I want to change my power steering fluid. I got my 2906 Toyota Sienna at about 116k miles and now I’m at around 160k. I have no idea if it’s ever been changed, but I think it’s pretty dark and is slightly lower than it should be.

I was going to drain it out with a turkey baster like I see online, but I’m wondering if it would be best to have a shop flush it since it is so old.

Please let me know if there is any value to spending the $150 to get it done professionally vs the cost of the fluid and baster for doing it myself.

Thank you!

  • wormwormo@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Just suck it up and refill to the minimum line when it’s cold. For proper factory way there’s supposed to be more bolts to drain but it’s usually hard to get to. What I do I to suck it up and refill 3 times between drives. And that should get most of the old fluid out. Read your manual. I think you need the Toyota atf fluid. If in doubt go to dealer parts to get a bottle and ask them for the right fluid. And recycle the old stuff.

  • mycatsareloud@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    It’s one of the easiest home projects imo. If you have a pump extractor it’s substantially easier, you can also use a turkey baster and jack stands to turn the wheels to push the fluid back into the rez.

    Also you probably have a leaky power steering rack, I’d check that out heh

  • Hrothgar_Nilsson@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Your power steering fluid is just ATF. Maybe it’s not dyed red from the factory fill but you can just change it out with something like Valvoline MaxLife synthetic ATF. Look at the reservoir cap on the PSF reservoir, should say something about Dexron. Anything you can buy for it labeled as PSF in that case is just undyed Dexron ATF.

    An easier way to pump out the fluid is just to clean out a pump dispenser from an old liquid soap bottle and pump everything from the reservoir it into an empty container. Turkey basters tend to drop fluid as you lift them out and the pumps tend to leak residual fluid too that didn’t get pumped when you lift them from the reservoir and drain bottle.

    Do this several times over a few weeks with a couple quarts of Dexron ATF like Valvoline Maxlife and eventually you’ll have 99% new fluid for $10 or $12.