What's new

7th Gen Power Steering Fluid Change

apintofmild

Members
Messages
903
Reaction score
184
Location
Yorkshire
Car
Golf GTD
There doesn't seem to be a service interval for renewing the PSF, and what follows might be a waste of £25 quid. That said, if in the future I get saddled with an expensive power steering repair bill, and I can take comfort from the fact I've done what's reasonably practical in terms of preventative maintenance.

The car's only done 60K, but I figure renewing the fluid at least a couple of times in the car's lifetime can't do any harm.

Having looked at various sites, for various cars, there is little in the way of a definitive way of changing the power steering fluid. Some advocate pulling off the reservoir return hose and running the engine to drain the system. I have three problems with this:

1. The pump will almost certainly run dry, and and that can't be good.
2. There's a good change of getting a gob of air in the system.
3. The engine bay (and I) will most likely get sprayed with hydraulic fluid.

I've no idea what the total capacity of the system is, so didn't really know how much fluid I'd need. To that end I opted to drain the reservoir, refill with new fluid, drive for a day or two and repeat until the colour of the fluid improved.

My cunning plan was to use a 50ml syringe (eBay) to suck the fluid out. Little did I know that PSF and the rubber material used to make the syringe plunger are incompatible! After a couple of strokes the syringe stuck solid! Have ruined two of my three syringes, I opted for plan B.

a5kz9.jpg


I connected a 2.5 litre bottle between fluid and syringe, using the syringe to pull a vacuum in the bottle, which would then draw out the fluid (thereby keeping the syringe dry).

Over the course of a fortnight I did 8 exchanges (consuming two 1 litre bottles of Honda PSF). I kept a sample after each exchange to ***es the progress.

2hfp7xu.jpg


The leftt-most tube is new & unused fluid, then my 60K fluid, then the result of each drain / fill cycle. The right hand (final) tube isn't spotless, but it would take gallons of fluid to achieve that and I'm happy with what I'm left with.
 
Very interesting Matt - I wonder how long the fluid is supposed to last?
 
I thought the simple way to do this was to drain the system from the lowest point usually on or around the powers steering box then refill the reservoir with fresh fluid. To bleed the system you turn the steering wheel lock to lock several times and work the air out. A very easy process. Just ensure the reservoir is topped so you don't suck additional air back into the system. This will also ensure the pump is not dry at any point. The reservoir isn't pressurised (as it only has a loose red cap on it) so you wouldn't get sprayed.

I wouldn't advocate running the engine with the return pipe off either to drain the system as this will, as you stated, likely run the pump dry causing damage and be very messy.

While the picture of the changing colour of the power steering fluid is a useful indicator for members, this seems quite a labour intensive way of changing the fluid.

But as Dan said it would be useful to know how long this fluid is supposed to last before it needs changing as it doesn't state in the service manual a distance or mileage. It only state the fluid should be visually inspected every 6 months or 6.5k miles at each service so I ***ume it would need changing once it's efficiency drops below a specified percentage.
 
While the picture of the changing colour of the power steering fluid is a useful indicator for members, this seems quite a labour intensive way of changing the fluid.

Fair comment Doc, and I'm not suggesting anyone follow my lead in doing it this way. But when I offset the time and effort taken to get out the jack, the axle stands, the spanners, use them and put them away again I think my ten-minutes-a-night method holds up pretty well. And I didn't spill a drop or get it all over my hands, clothes, or anywhere else.
 
Fair comment Doc, and I'm not suggesting anyone follow my lead in doing it this way. But when I offset the time and effort taken to get out the jack, the axle stands, the spanners, use them and put them away again I think my ten-minutes-a-night method holds up pretty well. And I didn't spill a drop or get it all over my hands, clothes, or anywhere else.
Hi your idea is quite a good actually as you're ensuring that the pump will never ren dry and you not out any strain on the seals on the steering rack.
How many bottles did you use in the end?
Might actually do this at some point as my fluid is quite dark looking.
Have you notice any difference in the steering?
 
Thanks Matt.

Where can you get hold of the lids with two connectors and the tubing shown in the picture?
 
i dont have hydraulic steering as mine is EPS, here's a service manual showing Power steering fluid change.
its for a RSX but it just gives you an idea how Honda does it.

PSFluid-1.jpg
 
Thanks Matt.

Where can you get hold of the lids with two connectors and the tubing shown in the picture?

I made it from junk had lying around the garage!

I just drilled two tight fitting holes in the lid, passed the tube through and pushed some small bore hard plastic pipe in from the inside (to really squash the tube against the yellow plastic cap and form a seal)
 
i dont have hydraulic steering as mine is EPS, here's a service manual showing Power steering fluid change.its for a RSX but it just gives you an idea how Honda does it.
PSFluid-1.jpg

Just checked the 7th gen workshop manual and the instructions are the same.
 
Fair comment Doc, and I'm not suggesting anyone follow my lead in doing it this way. But when I offset the time and effort taken to get out the jack, the axle stands, the spanners, use them and put them away again I think my ten-minutes-a-night method holds up pretty well. And I didn't spill a drop or get it all over my hands, clothes, or anywhere else.

10 minutes a night is quite a reasonable time, and like you say once you offset getting all the tools out it probably works out about the same amount of time.
 
Great technique.

I might do this very soon, I don't trust the technique Honda says, running the engine until no more oil is on the system, :unsure:
 
Excellent job Matt,

Maybe not the quickest way, but certainly the easiest, safest and most convenient way! With added ingenuity to boot.

Rep point on it's way
 
Might try this next year, but just using plastic tubing to syphon the old stuff out, if I'm feeling brave...
 
I might be wrong but I recall speaking to one of the Honda techs who said that the Honda power steering fluid is not a servicable item under normal servicing regime and any sort of fluid replacement, using any technique was very risky as there is a large risk of introducing air into the system..

That's why Honda use a specifically developed lubricant only available from Honda themselves, and no other aftermarket fluid is recommended..
 
can only be a good thing putting fresh stuff in, espec when you look at the state of old fluid, il look into doing it myself
 
Owing to recent changes in Photobucket’s image hosting service some of the information contained in this thread may have been lost.

Until I’ve found a suitable alternative image hosting service, and the time to re-write the post I have uploaded the original as a PDF here:

http://jmp.sh/SGnnNzQ

Note that this is also uses a free hosting service, which may change its T&Cs in time, or go off line entirely. Until then though, it may help someone…
 
Putting the guide into a PDF and uploading to dropbox is an excellent idea !!! :)

I notice that the link is the same for each DIY and there's a "library" of them all B)
 
Top