I recently discovered the power steering reservoir cap was missing when I was doing some routine maintenance on my 2011 C30 T5. The car was serviced back in November by a local garage and they forgot to replace it. I've been driving around for about a month without it. I replaced the cap and topped up the fluid but am wondering if I should be doing a flush on the system. I'm not having any steering issues and the pump seems to be operating normally however, I'm concerned that particles have gotten into the fluid system and may cause damage. What do you'all think?

Thanks, Duke

 

don't bother with a flush, but a drain fill is easy enough. Buy a turkey baster and a short section of rubber hose (like 6 inches) and 1 quart of ATF or quality power steering fluid (check the owners manual for the fluid type or simply use a dealer part #). suck out as much of the fluid with the baster then fill to the top line. Start the car and turn lock to lock 3-4 times. Repeat 3 or so times leaving enough fluid in the container to do your final fill. Start the car,, do the last lock to lock then check the fluid level one last time - the color should be that of the new fluid.

 

Thanks for this. I did see this as another option on YouTube. I'll give a go. Appreciate your response.

 

ps - by top line I mean the one on the dip stick :-) LOL, I started doing this after my wife came home from the Toyota dealer with a "recommendation" and quote to flush the PS fluid on our Highlander. $10 later, I was done and now I do it on all our cars every 5 years or so.