Thread: Power steering fluid replacement

Originally Posted by Eric SDV6SE

Awesome, glad you've had a win there. I used a flat bladed screw driver to prise it off gently so i didn't have to twist the hose on the fitting. I agree the high underbonnet temps are not friendly to plastics.

You’re back in the good books.

Fortunately I had used my oil vacuum pump to remove the reservoir contents prior so a mega disaster was avoided.

I’m thinking though, different to your technique, when I get the new bottle I’ll jam one of the long oil vac tubes into the return line, fill the new reservoir and run the old fluid out the extension into a bucket till new fluid flows with assistant working the wheel while I top up the reservoir. What could possibly go wrong?

Originally Posted by PerthDisco

when I get the new bottle I’ll jam one of the long oil vac tubes into the return line

This was my plan for next service, so do let us know how you get on and what size hose you used. I suppose you have a bottle you can experiment with now to find a good fit.

It's how I've always done it on my Volvos. No hose removal, just found a bit of retic hose that fitted snugly inside the return in the bottle.

Originally Posted by BradC

This was my plan for next service, so do let us know how you get on and what size hose you used. I suppose you have a bottle you can experiment with now to find a good fit.

It's how I've always done it on my Volvos. No hose removal, just found a bit of retic hose that fitted snugly inside the return in the bottle.

The recovery is complete!

You can’t access the return line other than when it is removed from the bottle. The bottle has a false floor 80% of which is a filter and 20% for letting the return fluid back into the main chamber. In any case the lid is too small for any other solution.

The new bottle conveniently comes with bungs for the outlets as you have to fill with the return line disconnected.





So large vacuum pipe fitted snugly into return line purely as an extension hose and refilled reservoir and started engine. 1 assistant behind wheel and 1 holding line into container so didn’t spray everywhere.

Lesson learnt with only 2 litres of new fluid it pumps incredibly quickly so you are topping as quick as humanly possible. Unless your assistant starts wheel turning immediately you’ve gone through a bottle before you can blink.


Try 2nd bottle with slightly more wheel turning success (car on ground) only to call engine stop before fully emptying second bottle.



So with reservoir not quite at MIN level and return line reconnected plan is to run car for a while and then later suction out reservoir contents before topping off to correct level giving best possible flush. At least the new bottle has a sparkling clean filter.

The old broken spigot came out in bits as it was removed from the return line. Would suggest anyone doing this on a 10 year+ car be ready to buy a new reservoir bottle.

Used Penrite PAS

I'm pretty sure I moved the coolant bottle off its mount to access the hoses. It's fiddly and tight, but doable.

Originally Posted by Eric SDV6SE

I'm pretty sure I moved the coolant bottle off its mount to access the hoses. It's fiddly and tight, but doable.

The PS reservoir disconnects from the coolant bottle by lifting it up as the catch is a tapered fit.

You can then lay it down into the space in front of battery and very easily access hoses and clamps.

Fill this space around the PS hoses with rags during the operation.

Originally Posted by PerthDisco

$99.50, 1 in stock #winning

Picking up tomorrow.

Good indication that plastic parts can and do get brittle as I do not know how you you could of tried to wiggle off the very tight hose any more carefully.

Rovacraft has been my goto place for when I need spares in a hurry, so far they've had all the items I've required quickly or its been the next day

I ordered a new reservoir and have 4L of new fluid to give it a good flush. LR Time have a good video on the topic. I’ll be doing mine once the new reservoir comes from the UK. I figure 12 years and 300k km it’s due

Originally Posted by DiscoJeffster

I ordered a new reservoir and have 4L of new fluid to give it a good flush. LR Time have a good video on the topic. I’ll be doing mine once the new reservoir comes from the UK. I figure 12 years and 300k km it’s due

Snap, although if I don't break the existing reservoir I probably won't change it over. Having done this plenty of times on other vehicles I generally do it without the engine running. Just manually running the rack from lock to lock is enough to pump the fluid through. Once clean fluid is down to the pump, flick the engine a couple of times to make sure the old fluid is pushed out of the pump and continue to run it lock to lock to pump the remainder out through the rack.

I calculated the rack holds not much more than a couple of hundred ml of fluid, so by the time that's done a few times it's all clean. I'll follow the same deal on the D3 and see if it works the same way. My gear is due this week, so I want to do that before I go away for Easter.