Well, what I think is the Power steering pump squealing prompted me to check my P/S fluid. The fluid is yellow??? It is full, but I don't know how it got that way because on the cap it clearly states that it should be ATF (red). Is the P/S system doomed to failure?
Should I change my P/S fluid to regular ATF or leave it?

 

Maybeh someone peed into your PS reservoir?!

 

It can never hurt to change it and it's pretty simple...

here is a good thread about it.

https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f2/3...ng-post-81347/

I need to do this again soon too...mine is getting kind of dirty.

 

Flush with ATF

 

it should NEVER EVER be yellow, it should be filled with Automatic Transmission Fluid as indicated on the filler cap, change it now. it's not a hard DIY, unlike brake system, PS is self bleed. it's better done with 2 people. i just flushed my 4th gen only took about 20 minutes with my wife, all she did was sitting inside turning the steering wheel few times.

the writeup mentioned above is right on the money, actually the job is easier than it looks.

only thing i wanna add is chances are if the wrong fluid is in your system long enough, the whinning noise probably still comes up after the new fluid, that means you need to have the PS pump re-built, toyota sells a complete seal pack, you can pretty much do it yourself, too. just look up the only FSM.

 

It only squeals when I turn the steering wheel all the way to one side when the engine is cold. Otherwise, it feels really good.
I hope my rack is not jacked up, that would be expensive. At least it doesn't leak now.

 

wouldnt hurt anything

 

i just mentiond changeing my ps fluid to my dad this morning and he told me to not even try because it is to easy to mess somthing up. but unless your doing somthing wrong i dont see what could get so messed up. is there anything i should watch out for?

 

Bah, Dont listen to your dad, Dad's are for panzies.

Just follow the instructions in the link that krashdh posted, Great link BTW This gets me thinking I should do the same on my taco Bookmarked, And you will be fine.
Should feel good proving him wrong

 

haha ok, it seemed pretty straight forward. he just ........ i dunno, im gonna go flush it right now

 

Trust me I understand where your going.. Dad think's youll mess something up so he tells you to take it to a shop or something.... and your bored on a saturday and want to just wrench, Just use your brain

Im off to work or else Id be doing the same thing

 

I am at work or else I would be wrenchin'! I will change the P/S fluid next oil change (about 500 miles) along with my tranny fluid (yet again) because the previous owner never changed it and it is still a little orange tinge to it.

 

well i changed it and all went well but now there is a little whine. the res. is full. dose it just need to be driven for a while to get it to bleed more?

 

they all whine a little at the full lock after 60k miles, it's totally normal. just check if there's any bubbles after driving about half an hour. you should be all good. I'd say since ATF is so cheap, it doesn't hurt to do it again next week just to be sure all the old gunk are flushed out.

 

well after driving for a while the noise went away and everything works great. i also changed the t case tranny and diff fluid

 

Huurah for you !!

 

So, not to jack stir fry's thread but I just wanted to say that I followed the instructions of the thread I posted up above to flush the system and I have to say, it was a very simple procedure. My p/s fluid was almost black, so it was due to be changed.

I did not have a big enough bolt to just stuff in the return hose so i ended up adding a bunch of duct tape to the bolt until it was snug in there. Also, I couldn't find that handy rubber cap to slip over the stem of the return on the reservoir, so I saran wrapped the end and added duct tape. That worked fine.

I believe the whole procedure took me about 30 minutes and I went through a quart and a half of ATF. i used Castrol (rated dexron III or better) ATF fluid, and have to say she feels a bit smoother now. Having another set of hands is very helpful.