vibration when turning wheel at stand-still

[romicva]

I did the last steps and all worked out. It took a LOT of fluid.

Thanks again.

[SLagrec1]

Ok, the instructions say to remove the reservoir. From what I can tell, it's attached by a bolt underneath the reservoir. How the heck do you get a wrench on that bolt?

However, I was able to disconnet the return hose and drain the old fluid with the reservoir in place!

The instructions also say to check the reservoir screen for debris. Where is this screen? Perhaps I'm not seeing it because I didn't remove the reservoir. Advice appreciated.

[romicva]

The reservoir is held by a bracket. The bracket is on the left side of the reservoir when facing the car. Just pull the bracket away from the reservoir and try to lift the reservoir up.
The screen is on the bottom of the reservoir. At about 70000 miles it was very dirty.

[SLagrec1]

Thank you very much! I now have the reservoir out.

The grey cap appears to be one heck of a tight press fit onto the reservoir. Will it come off, or do I clean the screen by sloshing around a bit of p.s. fluid, dump and repeat until clean?

[romicva]

you got it.

[SLagrec1]

Thanks again!

In case it helps, I too was concerned about the noise coming from the pump. It dissipated as the bleeding progressed. I found the bleeding process required a few go-rounds. Turn steering wheel lock-to-lock about 20 times, fill reservoir, repeat 3 times. High idle means just that. I got better results at 2,500 rpm.

All's good now!

[cooljay]

Originally Posted by SLagrec1

Thank you very much! I now have the reservoir out.

The grey cap appears to be one heck of a tight press fit onto the reservoir. Will it come off, or do I clean the screen by sloshing around a bit of p.s. fluid, dump and repeat until clean?

I am going to replace my ps fluid today fist question is it necessary to remove the reservoir? If yes then please respond to the questions below:
Where is the grey cap located?
How did you end up cleaning the screen: did you take out the grey cap or by sloshing a bit of ps fluid dump and repeat?

[stetting]

I have an 06 mdx that I bought with 60k on it. Shortly after I got it I noticed the steering wheel fighting or surging at times when turning. I had to have the steering rack replaced and the problem has been solved. I would push the dealer to fix the problem instead of allowing it to go out of warranty.

[scottiemagic]

Flushing Power Steering Fluid (PSF):

This forum helped save me a bunch of money buy flushing out my power steering fluid myself, so I'm "giving back" by posting photos of how I did it. Like others have said, it's super easy and doesn't need to be messy.

My steering was making a loud groaning noise when turning left or right. In the past few weeks it's been groaning all the time. Car is 107K miles 2001 MDX. Just had timing belt replaced (preventative maintenance) and mechanic said I may have a bad power steering pump. But after reading these forums I figured I'd try the fluid flush first. And that did the trick!

I chose not to remove any of the hoses, and instead sucked the old fluid out of the reservoir with a siphoning tube (see photo) that has a built-in pump ball. The tube is a few bucks at auto store. With cold engine I removed the red PSF cap. I inserted the tube all the way into the reservoir, and duct taped the tube to the chassis to it wouldn't pop out (which would splash fluid into the engine compartment). I started the flow of fluid into a container. Big piece of cardboard kept the area under the car clean (which was a good idea). After draining the reservoir I started the engine and turned wheel back and forth a few times. I could still hear the groan. With engine off I sucked out more fluid that had accumulated in the reservoir. This fluid was all sudsy, confirming what others have said, that air in the system is what makes it groan. After another drain I ran the engine and turned the wheel again. One more rinse and repeat of this and 99% of the fluid was gone (and the steering wheel was appropriately impossible to turn!). I filled up with Acura PSF, ran engine and turned steering wheel again. Engine off, drained reservoir (there was still some sudsy fluid left). Refilled and capped reservoir. Problem solved!

I'm sure you can get 100% of the old fluid out by removing the hose and letting it drain into receptacle with engine running, but I didn't want to bother with that, including the higher potential of spillage. So, at least for me, draining 99% of the old fluid was good enough!

Hope this helps.

[midnightMDX]

Great addition to this, scottiemagic!

[qinyf]

Hi scottiemagic,

Thanks for the excellent tips. Just got several questions:

1. How deep did the tube go into the reservoir? My guess is that it just reach the bottom of the reservoir?

2. My guess this method just drained the fluid from the reservoir. Since the reservoir holds 0.34L while the system capacity is 1.22L, you will have to repeat the process of "drain->start engine->turn steering wheel back and forth" several times (4?) to remove most of the fluid, right?

3. What do you mean when you say "one more rinse"?

4. How many bottles (12 oz each) did you finally use?

Any help is highly appreciated!

[mach mdx]

Originally Posted by qinyf

Hi scottiemagic,

Thanks for the excellent tips. Just got several questions:

1. How deep did the tube go into the reservoir? My guess is that it just reach the bottom of the reservoir?

2. My guess this method just drained the fluid from the reservoir. Since the reservoir holds 0.34L while the system capacity is 1.22L, you will have to repeat the process of "drain->start engine->turn steering wheel back and forth" several times (4?) to remove most of the fluid, right?

3. What do you mean when you say "one more rinse"?

4. How many bottles (12 oz each) did you finally use?

Any help is highly appreciated!

Thanks for the pics Scottie.

qinyf,

Just drain it as many times as you need until its clear like new fluid.

1.22 Liters = 41 ounces. Honda sells the PS fluid in 12 ounces bottles. So get four bottles.

[mtnman]

(sorry for the thread resurrection)

Originally Posted by mach mdx

Thanks for the pics Scottie.

qinyf,

Just drain it as many times as you need until its clear like new fluid.

1.22 Liters = 41 ounces. Honda sells the PS fluid in 12 ounces bottles. So get four bottles.

I wish I would have seen this a tad sooner...I bought 3 bottles and used the turkey baster method:

My symptoms
My 2004 MDX w/130k miles was groaning during turning upon first start in cold weather (< 40 f) for a number of minutes. Once warmed up there were no noise problems the rest of the day.

Fluid check
VERY dirty, and VERY dark.

Solution
3 x [suck/drain resevoir, turn car on, lots of lock to lock turns to bleed the lines, groaning, turn car off]
1 x [fill resevoir with one bottle new Honda PS fluid, lots of lock to lock turns to fill the lines with new fluid]

Repeat above sequence three times (3 x [drain/bleed/drain/bleed/drain/bleed/fill]).

The color has improved but isn't clear like it comes out of the bottle. At some point I'll do this again with 4 bottles. But for now the groan is gone (even in 15 f weather).

Clearly the fluid was neglected . Hopefully tomorrow morning proves that it worked.

A few notes:

• Turkey baster method is messy - plan accordingly
• Get more fluid than you think you'll need (it's cheap)
• This procedure is loud - don't do it at night ;-)
• Plan for A LOT of waste/container volume

[mjimport]

^mtnman I just did this tonight, but as you said, to really get clear fluid it takes a lot of time and probably 5 bottles. I used 4 and have fluid that looks like a light green tea.
I failed to get the engine revs up past idle so I now have a ton of air still in the system and now have "jerky wheel syndrome" but it improved with a test drive around the block.
I'm hoping with driving tomorrow it goes away.

[mjimport]

Forgot to mention that I used the method of disconnecting the return line off the reservoir and connecting an extension leading to a orange juice bottle.
Then run the motor and turn the wheel a handful of times.
I had to hold the reservoir up high and tilt it to prevent fluid from coming out of the return connector but it wasn't a problem.
It was messy though! I don't know how you're supposed to do this without spilling fluid unless you use the syphon hose method.