Power Steering going bad? - Toyota 4Runner Forum

tmeays8 · 02-10-2021, 11:28 PM

So recently I've been doing regular fluid maintenance and noticed my power steering fluid was pretty dark so I sucked out my reservoir and took a quick smell and smelt little burnt. Just figured it was old and put new fluid back in and called it good. Next week i was double checking fluid levels and noticed the reservior was pretty dark again so I repeated the process, suck and fill. Fluid still smelt burnt again. Week later (couple days ago) i noticed the reservoir was dark fluid again. Should I just keep this process up till it eventually looks good or should I start investigating it further?

5th gen with 160k miles if that helps or not.

engeeoh01 · 02-11-2021, 12:26 AM

With that mileage and no history of maintenance until now, I would assume you need a complete exchange of fluids given what you have described. I wouldn’t wait any longer.

A simple extract and fill won’t help much. But it’s better than leaving that burnt fluid in there. Exchange as much as you feel like doing, but it’ll take forever and results will be minimal.

I did my PS flush using a fluid extractor. Made the process quick, clean, and simple. Took about 15 mins and 3 quarts of fluid.

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