How to perform a power steering flush on an Audi A8

2012-03-06T12:48:00.000-08:00

How to flush and replace your Power Steering fluid (Audi A8 D3)

1. What will you need:

. Clear plastic hose about 2m in length. I got mine from Robert Dyas (£3)!

. 2 Litres of Power Steering fluid (Sourced from Audi) costs about £18.

. A syringe & a plastic straw (To make a simple tool to extract a sample of fluid from the tank

. A empty container to collect the old power steering fluid.

. A rag to wipe off any excess fluid.

. Funnel

. Disposable rubber work gloves.

2. Put the straw into the syringe to make the extracting tool; You will see a this in a picture below.

3. Cut a small 2 inch length from the flexi hose to use as your mouth piece.

4. Now locate the power steering tank in the engine bay and remove the lid which will have a dipstick attached to it. The tank is near to coolant tank on the front passenger side. See picture below it is the black one.

5. Now take the long plastic hose and stick one end into to power steering (PS) tank and use your mouth to suck slowly until you see the old fluid coming down the pipe. Once it gets close take it out of your mouth and place it in the empty container. The key here is the container needs to be on the ground so that gravity will suck out the rest of the fluid from the tank. See the set up in the picture below.

6. Keep an eye on the end that is in the PS tank and ensure it as kept at the bottom of the tank so that as much fluid as possible it drained via the hose.

7. Once the tank is empty remove the hose and place to one side. Your old fluid is probably dark this is normal. Use the syringe to extract any remaining fluid from the tank and try to get into the various nooks etc…. once you have cleared as much as possible from the PS tank check the condition of the filter which is located deep inside the lower section of your PS tank. Mine looked ok so was left alone!

8. Now you need to fill up the PS tank with the new fluid. Do this carefully and try to avoid any spillage in the engine bay. Best to use a funnel but if you do spill any then wipe it off using a rag as soon as possible. Fill up just below the max mark on the dipstick.

9. Now get someone to start your car for a short burst (less than 15-30 sec’s at a time) and at the same time turning the steering wheel full turns left to right, but not holding it in the lock position either side as it will add undue strain on the power steering system. While your assistant is turning the steering wheel you need to keep an eye on the PS tank and ensure the level does not drop low. If it does stop the car and add some more fluid.

10. The idea here is that you are pushing the new fluid into the system and pulling out the old fluid into the PS tank. You now need to drain the fluid from the PS tank into the container. The fluid should be dark again meaning that the new fluid was pushed into the system and the fluid in the tank is the old fluid which needs to be drained.

11. If the fluid is not dark then you need to try to push the old out into the tank by repeating step 9 above until you get the dark fluid into the PS tank. NOTE it will always look dark if you look into the tank –to check correctly extract a little bit into the syringe to get correct colour check.

12. Attach your plastic hose into the PS tank (same end as before) and the other end which you put in your mouth previously can now be wiped with the rag but do not put in your mouth this time as it is contaminated from the first drain. Instead use the small piece you cut off at the start and hold it tight to the end and you can still apply suction with your mouth to get the fluid to come out of the PS tank. As soon as the fluid gets close drop the end into the container with the old fluid. Now wait until it is all drained. This is the same process as step 5 above.

13. Repeat steps 9 to 12 above until you get green (new fluid) fluid only coming through into the PS tank. I managed to get the fluid pretty much green after about 4-5 flushes (ie steps 9-12) and the result was as shown below. That was good enough for me.

14. Now you are nearly done. You need to run the car and keep turning the steering wheel from left to right whilst. Get an assistant to do this whilst you keep an eye on the PS tank and ensure the fluid does not drop low (it should not as you have been replacing any fluid you extracted) and you may see some bubbles coming up in the tank – this is normal as it is just bleeding any air bubbles that maybe in the system. Once you see no more air bubbles top up the PS tank with new fluid if it is required – check using the dipstick level) - you want to ensure it is just below the max level mark.

15. Drive the car around a bit and then check the PS fluid level again. If needed top up.

16. Job done – go get yourself a nice cold beer J

Power steering flush on Audi A8 Tutorial

How to perform a power steering flush on an Audi A8