Quick question...

[benjie]

What colour should my power steering fluid be in my 2003 1.9TDI qS?

It says on the cap "Use only mineral oil" and it's brown... that doesn't seem right to me?

[SWARCUP]

not sure on color but mines the same

[tony-1977]

Mine's black

[warp_speed]

What colour should my power steering fluid be in my 2003 1.9TDI qS?

It says on the cap "Use only mineral oil" and it's brown... that doesn't seem right to me?

As far as I know it should be Green. I had a problem with my PS fluid as well, which appeared brown/red.

My cars previous owner had the PS fluid changed and the Audi dealer used ATF instead.

You will need to change it to the green stuff quick as it will damage the rack and pump.

My pump/rack has a nice PS whine whenever I turn the steering which gets worse when I turn on the aircon. 31k miles on the clock, no way am I forking out over a grand for some dealerships incompetence.

Anyway rant over

[benjie]

Right then, seems like I need new fluid. Anyone know where the dain point is for it?

[warp_speed]

Right then, seems like I need new fluid. Anyone know where the dain point is for it?

Don't think there is a drain point. I used the following technique

Jack front of the car up so the wheels are hanging in the air. Remove as much fluid as you can from the PS reservoir first. Then remove the return pipe from the reservoir, block up the return hole in the reservoir and using a length of pipe, extend the return pipe into a large container.

Then full the reservoir with new fluid and start the car, then stop, the fluid is drained from the reservoir very quickly, you cannot supply enough out the bottle to keep the reservior from going empty, so start stop is the only method.

Move the steering right or left on full lock. Then do the start stop again. Do the same in the other direction. The idea is to remove as much as the old crap fluid as you can. DON'T let the reservoir go dry, take you you time.

A few weeks after you do this plan some time to do this again.

Fluid is £8 a litre and you will need at least 3 to do this. Best of luck

[zollaf]

i use my oil extractor to suck the oil from the resevoir. the suction tube can usually be inserted right down one of the pipes coming off the bottom of it. then refil, start, turn steering and repeat this 3 times, until the fluid stays green.

[benjie]

Thanks very much for the replies guys, I'll have a go tomorrow & let you know how it goes!