Pictures up front:
These are pictures looking into the power steering pump resivoir of my 80. Been a while since I posted so as a reminder, my 80 is the subject/victim of a 4bt swap. I'm pretty sure my power steering pump is a cummuns part, but the steering box is Toyota.
I knew that it was leaking so I started topping it off (Valvoline synthetic ATF) and ultimately took it to a shop to get a quote on fixing it. They dumped some UV dye in and determined that both the box and the pump were leaking. They quoted $1,000 for parts and labor and since I was having some other work done, I didn't pull the trigger on the work.
After I picked up the Cruiser, I observed the following.
1. When I picked it up, I asked if they topped the reservoir off. The manager grabbed a bottle and walked out with me offering to top it off just in case the techs forgot to. I noticed that he grabbed P/S fluid and I told him that it takes ATF and that, hopefully, his mechanics knew that and didn't put any P/S in it. He assured me that they wouldn't make that mistake and grabbed some ATF instead. Suspicious.
2. We opened the reservoir and the fluid was green (as in the pictures above). I asked what the hell was going on and he said that it was from the dye. Ok.
3. After 3,300 miles of highway driving and going through about 1.5 qts of ATF, it's still green (I took the pictures above last night). Seems odd. I'd think going through 1.5 quarts is the equivalent of a full flush and refill and that the UV dye should be significantly diluted at this point.
4. It's now leaking faster than when I dropped it off at the mechanic. I switched to synthetic just before I dropped it off so maybe that sped up the leak too. I've since switched back to regular. Rate of leak change is yet to be determined.
Would adding the wrong fluid cause it to turn this color or is there really this much dye lingering in the system?
I'm planning on a rebuild or replacement anyway, but the color of the fluid and rate of leak change really has be flabbergasted.
These are pictures looking into the power steering pump resivoir of my 80. Been a while since I posted so as a reminder, my 80 is the subject/victim of a 4bt swap. I'm pretty sure my power steering pump is a cummuns part, but the steering box is Toyota.
I knew that it was leaking so I started topping it off (Valvoline synthetic ATF) and ultimately took it to a shop to get a quote on fixing it. They dumped some UV dye in and determined that both the box and the pump were leaking. They quoted $1,000 for parts and labor and since I was having some other work done, I didn't pull the trigger on the work.
After I picked up the Cruiser, I observed the following.
1. When I picked it up, I asked if they topped the reservoir off. The manager grabbed a bottle and walked out with me offering to top it off just in case the techs forgot to. I noticed that he grabbed P/S fluid and I told him that it takes ATF and that, hopefully, his mechanics knew that and didn't put any P/S in it. He assured me that they wouldn't make that mistake and grabbed some ATF instead. Suspicious.
2. We opened the reservoir and the fluid was green (as in the pictures above). I asked what the hell was going on and he said that it was from the dye. Ok.
3. After 3,300 miles of highway driving and going through about 1.5 qts of ATF, it's still green (I took the pictures above last night). Seems odd. I'd think going through 1.5 quarts is the equivalent of a full flush and refill and that the UV dye should be significantly diluted at this point.
4. It's now leaking faster than when I dropped it off at the mechanic. I switched to synthetic just before I dropped it off so maybe that sped up the leak too. I've since switched back to regular. Rate of leak change is yet to be determined.
Would adding the wrong fluid cause it to turn this color or is there really this much dye lingering in the system?
I'm planning on a rebuild or replacement anyway, but the color of the fluid and rate of leak change really has be flabbergasted.
