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Date:         Sun, 6 Apr 1997 16:43:45 +0000
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         "Harry Yates" <hyates@bcit.bc.ca>
Subject:      '90 PS fluid flush (long)

Hi Everyone. I successfully completed a power steering flush on our '90 Syncro yesterday, and am very pleased with how it all went :) Thanks to Tim Smith's instructions dated Mar 7/96 in the Archives, and his support with a couple minor points.. like getting the lid off the resevoir!

With our van being a '90 model, it takes ATF-Dexron fluid. This was verified by the pinkish colour of the fluid on a white paper towel. The system holds 1.25 litres, and I used nearly 4 litres to ensure the system was completely flushed out.

I used Castrol ATF - Dexron III / Mercon fluid which was purchased for $2.72 per litre (CDN). I contacted Castrol Oil Canada and they have a cross reference of all fluids per automobile made. The Vanagon was listed and Castrol recommended this fluid for our van.

I followed Tim's instructions with the following changes/additions:

If your resevoir cap won't come off, try an expandable C-clamp. This worked like a charm on the cap. The feet of the clamp went up against the raised "bumps" on the lid, and this provided a good wedge for the clamp to go up against. After nearly half an hour of struggling with various pieces of rope. rubber, bungie cords, etc, I tried the C-clamp out of desperation, and it came off with little problem.. but high effort... that sucker was really on there! I had a friend help me, and he held the resevoir in place while I worked the C-clamp as I was afraid of breaking the plastic resevoir.

I flushed 2 litres of fluid through the system by having my buddy crank the engine for 4 or 5 second bursts with the ignition coil unplugged from the distributor. The fluid that came out at first was a very dark pink fluid.... almost a deep burgundy colour. The Castrol fluid is a very bright pink. I wonder if this is what is called "burnt" fluid?? Anyone??

After pumping 2 litres through the system, we filled up the resevoir, and put everything back together. We did a 15 minute doughnut excercise in a local cul-de-sac. I held the van at or near full lock going both directions to warm up the fluid in the power steering system. Don't hold full lock for more than 5 seconds at a time!!

After the doughnut excercise, and many strange looks from my neighbours, we put the van back in the garage, and unhooked the coil lead at the distrubutor again.

The fluid was quite warm now, so we pumped down the fluid to the filter level, and I removed the plastic plate above the filter with the spring. This sediment trap was essentially quite clean. I used a toothbrush and some varsol to clean up some of the residue, and dried it all off. I changed the filter at this time as well. The original filter (7 years old) looks quite clean to me. I let it drain on a white paper towel, and I couldn't see any dirt come out of it. Anyway, I put in a new filter that I had purchased from my dealer for $39.40 CDN.

After refilling again, and purging out another litre of fluid, we put everything back together, and topped up. I used about 3.5 litres of fluid, with a half litre left to top up as needed. Don't forget, you have to check this fluid level with the engine running, and warm. I had to use vise-grips to get the centre fill cap off the lid as well!! This entire PS system has never been opened, and both lids were really jammed in there. All threads were cleaned with a toothbrush before everything went back.

So, hopefully, this exercise will help prolong my power steering system. Knowing how easy it is to do this exercise, I might do it more frequently now. The entire exercise took us nearly 2 hours on a Saturday morning with a friend to help.

Harry.

--------------------------------------------------------- Harry Yates, Langley, BC, Canada '90 Syncro Westfalia www: http://syncro.cr.bcit.bc.ca/hyates '87 Golf Diesel email: hyates@bcit.bc.ca '91 Miata (Millie)


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