Can someone tell if Suby's require any special power steering fluid? If not, can anyone recommned a power steering fluid for me to buy? Thanks
I think its just subaru Auto Trans Fluid. Thats what my car takes. Not sure about others but I imagine it would be the same.
I was lurking around nabisco and found the same recommendation: use auto tranny fluid. Then again, the other most popular piece of advice I came across was "you don't need to change power steering fluid."
As far back as I can recall (70's) all SUBARU's use standard ATF for power steering fluid. The only exception is the XT6. It uses some kind of special junk that only FUJI makes and its ULTRA expensive.
I had to change mine (and I believe others have had to as well). It would go out while autoxing. This was around 45-50k miles.
This is what I though, good to have confirmation! That's good to know, I have done about a dozen events this season. What would I look for to know if the fluid is going bad?
For N/A cars the load on the PS system is much less. Usually a one in a whenever you want interval is fine. For WRX the load is high. Usually once a year or whenever it starts to degrade is fine. For STi the load is beyond comprehension. I'd recommend lots of different intervals for STi, it all depends on how hard you drive it, how often you autox/track it, climate, etc etc.
Nevermind...I found it. 1) Lift-up the vehicle. 2) Remove the crossmember support. 3) Remove the pipe joint in the center of gearbox, and connect the vinyl hose to the pipe and joint. Wipe fluid off while turning the steering wheel. 4) Add the specified fluid to reservoir tank at MAX level. 5) Continue to turn the steering wheel slowly from lock to lock until the bubbles stop appearing on oil surface while keeping the fluid at the level in the Step 4). 6) If turning the steering wheel in low fluid level condition, air will be sucked in pipe. In this case, leave it about half an hour and then do the step 5) again. 7) Start the engine and let it idle. 8) Continue to turn the steering wheel slowly from lock to lock again until the bubbles stop appearing on oil surface while keeping the fluid at the level in Step 4). Normally bubbles stop appearing after three times turning of steering wheel from lock to lock. 9) In case bubbles do not stop appearing in the tank, leave it about half an hour and then do the step 4) all over again. 10) Lower the vehicle, and then idle the engine. 11) Continue to turn the steering wheel from lock to lock until the bubbles stop appearing and change of the fluid level is within 3 mm (0.12 in). 12) In case the following happens, leave it about half an hour and then do step 8) to 11) again. (1) The fluid level changes over 3 mm (0.12 in). (2) Bubbles remain on the upper surface of the fluid. (3) Grinding noise is generated from oil pump. 13) Check the fluid leakage after turning steering wheel from lock to lock with engine running. Recommended power steering fluid Manufacturer ATF DEXRON III or equivalent B.P. CALTEX CASTROL MOBIL SHELL TEXACO PS
This is a stupid answer to your question, but when your power steering goes out, it becomes much more difficult to turn the wheel (like if you don't have power steering). I'm not sure how else to put it.