Power Steering Reservoir

[thetoyotaman]

Are there any tricks to clean the reservoir to make it like new? It's hard to read without shining a flashlight through it.

 

[Muddy Bean]

This may be completely obvious so please read with a grain of salt, but I have found that soaking my reservoirs (on the outside) with engine degreaser (the foaming kind at autozone made by Gunk) and letting it sit for 8-10 minutes and then power washing it clean at the car wash cleans it really well.

 

[thetoyotaman]

Thanks. I should clarify. The red ATF seems to darken the inside of the reservoir making it harder to read and as the plastic ages they seem to darken.

 

[KlausVanWinkle]

I know what you mean. The PO must have burnt their PS fluid. I can't read the level without a flashlight.

 

[Bretthn]

While I had mine out to relocate it in front of the air filter housing, I cleaned the inside with denatured alcohol which worked pretty well. I let it soak for a while. The plastic is still yellowish instead of white but I am able to easily read the fluid level again.

 

[cruiser03]

I removed mine, used a coat hanger bending into different shapes with a piece of rag taped to the end to reach around all the crevices. I am cheap. Scraped all the crud off the inside, then soaked it overnight in simple green. I thought it was yellow from the start. That fluid gets dirty enough about every 15k miles so I completely flush the fluid by removing the hoses, raising the vehicle and turning the wheels side to side to get it out. I installed one of those magnets in-line and it picks up quite a lot of debris every 10k miles. At 115k miles the hose connections at the bottle just started to weep so I replace both hoses.

 

[thetoyotaman]

That's cool! Thanks for sharing.