I just bought my first 4Runner in April this year, before that I never even heard of a 4Runner, I must say I Love it! Well after buying it and changing the oil & filter, rear diff. gear oil, I decided to read all of the owners manual and noticed it said for the Power Steering System to use ATF. I went out to look at the PSF and noticed it was not very bright at all and didn't really smell like normal ATF. I thought oh crap either someone had used actual PSF instead of ATF or there was a problem in the system and I didn't need any of that mess to happen. So I decided to flush out the system with Royal Purple Max ATF, since that isn't changed out that often why not use RP can't hurt, but then as I was studying on how I was gonna go about doing this it dawned on me if it was ATF in there then there is a problem that I needed to address at the time of changeling the fluid. So I got on Amazon and found a nice PS cooler from Derale, and the remote oil filter kit from B&M I had used years ago when I drag raced my old ford truck. So I got those two things and the hose and mounting hardware and did the flush. It turned out well, just wished I had gotten a dang sample of that old stuff to send into BlackStone Lab to see how bad it was, oh well in a few thousand miles ill send in a sample and see how that stuff looks. I'll try and post some pics of the system and how I did it so maybe it will help give some ideas to others. Also I plan on adding a little fan to it and a temp. bypass valve in the future. When I do those upgrades ill send pics of that as well. Then my next project will be the Transmission system!
PSS Upgrade!
- Thread starter Dundah
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Over kill?
I guess you could call it over kill, but I'll share my thinking on this and why I did it. 1. The old fluid was bad for sure, how bad I'll never know, so you now have to ask yourself why and how did it get bad? Well for sure one thing that causes ATF to go bad is heat, and there is no cooler on the 4Runner. 2. You then have to think to yourself, ok so I'll change the fluid, add a cooler to help keep the ATF from over heating. 3. Then oh crap there might be some trash in the system that flushing could break loose and break the system that way, so then you add a filter. All that might be over kill, but I would rather spend the money on that then a bunch on a rack and pinion change or new pump, ya know? Plus hell its just fun working on the 4Runner right lol!
I guess you could call it over kill, but I'll share my thinking on this and why I did it. 1. The old fluid was bad for sure, how bad I'll never know, so you now have to ask yourself why and how did it get bad? Well for sure one thing that causes ATF to go bad is heat, and there is no cooler on the 4Runner. 2. You then have to think to yourself, ok so I'll change the fluid, add a cooler to help keep the ATF from over heating. 3. Then oh crap there might be some trash in the system that flushing could break loose and break the system that way, so then you add a filter. All that might be over kill, but I would rather spend the money on that then a bunch on a rack and pinion change or new pump, ya know? Plus hell its just fun working on the 4Runner right lol!
Thanks Sniv.
Well thanks, my fall back answer was gonna be "he'll it's just another excuse to work on the 4Runner, make yer own, ya know" lol. Anyways yeah I'm gonna put two little computer fans on the cooler w/ a temp controller, and a temp controlled bypass valve so in winter time it won't be hard to steer. Every once in awhile my logic makes sense lol
Well thanks, my fall back answer was gonna be "he'll it's just another excuse to work on the 4Runner, make yer own, ya know" lol. Anyways yeah I'm gonna put two little computer fans on the cooler w/ a temp controller, and a temp controlled bypass valve so in winter time it won't be hard to steer. Every once in awhile my logic makes sense lol
