Overview
Draining and refilling power steering reservoir. Needs 2 people
Warning
The power steering fluid effects car control, how hard it is to turn the steering wheel, if you are unsure about following this procedure do not attempt it
Tools required
- 10mm spanner
- Medium screwdriver
- Three to four litres of power steering fluid (I used about 2.5l with spare for topping up)
Steps
- Remove 10mm bolt at top of reservoir (shown in green) and 10mm nut lower down.
- Disconnect rear pipe to steering rack (shown in blue). Immediately plug outlet with Blu-Tack or small cork
- Pull reservoir up as far as possible, and pull the disconnected pipe forwards
- Connect a second, smaller diameter pipe into the open ‘drain’ pipe. The opening is about 8mm diameter. (I used the end of a small funnel for a good fit) Pipe needs to be about 1metre long. Put end into drain can, or other suitable receptacle
- Top up reservoir with new fluid
- One person has to start the engine to activate the pump, while another checks level in reservoir, and top up when it drops. This happens quickly, so take care to swich engine off and on carefully
- Repeat operation until fluid drains clean
- Reconnect everything, using a new jubilee clip on the removed pipe
- Check level again
This technical guide was originally held at http://www.fiatbarchetta.com/btech/psfluid.html. It was copied to this site in 2021 to ensure its availability and to reformat it into a more modern layout. The original guide was written by John Turvill
