Have you ever changed the power steering fluid in a vehicle?
A mechanic has told my wife that it needs to be replaced.
Out of all the vehicles that I have owned I have never had that done.
She says yes I say no.

Who is right and why?


edit: Vehicle is a 2005

Have you ever changed the power steering fluid in a vehicle?
A mechanic has told my wife that it needs to be replaced.
Out of all the vehicles that I have owned I have never had that done.
She says yes I say no.

Who is right and why?


edit: Vehicle is a 2005

I would assume the fluid breaks down just like brake fluid, nothing should last forever.

I would assume the fluid breaks down just like brake fluid, nothing should last forever.

I kind of agree but I have and have had vehicles with well over 100,000 miles and I have NEVER heard of changing power steering fluid....Never heard of anyone ever changing it either....

Not All Power Steering Fluids Are Created Equal (http://www.cardone.com/tech-help/steering/how-it-works-best-practices/not-all-power-steering-fluids-are-created-equal)

And a good read in your case....

I kind of agree but I have and have had vehicles with well over 100,000 miles and I have NEVER heard of changing power steering fluid....Never heard of anyone ever changing it either....

Never have either, but have heard of several power steering pumps being replaced...

The problem with P/S fluid in todays cars is the rack & pinion. It’s made of aluminum, the shaft is steel. You get aluminum flakes in the fluid which is pumped thought the system and can eat the seals in the rack and/or the pump over time. Put a few drops of fluid on your finger if it looks metallic ……. A little PM might save some $$$ down the road. :buddies:

The vehicle has 57,000 miles on it.
It is a 2005 Hyundai Santa Fe.

The vehicle has 57,000 miles on it.
It is a 2005 Hyundai Santa Fe.

Wife had a 2005 Santa Fe, traded it 7 months later for the VW.
But it only had like 15k on it when we offloaded it so the power steering fluid issue never came up.

Wife had a 2005 Santa Fe, traded it 7 months later for the VW.
But it only had like 15k on it when we offloaded it so the power steering fluid issue never came up.

You are a lot of help.

Changing power steering fluid ranks right up there with changing muffler bearings. I've never changed it in my cars and some of them had over 180,000 miles on them. It sounds like they're trying to take advantage of a woman...

Changing power steering fluid ranks right up there with changing muffler bearings. I've never changed it in my cars and some of them had over 180,000 miles on them. It sounds like they're trying to take advantage of a woman...

I tried that one time but I used a different line...
"Hey baby, hows bout I change your power steering fluid" Nope, didn't work..

And you can run a differential for that long with the same fluid too. And most vehicles will be just fine with that. I't's not a made up thing to change it, most makers do have a recommended interval for such. Like completely swapping out brake fluid, it's a thing most people never think of, and for how long they own it, it wont matter.

Certainly wont harm it to change it out, not like power flushing an older transmission. How much does he want for this service? My guess is he was a unit designed for this, and it makes him mad profit margin. I would have to look it up, but doing this at home shouldn't be crazy hard. Easier than trans fluid, but not as easy as a differential.

Overall, not a thing I would sweat. I'll be changing the Chargers fluid out, but that's becuase it's big heavy wheels and wide tires stress the hell out of it's system, like the tie rods.

Things have changed a lot since I was a mechanic in the 1970's (for instance my '67 Cadillac used Type A automatic transmission fluid as power steering fluid), but in the few years I was a mechanic, the only time I saw anybody change out power steering fluid was in conjunction with a power steering pump burnout. It was easy to tell something should be done with the fluid because it was brown instead of clear.

But lets face it, RR, we expect things to last a lot longer and take much more than they did back then. The engine bays of today are a much more hostile work environment for fluids, mostly due to heat. I look under the hood of my 2006 6.1 liter car, and right next to it, the 6.4 liter in the Cougar, and the P/S pump in the Cougars bay has more open air around it than anything in the Chargers.

And the Chargers is being asked to move 20 inch tall wheels with 255/70 series tires, a ridiculous increase in contact patch, and with much sticker rubber than anything other than the drag slicks would have provided back then.

And we expect a much smaller incidence of failures than we did back then.