Steering fluid change

[BFG in the BRG]

Hi all,

I've looked everywhere I can think of on this site and can't find much about changing the Power Assisted Steering fluid. Looked in the manual and underneath the car and it looks pretty tight, is it possible on axle stands, it seems a way underneath the car and so I would presumably need to lift the car fairly high.

Or is it best left to garage?

Any advice most appreciated.

[Candles]

The easiest thing to do is to forget fiddling around underneath. All you are doing by attacking the steering rack pipes is asking for the Elan demons to strike you down with a leak at some point this summer, or, if properly haunted, round off a union or strip a thread.

Instead, use a turkey-baster or similar to remove as much fluid as possible from the reservoir. You could even carefully turn the pump and purge a bit more fluid from the system. When you've got as much as you can out, refill it with fresh.

This way, over a couple of changes you'll have almost completely new oil, and none of the dangers above.

Gash and lazy I know but let's face it, if 90% of the oil is new, it'll be fine.

Candles.

[muley]

Well, I am changing mine by pulling the low pressure pipe of the pump (lift the RHS pod to get access to the pipe clamp) refitting and refilling.

I seem to recall it is part of a C service to change the fluid?

Cheers


Jim

p.s. and in my case, I'm taking the pipe off to upgrade the alternator

JB

[Candles]

I suppose you could turn the pump (by hand) to pump it out of there as well.

[BFG in the BRG]

Thanks,
Really glad I asked now, I did end up replacing some of the fluid when I undid the inlet to the PAS pump to make some space during the cam belt change, will probably go and buy a turkey baster, or better still syphon it out - I'll let you know what it tastes like , and empty and refil a couple more times. Of all the jobs I have done, for some reason this one seemed to be difficult, the rest were just fiddly. It is part of the C service - wonder how they do it.......4 post lift probably helps.

[GeoffSmith]

Even on my S2 I found that the pipe into the rack was inextricably fused to the nut, so far better to be a baster like Candles.

[Monty]

I`ve not done this yet (i`ve got a new PAS rack) but make sure you bleed the system correctly

[Candles]

Bleeding it is just filling it up, turning it a bit and using it. No black magic to this one thankfully!

[Doug]

The easiest thing to do is to forget fiddling around underneath. All you are doing by attacking the steering rack pipes is asking for the Elan demons to strike you down with a leak at some point this summer, or, if properly haunted, round off a union or strip a thread.

Instead, use a turkey-baster or similar to remove as much fluid as possible from the reservoir. When you've got as much as you can out, refill it with fresh.

This way, over a couple of changes you'll have almost completely new oil, and none of the dangers above.

Gash and lazy I know but let's face it, if 90% of the oil is new, it'll be fine.

Candles.

This is how I always do it . . .

[Candles]

This is how I always do it . . .

Shouldn't you use the past tense?

[Doug]

well, I thought about it and that is correct with regard to my Elan, but since I still do the same procedure for my 2 current cars, I chose the present tense