Have you checked Your Power Steering Fluid? DIY

[parad0x]

As the title says, I just checked mine and noticed a couple very disturbing facts, while trying to figure out why my steering wheel was making strange vibrations, causing metal grinding sounds and making the steering wheel very stiff.
(To locate your power steering fluid reservoir, it is right beneath and behind the air filter, on the drivers side of the engine itself, with a red star shaped cap with letters "ATF Oil Only".)

1. It was low, it didnt even register on the dipstick.
2. When I put a long chinese chopstick down the reservoir I noticed the fluid looked completely black.
3. Other then the fluid being black, it was very thick almost tar like. (I was wanting to take pictures because it was a real shocker, but gave up looking for my digital camera after about an hours time of searching for it.)


My answer to this, to replace the fluid.. There are two ways of doing this;

1) being removing the return hose, and filling up till the return line starts shooting out clean fluid, then plug it back into the reservoir.
2) I did it this way, but you need a pump (I got myself a hand pump from walmart for $2.50), a big bucket to pump the cr@p into, and about 8 liters of Power Steering Fluid (I got myself ATF Dexron III which was labeled as Automatic Transmission Fluid for $3 bucks a liter.). Begin by pumping out what is left in the reservoir, my first few attempts took a while because the fluid was so thick my pump had a hard time sucking it out.

When you've pumped out all you can, you pour in how much you can to fill up the Reservoir again, screw the cap back on turn the engine on and move the steering wheel from far left, to far right, and repeat twice more. When completed, turn off the engine, unscrew the Power Steering reservoir cap and pump out all you can, refill again with fresh fluid to full, screw cap back on turn engine on, move steering wheel from left to right, and repeat twice more and turn the engine off.

Repeat the pumping out, refilling, restarting engine, turning steering wheel, turning engine off, puming out, etc, etc.. over and over again, till the fluid being pumped out is clear again. You can fill the reservour full about 3-4 times with one litre bottles, so you can picture it took me about 8 bottles to do this, so all in all about 4 hours. Next time I might try the first method, just that I was not sure if there would be any air bubbles stuck in the system if I were to do it with the first method.

Final results were that all my steering wheel problematic symptoms have all dissappeared, and I might have just saved myself from having to get a new power steering pump.

[camiloteram]

same problem with the steering wheel making funny noise (metal grinding almost) speacially when its cold.

im gonna check the fluid see if its black like yours, brb.

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ehh its acctually clear with a tint of black, so im guessing its not that. but my steering wheel is still retarded when its cold. i guess thats normal.

[leedawg]

hum thanks for the info good write up thanks.

[fredo328]

parad0x, what year is your car and how many miles do you have?

[328isguy81]

hmmmm come to think of it, i dont think ive ever checked mine For awhile now, my power steering feels like its going out and turning the wheel becomes very hard. Could this help?

[parad0x]

parad0x, what year is your car and how many miles do you have?

1992 with 181,000 original km's.


It's worth a check guys, it only takes like 30 seconds to check it out.

[1996 328ti]

I guess it's the time of the season.
I'm having this done this week. I don't want to try this at home since I don't have a garage and don't want to make a mess in the street. But I am also having the fluid reservoir replaced because I'm told there is a filter that gets very dirty. I'd probably recommend that if you go through the trouble of flushing out the fluid since you are in there anyway.

[parad0x]

I guess it's the time of the season.
I'm having this done this week. I don't want to try this at home since I don't have a garage and don't want to make a mess in the street. But I am also having the fluid reservoir replaced because I'm told there is a filter that gets very dirty. I'd probably recommend that if you go through the trouble of flushing out the fluid since you are in there anyway.

A filter in the reservoir? Hmm, I havnt heard of that one. Where exactly is it? Is it on one of the holes leading into one of the two hoses? Can the filter be cleaned with the reservoir canister out?

[1996 328ti]

A filter in the reservoir? Hmm, I havnt heard of that one. Where exactly is it? Is it on one of the holes leading into one of the two hoses? Can the filter be cleaned with the reservoir canister out?

