the back of the car controlling the output of oil through the bleed valve.

 

As I said at the top of the post, someone may know of another method, but I can't think of any other way to empty the complete system and replace the old oil.

You could also connect a pela pump to the bleed nipple on the actuator, leaving the ps reservoir's lid on. This would create a much better vacuum than the reservoir method and should remove the vast majority of the fluid from the pipes.