Ok, while I was doing my CAI, UR pulley and P2R spacer I was wondering what general maintenance needed to be done to the car while I had it in air. Since I was changing the oil to Mobil 1 anyway why not do whatever else I can? Looking over the car with the front bumper off, I was examining the power steering cooler. After reading the service manual on what it recommends on servicing the PS system I thought I’d give it a shot. I chose to go this route vs. what the service manual suggested as it reduces the risk of creating a HUGE mess.

Tools needed: (assuming you have the front bumper off already)

10mm wrench or socket/ratchet
Pan to catch fluid
Some 3/8” hose – 2 sections about 8” long or so
2-3 bottles of Honda/Acura approved fluid (3.50 from the dealer here locally)

If you are facing the car, you’ll notice a single tube that runs in front of the radiator from left to right and back. There is a molded rubber hose that is the lower left corner of the car next to the radiator that this metal tube hooks to. This is the power steering cooler. What I did was undo the clamps, broke the rubber line loose and started to drain the system. This is where you will need to have your pan and the extra hose ready. I removed 1 side of the molded rubber hose, hooked up my hose (1 side at a time) and ran it into the pan.

Once you get the hoses on the metal lines, you can start the car and turn the wheel lock to lock. After a couple of minutes, you will have run most of the fluid out of the system. Now, here’s where you can spend some extra time and $$ if you like. You can re-attach the stock rubber hose and refill the system and start over to get as much as the old fluid out as possible. I only did it once.

After everything has been drained (I let mine sit over night and drip into the pan as I didn’t get everything installed the first night anyway), hook up the rubber line, tighten your clamps and bleed the system per the service manual.

The SM simply says fill fluid to just above the top line and turn the wheel lock to lock for several minutes. This needs to be done at a high idle. I used a friend to help keep the reservoir full. Something mine car did was not bleed all the air out while sitting in the garage. This caused the pump to whine at a certain RPM under load. What I did was just drive the car for a couple of days, checking the PS res. every morning and night keeping it at the top line. After about 2 days of letting the car get hot and cooling off, the air was bled from the system. Hopefully this will help some of you keep your TL in tip top shape.

Brian

 

This will be very helpful to a lot of people. Do you think it would be possible with the front bumper in place? I'm not likely to have my front bumper off anytime soon, but I'd like to do the PS fluid at perhaps 50K just for routine maintenance. Do you think it would be possible or would I just have to find another method? Has anyone else out there serviced their PS fluid with the front bumper in place? Thanks!

 

It MIGHT be possible but with the DIY video on removing the front bumper there's no reason not to take it off to have room to work. It only took me about 20 min the first time doing it by myself. I watched the video about 10 times before I tackled it.

 

Am I the only guy that read this, and thinks it's crazy...?

Are you reccomending starting and running your car with no PS fluid? Then turning the wheel lock to lock to get the rest of the old fluid out over and over?...

Starting your car after you've drained the power steering fluid, "to pump out the excess", is equiavlent to starting your car after draining the oil pan to get the excess oil in th oil pump

The factory service guidelines are meant to pump in fresh fluid at the same time as your pumping out old fluid (much like you service an auto transmission). Never should the pump run dry during the process.

This is ahydraulic system you're talking about here, and anytime that system is without fluid, you're introducing excessive wear.
Brian, your reccomendation is a sure fire way to burn out your pump/steering box.

That high idle noise you heard while the system was repriming was the sound of wear and tear on your pump, I'm suprised you don;t have PS leak or problem now.

Someone... please correct me if I'm wrong...!

My reccomendation? Using a turkey baster, or equavelent suction device... drain and fill your PS reservoir at every oil change. This changes about 1/3 of the oil, keeping the fluid nice and fresh all the time.

 

Yep,
Just a tad bit unorthodox...

But we appreciate the time and effort you placed in trying to help folks out with your DIY thread. Be careful however, never know how sensitive the TL PS pumps are...

PS - I'm a turkey baster type of guy myself...

 

Kennedy I agree, the hairs were standing up on the back of my neck when I read that.........
I hope he doesn't do oil changes in a similar fashion

 

Let me see if I can post the page from the service book. It says the same thing only to use the hose at the resi. instead of the cooler.

Page 17-12 for those that have the factory manual.

 

 

Thats actually how acura says to get all the fluid out of the steering kennedy- remove the hose and drain then pump out under pressure
As long as you are parked- and place cardboard under the wheels to make it easy to turn, you wont hurt the pump while servicing

I would not remove 1/3 of any fluid and refill, and somehow think each layer stays seperate so that 3 changes in a month make a full fluid change hahahhahaha-
not how oil works man! Do it right and be done with it, same for trans 3x3, thats not a month long service job
Would you do that with your engine oil?

 

I wouldn't and to each their own. I was just going to pull the hose and drain it but then read the manual so I did it the way the dealer would.

Are the easier/better/faster ways of doing it, probably.

 

I'm glad to stand corrected on this one... I have never EVER seen that in a service manual... Running the pump dry seems very counterintuitive.

My Nissan Xterra, old VW Jetta, old Nissan truck, never was this the procedure.

Hell, we never changed the fluid in the wifes Accord in 5 years...

 

The power steering fluid is not highly compressed like a lot of hydraulic applications are. The pump does not generate huge amounts of heat if the resistance on the rack is not high. I'd probably lift the wheels off the ground to do this but it should not hurt it.

 

I was thinking you should at least do that as well.

 

Thats where the cardboard under the tires comes in...they turn with very little resistance...old shop trick for not scuffing the tires or the floor

 

I did mine while it was in the air and no wheels on it since I was rotating the tires at the same time also.

 

Wow,
I didn't think it was the worst process but like others would not have thought it would have stated that in the shop manual.

Having weight-off-wheels would definitely calm my burning pump nerves as well...

Well done - thanks for posting the actual manual verbiage for us naysayers.

 

good write up this is on my January do-to list .. just waiting on the power steering orings to get here so its all done at the same time.

 

How about a turkey baster method by sucking out the old fluid and dumping it in empty gal of water or milk container. Adding new fluid into the resvoir running the car for few minutes by driving it around the block then park it and repeat the steps like 2 to maybe 3 or 4 times??

 

I love this site for stuff like this. I have 66k on my 05 TL and I think I'm going to do this summer when I change my oil. How hard is it to take the front bumper off?

 

it takes 15 minutes at most .. check out the garage, there is a video diy on it.

 

Only time i did it this way i did so with the wheels lifted on one of my other cars, haven't done it yet on the acura.

 

My steering wheel felt extremely heavy after using the Acura ILX for over a week. So I decided to change the fluid. I bought the wrong tubbing and tried to tape it up but made a mess so I purchase a little plastic thing to connect both hoses and that did the trick. I also jacked the car on two car jacks so the wheels wouldn't have any resistance.

Thank you for all the information in this threat!!!!