Hello,

I apologize as I am sure I've asked this before:

2002 V70 Station Wagon Non Turbo, Automatic.

I want to flush the Steering fluid. The dealer and shops say it need the special fluid which is expensive.

Was looking through the manual that came witht he car, it says ATF. I assume this means the Normal ATF fluid you can find at any store or Walmart.?

Any experts in the house on this topic that can give me some info please ?

Thank you.

 

expensive is relative. You can buy OEM power steering fluid at Volvo friendly stored like IPD USA or FCP and it will cost you about $25 for a quart. If you buy some generic Dex III ATF, it may cost you $10. That said, my method for freshening the power steering fluid is to get a turkey baster, attach a short length of tubing and use it to suck all the old fluid out of the reservoir, then refill with fresh. Start the car and turn lock to lock 5x or so then stop. Repeat the drain/fill 3-4 times until you have enough left in the quart to top off. Whole process should use about 1 quart and will leave you with about 90% fresh fluid. The alternative is to open the lines at the bottom but on a 2002, that's asking for more trouble than its worth just to get the last 10%.

 

Thank you but that doesn't really answer my question which was: Can I use regular ATF in the car safely or do I have to use the much more expensive CHF 11S ??

 

The owners manual simply says ATF so that says yes. ATF and power steering fluid are both hydraulic fluids, the main difference is ATF will have more detergents than something branded as power steering fluid. Considering the manual was written 20 years ago, if you go with ATF, stick with an older ATF spec like Dex III. Note that I did a drain fill on my Highlander and Toyota actually calls out Dex III as the spec... My two cents is for a 2002, you're good either way.

 

To make sure I understand you correctly:

You said "The manual was written 20 years ago" well, it is a 21 yr old car, so I am not sure what that means.? And what does the ATF have more detergent mean in actual use ? Where the CHF is full synthetic as far as I know. It is not just the cost of the CHF but cost of shipping too. Does ATF mean ANY Atf ? Thank you.

 

what I meant by "it is a 20 year old car" is that the specs they wrote to in the manual was referencing fluids available back then. There are newer flavors of ATF and even CHF that may have different formulations so my guidance is to stick with a more generic/older formulation.

 

I've been told by several Volvo mechanics and dealers to ONLY use Pentosin CHF 11s; yes it's a bit pricey.

 

Volvo's part number for 2000-2010 model power steering fluid is 30741424 which supercedes 1161529. A quick search shows CHS 11S is the comparible OEM brand, as is Febi 83290429576 (spec'd for similar year BMW/Merc/VWs). ECS seems to have a great price on the Febi oil https://www.ecstuning.com/Search/Sit...h/83290429576/ while the CHS 11S is $20 at FCP Euro. So worst case is its an extra $10 to go with the premium OEM vs ATF.