Ok, it has been quite a while, I was hoping to have done this earlier in the year. I finally completed my 1,500 mile Auto-RX run in the power steering system on my 1995 Mercury Grand Marquis. I had added 1.5 ounces of Auto-RX back in May. During the Auto-RX phase, I noticed that my power steering became quiet once it was warmed up and morning times weren't as hissy.
I used kgb007stb's method, the old school way, and began by draining the reservoir by removing the bottom hose, and then removed the top hose (return line).
The fluid was not that blackened or discolored, but by looking in the reservoir there was evidence of clumped up tiny balls of crud, along with some metal shavings, not much though. It appears that the inside of the reservoir has a screen to prevent large debris from going into the bottom hose and then through the system. And it was nowhere close to clogged.
I jacked up the front end of the car, placed an empty gallon jug a little offset from the reservoir and placed the return line in the jug. I used some saran wrap, and a twist tie, to plug that hole in the reservoir. I then filled the reservoir with some left over Super Tech PS fluid, and turned the wheels from lock to lock 3 times (with the engine off). I did this to make sure the fluid was circulating as expected. After I saw the reservoir nearly drained, I went ahead and began flushing the Amsoil Supershift ATF through the system. I put two quarts through the system in the same manner as the Super Tech, then I re-attached all the hoses, topped off the system with about 1/3 of the 3rd bottle of Supershift ATF. Then left the reservoir cap off, cranked up the car and turned the wheel lock to lock about 4-5 times and shut the engine off. Then re-checked the reservoir and topped off with approximately 5 ounces of fluid. It took about 1.5 hours to do, but most of that time was just figuring out what the **** I was doing.
From now on it will be yearly drain-and-fills with the Amsoil Supershift ATF, so one quart will go two years with this method.
This was a learning experience, hope someone else can use this for their future maintenance guidelines.
I used kgb007stb's method, the old school way, and began by draining the reservoir by removing the bottom hose, and then removed the top hose (return line).
The fluid was not that blackened or discolored, but by looking in the reservoir there was evidence of clumped up tiny balls of crud, along with some metal shavings, not much though. It appears that the inside of the reservoir has a screen to prevent large debris from going into the bottom hose and then through the system. And it was nowhere close to clogged.
I jacked up the front end of the car, placed an empty gallon jug a little offset from the reservoir and placed the return line in the jug. I used some saran wrap, and a twist tie, to plug that hole in the reservoir. I then filled the reservoir with some left over Super Tech PS fluid, and turned the wheels from lock to lock 3 times (with the engine off). I did this to make sure the fluid was circulating as expected. After I saw the reservoir nearly drained, I went ahead and began flushing the Amsoil Supershift ATF through the system. I put two quarts through the system in the same manner as the Super Tech, then I re-attached all the hoses, topped off the system with about 1/3 of the 3rd bottle of Supershift ATF. Then left the reservoir cap off, cranked up the car and turned the wheel lock to lock about 4-5 times and shut the engine off. Then re-checked the reservoir and topped off with approximately 5 ounces of fluid. It took about 1.5 hours to do, but most of that time was just figuring out what the **** I was doing.
From now on it will be yearly drain-and-fills with the Amsoil Supershift ATF, so one quart will go two years with this method.
This was a learning experience, hope someone else can use this for their future maintenance guidelines.