I don't know exactly where it is. My mechanic tells me it can't be cleaned. I have a new reservoir but can't tell where the filter is. Once I have mine replaced I'll rip the old one apart.

[1996 328ti]

A filter in the reservoir? Hmm, I havnt heard of that one. Where exactly is it? Is it on one of the holes leading into one of the two hoses? Can the filter be cleaned with the reservoir canister out?

I cut open the old reservoir and there is a filter. If you look from the top it is below what looks like a disc. The filter is round and attached to it. If anyone is curious I can take a picture. I still have a whirring noise from my pump. Flushing the fluid did not help. Steering pump next.

[SkycityBMW]

yeah . . .take a pic . . . thanks ! !

[parad0x]

yeah definitly take a picture of the filter, and its placement. Im curious what that filter is made out of, and just how well it can be cleaned.

[TKC]

2. When I put a long chinese chopstick down

The Japanese ones are too short

[1996 328ti]

yeah definitly take a picture of the filter, and its placement. Im curious what that filter is made out of, and just how well it can be cleaned.

It can't be removed. The whole thing is around $25.00.

[TboneM3]

It can't be removed. The whole thing is around $25.00.

Word good to know.

Also what fluid type to use? Can i put some Royal Purple in?

[Vanos01]

I just checked mine and it litterally looks like chocolate milk? I guess it wouldn't hurt to replace the fluid. I have no idea how long it's been in there? Just regular ATF oil?

[Bimmersoul]

Mine also looks like dark chocolate. Since I don't have any power steering issues, I completly forgot about it.

Thanks for the reminder as this needs to be fixed ASAP!

Does any one knows why it gets like that? I have never encounter this problem on any car... I have owned more than 20 by now!

[sfodd66008]

hey guys, working on fixing the same problem on my car, soo hard to turn the wheel. So im getting a new PS reservoir and i was just looking at the replacing process the other night. I take out the air box because it just gives you a lot more room to work(and its easy). and then i unscewed the clamp thing that holds the reservoir in place. what i want to know is how would i take off the clamps? (which im going to replace with the worm gear ones)

Thanks, Andrew

[1996 328ti]

yeah definitly take a picture of the filter, and its placement. Im curious what that filter is made out of, and just how well it can be cleaned.

Here's a photo of the inside of the power steering reservoir.
The bottom portion is the filter. I chipped it to see what it was made out of.
It's was brittle.

[Speedfreak///M]

I cut open the old reservoir and there is a filter. If you look from the top it is below what looks like a disc. The filter is round and attached to it. If anyone is curious I can take a picture. I still have a whirring noise from my pump. Flushing the fluid did not help. Steering pump next.

So you've replaced the fluid and the resovoir/filter , have the fluid topped off.... how are the current results?

[GoNz0]

i bet that brittle filter was once foam... not many mechanics would know about that being in there. !

[biff]

When the level drops off the stick, (and the clamp is notorious) the pump can cavitate and make foam, turn terry, etc. Watch the level and all SHOULD be OK.

[GQ_Style]

Dude, replace the leaky hose and clamps.

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum...d.php?t=468582

I tried just reclamping the OEM hoses but it will just leak again. The rubber on the OEM hoses are deterioated too far to clamp down.

OEM hoses and labor will cost you $500+. The DIY kit will cost you like $25 and an afternoon. No more low-fluid groaning and no more oil stains on the driveway. You'll thank me after you've done the DIY fix.

[Green318is]

I bought GQ_Style's kit and installed it myself. It took me 30 min. Very easy. The kit is great and includes instructions. Last year when I completed Inspection II, I completely drained and flushed the system with Mobil 1 synthetic ATF, just as suggested by Paradox. The old ATF was black. One year later, I noticed that both hoses were leaking. I then bought the kit, a new reservoir and fresh Mobil 1 ATF. Now, I have no leaks and my ATF looks brand new. This is a great (and cheap) thing to do if you want to extend the life of your power steering system.

[Green318is]

Just a small suggestion: If you buy the kit and plan to DIY, make sure that you have a Dremel at had. It makes life easier...