Power Steering Fluid Drain and Refill Using Vacuum

[blackswan]

Just wanted to pass this on. Was looking for easiest method to drain and refill whole system. Was using the Turkey Baster Method and found it inefficient and cumbersome since the rubber bulb would get soft from the fluid and lose it's "oomph". So, I bought one of these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FJT0304/ thinking at least I'll have something more powerful to suck out the fluid. It worked very well but I was still not satisfied that I couldn't get it all and refilling and doing it again after running the steering didn't feel "pure" enough. Then it hit me - why not use this mega baster to draw a vacuum and pull the fluid through the rack?

First I sucked out as much as I could from the reservoir (I used a smaller diameter plastic hose that mated inside the one that comes with the device, so I could get it as deep as possible). Dumped that fluid into a plastic bottle I wedge in the engine bay so it wouldn't fall over. 2 liter Coke bottle works. Then I removed the reservoir and both hoses, plugging them both to keep dirt out. Cleaned the reservoir as well as possible (OPTIONAL). Then reconnected larger diameter hose to the bottom, plugging the other smaller diameter hole/port in the reservoir with a rubber stopper. Then, I inserted the plastic tube inside the smaller diameter line (rubber hose) and drew a vacuum using the device. Transfer old fluid to Coke bottle. Did this a few times until I was getting bubbles. Then refilled the reservoir with new fluid and pulled more vacuum until it went low in the reservoir, and then topped it off again (if you pull until you get clean fluid, then you will have air in the system and pull fresh clean fluid into the Bastinator, as I've come to nickname it.

Wash, rinse, repeat - until you are drawing nice clean fresh fluid. Have to say, works really well! If you want to really get things clean you could probably do another round after driving a while (presumably the new fluid will loosen some stuff).