hey everyone,
just picked up a 1997 2.8 with some problems.

when i got it, the power steering fluid was almost empty, so i went and bought some pentosin and started to fill it up.

once it was warm, the power steering fluid looked like a mixture of milk and pentosin...kind of a creamy green, and was boiling. i had already bled it with the cap off, and it was just siting there bubbling very fast. the power steering started working again but whined a lot.

my plan was to drain and fill the fluid today, but wanted to see if it was worth my time since my pump might be shot.

any opinions are appreciated!

 

drain and fill with pentosin is a great idea, just in case previous owner had the wrong fluid in there.

I'd also check all of the rubber hoses where they connect to either the reservoir or to hard lines. if you can twist them easily, try replacing the factory clamp with a regular screw-type clamp. That fixed my problem, i guess it was sucking air due to the loose clamps, which made bubbles, which caused the reservoir to leak out by the cap.

 

that sounds like a great idea! and i did forget to mention that the cap and top of resivoir is wet, but i couldn't figure out why it would be leaking from up there...

 

The stock fluid is a green color. It's not traditional power steering fluid. It's actually a mineral hydraulic oil. If you bought any of the fluids sold on ECS Tuning's website, you are probably OK. However, the stock fluid doesn't play well with other OEM fluids; so, don't mix in a non-stock fluid if you aren't sure about compatiblility.