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Power Purge the P/S Fluid or Do The Turkey Baster?


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Well, I have a P/S whine. The fluid is <gulp> OLD. Really old.

I want to change it. It smells burnt. The level looks low in the

reservoir but says somewhat high on the mini-dipstick.

I had the serp belt and it's tensioner changed last year, along

with a new A/C compressor. The noise is definitely P/S related.

Do I "turkey baster" out the fluid in the reservoir or no?

What is the best way to completely change the PS fluid?

And what is the "power purge?"

With your user name being what it is I'd have to be hard pressed. I, however, do find it entertaining.

The definition of an enthusiast is "a person filled with enthusiasm" or " one who is ardently attached to a cause, object, or pursuit." Then there is my personal favorite "one who tends to become ardently absorbed in an interest." I would call the last one fanatic, bordering on unhealthy. I think I'd rather be an enthusiast as opposed to a fanatic.

CADS RULE DUDES! Alright Alright Alright...

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After 142,000 miles on what I assume to be the original fluid, I did the turkey baster on mine. I emptied the reservoir with the baster and refilled it with fresh every night for a week. I'm sure there's more in there, and I might do that process again, but it started coming out pretty clean after a week, which is why I stopped. It's certainly the easiest and cleanest way to go, and it only takes 5 minutes each evening after you park the car.

Jason(2001 STS, White Diamond)

"When you turn your car on...does it return the favor?"

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I hear the turkey baster is the way to go, like Jason said. I have yet to try it but it's one of those tricks that just makes sense. After reading a post on it last year(probably Jason's) I picked up a super duper turkey baster. Will draw out a 1/2 qt each time ($10 on sale). Looking forward to giving it a go.

"Burns" rubber

" I've never considered myself to be all that conservative, but it seems the more liberal some people get the more conservative I become. "

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It's a mess (power) purging the fluid. You remove the

feed line to the reservior and route it to a tank. Start it

up and fill the reservior as fast as you can. First off your

probably gonna break the reservior when removing the

feed line (the connector is really brittle). Then when your

done purging there's gonna be air in the pump which has to

be purged. Lastly, who knows what damage is done to the

pump, because it's impossible keep the level up as it's

being purged and it will run dry.

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Power Purge is the way to go! If you simply suck out the fluid from the reservoir you're just kidding yourself ;)

Remove the, low pressure, return line from the tank and connect it to a piece of clear tubing (cap the nipple on the tank) have some one start the engine and start pouring fluid in while at idle.

Have a couple of Big bottles of fluid opened & ready and a large receptacle to receive all the fluid.

You'll see the black fluid go to clear in the discharge tube pretty quickly.

Now the important part (and why the "baster" is BS) as you turn the wheel from lock-to-lock the fluid goes, instantly, from clear to black again. THIS IS A FLUSH! :D

If you do it right and are prepared, it's not messy, never gets air in the system, and just pumps out the old crappy stuff while replacing it with the new.

The fluid is cheap, the hose can be reused when you do your transmission the same way, and you really get a good feeling seeing that black crud being pumped out of your car :)

My only concern is that if you've got a "whine" now, your problems may be bigger than dirty fluid :(

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Ralph,

Wow great directions. I was thinking of the turkey baster as more of preventative maintenance or just an easy "solution". Flushing the system is probably to best way to clean the system if it's really dirty. And while we're on the subject lets not forget to mention the power steering filter. That should probably be changed as well. I had a little whine a couple years ago and the filter did the trick.

"Burns" rubber

" I've never considered myself to be all that conservative, but it seems the more liberal some people get the more conservative I become. "

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The "baster" method is gonna get most of all the fluid changed if you do it once a day untill clear.

As mentioned though, it may be too late if the pump has started to whine.

Only one way to find out....

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Guys, great responses!! Just "turkey basted." The whine is next to nill now.

I think my fluid was cooked. It was dark, and stanky.

It's a start. Will "turkey" it a few more times.

Hey Ralph, the purge sounds great. Think I'll do it when I

replace the filter and a hose or two. Great directions. Thanks.

Do you purge the air from the system up

on jackstands with some lock to lock turns??

With your user name being what it is I'd have to be hard pressed. I, however, do find it entertaining.

The definition of an enthusiast is "a person filled with enthusiasm" or " one who is ardently attached to a cause, object, or pursuit." Then there is my personal favorite "one who tends to become ardently absorbed in an interest." I would call the last one fanatic, bordering on unhealthy. I think I'd rather be an enthusiast as opposed to a fanatic.

CADS RULE DUDES! Alright Alright Alright...

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Yes.

Also, just for the record, the PS filter is located in front of the front Pass. side wheel well, despite what even the dealer may tell you. It sure was an experiece for me trying to convince even the parts guy at THE DEALER that the darn thing existed. I even showed it to him, on the car, and he insisted that it was a fuel filter!lol

I finally found an AutoZone that confirmed I was not telling a fable.

" ...'took my Cobra down t' the track, hitched to the back o' my Cadillac..."

- Jan & Dean, 'hey little cobra'

Scott

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Alright Scotty!! Nice pic!

