I think Wal-Mart Dexron VI fixed my power steering.

[brycarp]

I'm just putting this in here in case someone is in a similar situation to what I was and wants to give it a shot. I had acquired a 1995 Impreza L where the service records the previous owner turned over to me showed a steering rack replacement within the last 20k miles. But I would often experience a distinct lack of steering assist (like when maneuvering into a parking space in a parking lot where the spaces are side-by-side, so the space is at a 90-degree angle to the access lane.) For normal around-town driving it felt fine, but it would give out "when I wanted the assist most" and I'd have to just muscle it like what's necessary if the engine's not running.

 

I had already bought a reman pump to give that a try, but I thought I should make sure of what fluid was in the system first, before I installed it. (And I had some thought that the fluid change itself might actually reduce the problem.)

 

So, given that I wanted to get a pretty thorough fluid flush, and also given that I'm a bit eccentric at times, I "repurposed" the 1-gallon jar from a 3-dollar jar of pickles from Sam's Club as shown here:

Those fittings (the black plastic part) are sold at hardware stores to be able to put a drain hose on the pan that goes under a water heater. And the brass parts are adapters from 1/2" pipe thread to hose barb. This "reservoir" let me introduce a gallon of new fluid into the system and get a really thorough flush. This was temporarily plumbed into the fluid return line, of course! (And don't try doing this with a non-rigid "tank" like a plastic jar, because you need the extra reservoir's volume to be constant.) I drove around for about 10 minutes in a big empty parking lot, exercising the steering lock-to-lock a lot.

 

I used Wal-Mart's "Super Tech" Dexron VI for the new fluid because it costs about the same as their other tranny fluid offerings in quarts (about $4 a quart) and I figure the specs for what can be called "Dexron VI" require it to be pretty good stuff, so I'm not worried about the fact that it's a "house brand." It's what I use for the tranny in my other Impreza that has an automatic.

As you can see on the label, it qualifies as Dexron II and III, which is what Subaru calls for.

 

Anyway, since I did this (never did replace the pump) the steering has been basically perfect. I think it might have taken a couple of days to get really good - maybe some seals were reacting positively to the new fluid but took some time to do so. In reality, I won't know for sure until I go through another Winter and make sure there wasn't a "really cold weather" component to the previous assist lack, but I think it was having the problem even when fully warmed up before.

[DevC]

Nice, a good flush can do wonders.

 

Had this happen on my Lego ss, flushed it and it worked good for a few months, but now its gotten worse then ever, not just annoying to drive worse, but scary will I make it home worse. I'm gunna try flushing it again tho

[brycarp]

I am ready to say this fix was good. I've had plenty of chance to drive it under very cold conditions now, and I am still not getting the "lack of assist just when you want it" behavior I was getting before the flush with Dexron VI.

[porcupine73]

That's pretty neat. Thanks for the detailed info on those fittings for the water heater drain, I've been trying to figure out something like that for many years!

 

Dexron VI is probably fine for the steering. I wouldn't use it in my transmission because it is a bit thinner than the older Dexrons. They like to claim everything is backwards compatible, though it doesn't necessarily mean it is the best spec for the application.

[AWDfreak]

Despite the fact that Wal-Mart does sell some low-quality products, the Super-Tech lineup of automotive lubricants isn't that bad according to a large majority of forum members at BITOG (bobistheoilguy).

 

Nice to know it did well.

[Fairtax4me]

The pump uses a rotary vane style compressor to create pressure. If the fluid is old or incorrect the vane plates can get jammed in the rotor housing and not extend to meet the outter edge of the housing. When that happens you get low or sometimes no pressure when you need it.

 

A slipping belt will also cause similar problems.