I have manual transmission scion TC, should i use Toyota power steering fluid or Toyota automatic transmission fluid?? Any other brand except toyota's one can also perform the same job or even better?

Need your suggestion






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I used the Toyota Tranny fluid,the power steering fluid I used first from Autozone that was supposed to be for Toyotas just madethe pump squeal....once drained and replaced with the tranny fuild had no problems in all that time of about 2 years.

 

I think I used Mobil 1 ATF or something like that. Definitely not store bought power steering fluid!

 

i used castrol import ATF works perfect.

 

Can I flush and fill PS fluid while the car is on or engine is hot?

 

well you want to flush and fill it with the car on, that way you can get rid all of the bubbles by turning your steering wheel to full lock positions.

if your using a flush machine that is.

 

Without starting a new thread, figured it would be better to add to this one.

Toyota doesn't have ATF fluid that is "Dexron II or III" like the service manual states it needs for the tC power steering fluid. Dealers I've called said their "T-IV" Auto trans fluid isn't compatible with something that needs Dexron II or III.

What is compatible with Dexron II or III? I found some Valvoline atf that claims "Dexron/Mercon" but I never really liked valvoline.

What is the stuff I should use? I found some Dexron VI from mobil, but not sure if that's backward compatible with dexron II or III.

 

how do you go about changing the PS fluid?? i know the car has to be on, but how many times do you have to turn the steering wheel to the lock positions? 7 times? does this need to be done with a machine or can it be done in your own garage with basic hand tools?

 

it's messy if you dont have the right tool. what i used was an actual power steering machine it pumps new fluid in while taking the old one out. your supposed to turn the wheel to rid of all the bubbles just enough so you dont have any foam.

any local shop can do it should not take long.

 

BUMP- yes but what fluid? It has to be dexron III atf, so I guess I just go to autozone and get some. Toyota dealers do NOT have the correct fluid, only that brake fluid type power steering fluid which is INCORRECT for our car. Couldn't believe the dealer (shouldnt be surprised) didn't really even know that it was supposed to be ATF Dex 3. *Shakes head no* unbelievable.

So I guess I'll find some Mobil but they had two different Dexron compatible fluids, one was Dexron/Mercon and the other was "Multi vehicle ATF" which would work with Dexron III.. So someone let me know, thanks

 

I used Valvoline Dex/merc III red bottle and is crappy. It takes way to long for the oil to warm up and it makes it impossible to steer the car while stationary. Normally I had to let the temps get over 150F (coolant reference) to be able to steer a bit. I then bought some of the expensive lucas steering fluid and pumped most of the reservoir out while the car was running and replaced it with the lucas and it made a heck of a difference.

It's been two weeks since the last change and I noticed the steering wheel kinda heavy even when warmed up, so I guess I need to do a full flush and try something else. I wish we could order the OEM green stuff :-(

 

okay thanks carlanga! no vavoline or lucas then. How about you try the mobil stuff next? see if that works.

 

@carlanga- i just looked up the Valvoline dex/merc atf fluid and compared it to the Mobil d/m atf, and i can see why the Valvoline didn't work. The viscosity at "cold" is much higher (thicker) than the Mobil. I can see it would probably make the power steering pump work harder. Lots of reviews online also said to stay away from lucas, and yeah I'd never consider them, thanks for your update.

two links here, first is the Valvoline stuff you used
http://www.valvoline.com/pdf/Valvoline_DEX_MERC.pdf

and here's the Mobil stuff I found that looked good
http://www.mobil.com/USA-English/Lub...il_ATF_D_M.asp

they were saying in that info from Mobil from the link above that "Mobil ATF D/M is recommended for power steering units where the manufacturer recommends a Dexron or Mercon fluid"

I was looking at Mobil because I know that Mobil has a contract with Toyota to supply them their oil, both the stuff at the dealer (in quart bottles) and what is put in at the factory. Made me wonder if the original stuff was Mobil.. hmmm

let me know what ya think and if you try it let us know what it feels like.

 

u know, I might give it a try then. I just emptied the reservoir as much as I could with the car running and used what I had left of the lucas premium stuff and It worked really good again. We'll see in two weeks or so if it was the thick valvoline stuff or what.

What's weird is that once the valvoline was warmed up ut worked good and I had it there for about two months. Then when I mixed it with the lucas stuff, it started to act up even when warmed up after two weeks of use.

Another reason I wanted something good is because, I have the NST pully set and it doesn't give the power steering pump as much juice as the stock pully at low rpm's.

We'll see, I'll keep u posted man.

 

Which one did you try? I couldn't find Mobil ATF D/M at my local auto zone but found the Multivehicle formula. On their website they say it is compatible with Dexron III ... i am going to do the change today and see how it goes....

From:
http://www.mobiloil.com/USA-English/...exron_III.aspx

""The new Mobil 1 Synthetic ATF will meet the requirements of Dexron III as the previous formula did. Feel confident to continue using Mobil 1 Synthetic ATF. In the product description we recommend Mobil Dexron-VI ATF for GM vehicles manufactured in 2006 and later. For vehicles older than that, Mobil 1 Synthetic ATF is still a perfect fit.""

 

I flushed mine out and added Mobil 1. I didn't notice much of a difference tho.

 

i went with the mobil d/m looked closest in specs to factory fill. I think the Mobil 1 ATF would work well too if you couldn't find the d/m. I ended up finding the d/m at an independent auto parts shop. The big chains like autozone, oreillys, advance, didn't have it at all, couldnt even find it.

and the d/m worked great. Power steering pump is more quiet, didn't even know it was loud until after the change. The steering feel is more responsive, tighter feeling. Most likely because the fluid is new.