power steering ID10T error. issue with dropping something in fluid resevoir.

[mgikone69]

As the title says I did something very idiotic. I keep a tin of fluid in the car and the tin was fairly old. The cap was a little rotted and broken so as I'm pouring fluid into the resevoir a small piece of plastic falls in. I try my hardest to get it out but couldn't reach it and eventually it sank to the bottom of the resevoir.

The piece of plastic is about the size and thickness of your pinky finger nail. Now the steering Is a bitch to turn at low speeds. Is there some type of screen or protector in the resevoir that may have caught it? Could the plastic travel down into the hose and get logged into something else. Where do I go from here.

I drove the car home but now it's sitting here till I figure what to do.

[crc]

Unless it's tiny it aint going in to the system itself. There is a plastic microfilter at the bottom of the tank. I take a bet that it's just blocked the filter.

Use a suction device of some description (I use a large plastic syringe) empty as much PS fluid as possible out of the reservoir. There are two 10mm bolts at the top that hold it in. Undo both of them then pull it out of the hole that secures it at the bottom. Put something under the two pipes to catch excess fluid and take the whole reservoir out. Clean, reinstall, refill.

This DIY will give you most of what you need.

[mgikone69]

Thanks for the write up....I followed it and this is what I got.


I pulled as much fluid as I could with the turkey baster and then disconnected the hoses and a good amount more came out. I cleaned the resevoir out with brake cleaner and cleaned the screen as mugh as I could.

There was no plastic within the resevoir and not sure what may have happened. If you look at the fluid I drained it was reddish in color and somewhat thicker than fresh fluid. I pulled old fluid before where it was a creamy brown color but this was new to me. Last time I swapped fluid out was 2 years ago and replaced with the green chf.

The plastic piece was Brittlle and red. Is there a chance it melted and fudged up the fluid???. I added a new can of chf and drove around for about 2 miles and things have dramatically improved. I still have some fluid left and thi k I will swap out what I can to see if it gets better.

My Q is do you thi k the plastic piece melted?

[SprintBlueWorld]

Looks delicious!

You could do a little chemistry experiment, in a controlled environment and see if you really have invented a new beverage. Best done outside the resovoir this time tho.

[mgikone69]

Looks like a beet smoothie ha ha....my guess is the plastic melted and infused into the fluid.

[SprintBlueWorld]

Looks like a beet smoothie ha ha....my guess is the plastic melted and infused into the fluid.

Lotta heat, pressure, and possibly gas introduced to the fluid as well. The doom of all hydrolics.

[xhackerekx]

u fill PS with not oem fluid ?

[crc]

Thanks for the write up....I followed it and this is what I got.


I pulled as much fluid as I could with the turkey baster and then disconnected the hoses and a good amount more came out. I cleaned the resevoir out with brake cleaner and cleaned the screen as mugh as I could.

There was no plastic within the resevoir and not sure what may have happened. If you look at the fluid I drained it was reddish in color and somewhat thicker than fresh fluid. I pulled old fluid before where it was a creamy brown color but this was new to me. Last time I swapped fluid out was 2 years ago and replaced with the green chf.

The plastic piece was Brittlle and red. Is there a chance it melted and fudged up the fluid???. I added a new can of chf and drove around for about 2 miles and things have dramatically improved. I still have some fluid left and thi k I will swap out what I can to see if it gets better.

My Q is do you thi k the plastic piece melted?

I'm glad it is at least better!

That is an interesting question. I would think the systems would exceed boiling point of water, so there is a chance. If nothing came out then maybe that is the only option. A full flush as per the DIY may be required. I have never done this personally - I just emptied the reservoir after 3 or 4 drives with a turkey baster and refilled with new fluid each time.

Yes and what fluid is that? The OEM stuff is green and I've read in many places that you really should deviate from OEM. But I've also read in other places the opposite.

If it's better I'd leave it now. Good job though!

As an aside were there any micro fragments in your filter? I found heaps when I did mine. Shining a light through the filter revealed heaps.

[mgikone69]

I didn't shine a light to it but I sprayed the hell out of it with brake cleaner. It visually didn't look clogged.

I always used chf on this car. Last time I flushed it I assume it was the original fluid at 69k and it was brown n milky....iI swapped it with chf which is green. When I checked the fluid yesterday it was still green but more towards black green than the original clear green...oonly thing was it was a lil low. That's where the problem happened with me dropping the plastic in there.