Question now is, what is that big round "black bomb lookin thing"

above and to the left of the filter???

With your user name being what it is I'd have to be hard pressed. I, however, do find it entertaining.

The definition of an enthusiast is "a person filled with enthusiasm" or " one who is ardently attached to a cause, object, or pursuit." Then there is my personal favorite "one who tends to become ardently absorbed in an interest." I would call the last one fanatic, bordering on unhealthy. I think I'd rather be an enthusiast as opposed to a fanatic.

CADS RULE DUDES! Alright Alright Alright...

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That black plastic bomb is a vacuum tank. On a related note, if you ever have the problem where under hard acceleration or deep throttle (climbing a hill, etc) and the air mixing door defaults back to defrost mode, taking the air away from the panel vents, it's usually a broken vacuum line from this tank. Battery acid can leak from the battery and eat the rubber vacuum line that runs from this tank.

Jason(2001 STS, White Diamond)

"When you turn your car on...does it return the favor?"

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On the subject of the powersteering filter, the local Cadillac dealer parts department also told me that there wasn't a filter on the powersteering system. I gave them the part number and he looked it up. He said "darn!! I would have bet money that you were wrong!" "We have NEVER sold one." :blink: & this from a Caddy dealership that is at least 20+ years old! <_<

I guess that there are a lot of Caddy's out there that have NEVER had that filter changed!

By the way, I think that I would change it AFTER the flush, if you are going to flush it. And as far as I can tell, it is NOT interchangeable with a fuel filter. It has it's own part number and in it's type of service, it gets WAY HOTTER than any gas filter.

You say AutoZone had one? When I checked with them over a year ago, they didn't offer one. The counter guy tried to sell me a gas filter, <_< I declined.

Britt

Britt
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Remove the, low pressure, return line from the tank and connect it to a piece of clear tubing (cap the nipple on the tank) have some one start the engine and start pouring fluid in while at idle.

Hey Ralph, forgive me for being inexperienced.....

Is the low pressure return line the one on top of or below the reservoir??

With your user name being what it is I'd have to be hard pressed. I, however, do find it entertaining.

The definition of an enthusiast is "a person filled with enthusiasm" or " one who is ardently attached to a cause, object, or pursuit." Then there is my personal favorite "one who tends to become ardently absorbed in an interest." I would call the last one fanatic, bordering on unhealthy. I think I'd rather be an enthusiast as opposed to a fanatic.

CADS RULE DUDES! Alright Alright Alright...

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On the subject of the powersteering filter, the local Cadillac dealer parts department also told me that there wasn't a filter on the powersteering system. I gave them the part number and he looked it up. He said "darn!! I would have bet money that you were wrong!" "We have NEVER sold one." :blink: & this from a Caddy dealership that is at least 20+ years old! <_<

I guess that there are a lot of Caddy's out there that have NEVER had that filter changed!

By the way, I think that I would change it AFTER the flush, if you are going to flush it. And as far as I can tell, it is NOT interchangeable with a fuel filter. It has it's own part number and in it's type of service, it gets WAY HOTTER than any gas filter.

You say AutoZone had one? When I checked with them over a year ago, they didn't offer one. The counter guy tried to sell me a gas filter, <_< I declined.

Britt

I don't believe the replacement of the PS filter is even recommended on the maintenance schedule which means it probably is a lifetime part. It is probably sized such that it wouldn't plug up over several lifetimes of the vehicle.

If it makes you feel better to change it, by all means change it but if it were necessary, it would have been included in the maintenance schedule.

Kevin
'93 Fleetwood Brougham
'05 Deville
'04 Deville
2013 Silverado Z71

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They could be plastic, I don't remember. Whatever it is, it corrodes in the presence of battery acid. :)

Jason(2001 STS, White Diamond)

"When you turn your car on...does it return the favor?"

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Power Purge is the way to go! If you simply suck out the fluid from the reservoir you're just kidding yourself ;)

Remove the, low pressure, return line from the tank and connect it to a piece of clear tubing (cap the nipple on the tank) have some one start the engine and start pouring fluid in while at idle.

Have a couple of Big bottles of fluid opened & ready and a large receptacle to receive all the fluid.

You'll see the black fluid go to clear in the discharge tube pretty quickly.

Now the important part (and why the "baster" is BS) as you turn the wheel from lock-to-lock the fluid goes, instantly, from clear to black again. THIS IS A FLUSH! :D

If you do it right and are prepared, it's not messy, never gets air in the system, and just pumps out the old crappy stuff while replacing it with the new.

The fluid is cheap, the hose can be reused when you do your transmission the same way, and you really get a good feeling seeing that black crud being pumped out of your car :)

My only concern is that if you've got a "whine" now, your problems may be bigger than dirty fluid :(

Thanks Ralph, this is a good method of purging the fluid and I hope to do mine when it warms up along with the filter. I think this is the method that the service manual describes. I will buy a couple of quarts of power steering fluid from the dealer when I buy the filter. I am not having any problems and my steering is smooth, but now is the time to do it before I have problems. I think a fluid change is also good for the seals. Thanks, Mike

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