Hey guys! Im having some power steering problems with my 02 sr5, bought a low mileage pump and rack that I'm having installed today. Truck leaks fluid like crazy and whines a lot. The weird part is, my power steering reservoir looks like it has the strawberry milkshake in it. Odd. My radiator is somewhat new and coolant looks fine so I decided to take a little ATF out and see how it looked. It's definitely not strawberry milkshake but can you guys tell me anything based on the pic? It's kind of medium dark red and is not see through. Seems to have some particles in it. My guess is it should be changed but the strawberry milkshake isn't an issue for me. Am I correct? Truck has 200k btw.
How does my transmission fluid look? ATF
- Thread starter whyzee125
- Start date
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In the trans or power steering? I'm not too concerned about the steering as I have a new (to me) rack and pump I got for $130. I know my current steering stuff is toast. The milkshake prompted me to check my trans fluid though and I want to make sure it's okay to drive. Either way I plan to do several drain and fills.
giovannie23
New member
Flush it out and get a supercooler saves stress
I may do that! Sick of worrying about it haha. Here's the old fluid next to new ATF. Anyone know what this means?
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nc-grayson
Member
It means it's dirty fluid
Thanks man!
4Runnin2000
New member
Usually the milkshake effect you are talking about is because of air getting into the power steering system and making foam in the reservoir like orbot said
nc-grayson
Member
I don't understand why you're doing trains drain and fills if your power steering is having issues.
JRZEE2000TR4LTD
Senior Member
Confused?? Sounds like your saying you took some ATF out of your transmission to compare it to the ATF in you PS system? Or is that ATF out of your PS system? Please clarify this.
Sorry for the confusion. Neither haha. There's a milkshake in my PS pump, which reminded me to check my trans fluid (unrelated). My trans fluid is in the first pic and I compared it with new ATF out of the bottle to see how old/tired it looked in comparison.
JRZEE2000TR4LTD
Senior Member
Ok, well in that case it certainly looks like air in the system. Couple that with the whiny pump, I would say you have a bad pump if the fluid always looks like that.
SilverRidgeRunner1
Member
Looks like a big bowl of Tomato soup. Looks good to me. If you were showing me a big bowl of BLACK trans fluid I would say you were overdue for a change:hatsoff:
Awesome, that's what I was hoping for! Love your pic btw haha
StreetCreeper
New member
Looks better than mine when I did a 16qt flush. Not the best pic but it definetly gives you an idea of how nasty it was.
Looks better than mine when I did a 16qt flush. Not the best pic but it definetly gives you an idea of how nasty it was.
Dang that does look pretty gross! Hope your trans made it out alive!
01thunder
New member
ps wise, my truck's pump started whining and was intermittent, then it was constant. i thought it was the pump. i decided to do a flush first, as the fluid was really bad. flushed completely with atf. took a couple 2-3 hours checking level and driving, but the whining went away and has been working properly since. it's been over a month now and no issues.
Glad to hear it worked out for you! Sadly I don't think I'll be so lucky. My pump might be fine, but my rack leaks so bad I can't park on the driveway for 5 minutes. I'll lose all my fluid within a couple days. I've been driving it around bone dry so figured I'd get a pump too, got a rack and a pump for $130 with a 30 day warranty.
