I've been trying to get educated on doing a better job of maintaining my vehicles (while not blowing a ton of cash) and read plenty of threads on various forums where guys are just sucking out fluid with a turkey baster and refilling. Is this really good enough?
I'm specifically asking in regards to power steering and brake fluid. The shop I'm going to tomorrow is recommending a PS service where they "clean" the system using some BG product and I'm thinking that might not be the best idea for a 12 year old car with 180k on it. For the record, these guys don't appear "flush happy", they did recommend the proper drain and fill for the transmission where I've seen other shops just go "flush it!"
This is the first time the PS fluid has been changed, and to me, doing an "extract and fill" a couple times sounds like a safer way to get fresh fluid in there. Pumping some cleanser through the old system sounds risky. I know the turkey baster technique won't get 100% of the fluid out, but is that really necessary? The Honda service manual basically recommends dumping the resevoir and turning the wheel to force more fluid out of the system, then refilling and the "extract and fill" doesn't sound too far off from that. Maybe I'd only get 75% of the fluid instead of 90%? One other note, this is just to get the old fluid out for good measure, it isn't in response to any performance issues or strange noise from the power steering.
I am thinking that a complete exchange of the brake fluid on a 12 year old car would be more beneficial since the fluid is hygroscopic and with an old system there is probably a higher chance of some contamination. I appreciate your thoughts.
I'm specifically asking in regards to power steering and brake fluid. The shop I'm going to tomorrow is recommending a PS service where they "clean" the system using some BG product and I'm thinking that might not be the best idea for a 12 year old car with 180k on it. For the record, these guys don't appear "flush happy", they did recommend the proper drain and fill for the transmission where I've seen other shops just go "flush it!"
This is the first time the PS fluid has been changed, and to me, doing an "extract and fill" a couple times sounds like a safer way to get fresh fluid in there. Pumping some cleanser through the old system sounds risky. I know the turkey baster technique won't get 100% of the fluid out, but is that really necessary? The Honda service manual basically recommends dumping the resevoir and turning the wheel to force more fluid out of the system, then refilling and the "extract and fill" doesn't sound too far off from that. Maybe I'd only get 75% of the fluid instead of 90%? One other note, this is just to get the old fluid out for good measure, it isn't in response to any performance issues or strange noise from the power steering.
I am thinking that a complete exchange of the brake fluid on a 12 year old car would be more beneficial since the fluid is hygroscopic and with an old system there is probably a higher chance of some contamination. I appreciate your thoughts.