1994 volvo 850 steering is stiff to turn

michaelw84 · Post by **michaelw84** » 07 May 2014, 09:22

my steering suddenly became hard to turn,,,, i noticed my lower ball joints were no good so i replaced them thinking that may be adding to problem. my steering pump seems fine not making any noises. with front end jacked up and wheels off ground it feels fine. Any idea as to why this is,,,, i was told i may need to flush out my power steering fluid and refresh, could this be the cause if so how do you go about flushing the system

Post by **jblackburn** » 07 May 2014, 09:44

Change the fluid. Get a cheap turkey baster...suck out the fluid in the reservoir, refill, run the steering lock to lock several times (might help to put the front on jack stands), repeat 4-5x. By then, the fluid should be mostly red in the reservoir.

Your PS pump uses Dexron-III ATF.

Post by **combatkarl** » 07 May 2014, 14:22

My wife grew tired of me using her turkey baster

So, I started using a gear oil pump (sometimes called a Fluid Transfer pump). The pumps are designed to screw onto a gear oil bottle. Put the siphon end of the pump in the power steering resevoir and start pumping. Cost about $10. Seems to work faster than the turkey baster.

Post by **mecheng** » 08 May 2014, 15:51

Why do you say dextron III the manual says ATF

Post by **jblackburn** » 08 May 2014, 15:55

Dexron III *is* ATF

Post by **polskamafia mjl** » 08 May 2014, 18:46

jblackburn wrote:Dexron III *is* ATF

+1

I once made the mistake of topping off with power steering fluid instead of ATF so I had to turkey baste the system.

skloon · Post by **skloon** » 08 May 2014, 21:10

all Dexron iii is ATF not all ATF is Dexron III-

Post by **mecheng** » 09 May 2014, 01:36

skloon wrote:all Dexron iii is ATF not all ATF is Dexron III-

Correct. You should be able to use any ATF