Power Steering Fluid

[soulman123]

I had a bit of trouble trying to get ford to sell me some power steering fluid. I went in gave them my reg and they couldn't figure out if I need a red or green fluid ?

Also they wanted to know if I have electronic power steering, I had no idea.

I gave them the spec in the handbook and they said they could'nt use that as its out of date and it could be wrong so it may damage my power steering rack.

Sooooo I left with no pas fluid as they refused to sell it to me for those reasons which was highly odd. I was like if you can tell me what I need or the handbook says I need what am I to do. He shrugged and looked not bothered.

Its a 1.8 04 petrol focus does anyone know which colour fluid I need.

Theres another ford dealer a bit further away I may take a drive to seeing as this mob are being some what difficult.

Basically the fluid is black now and needs changing I'm guessing, so the plan was to syphon out some of the fluid from the pas fluid tank, then stick the top pipe ? in a bottle and start the car and let the pump chuck all the dirty fluid out in to the bottle. Then refil with fresh stuff, which is proving hard to get.

So yeah if anyone knows what stuff or colour goes in I'd be grateful *thumbs up*

[btmaldon]

Im pretty sure its the red stuff. I thought electronic steering was only on the diesels.

If you scoop a bit of the old fluid out and put it onto some white paper, you should be able to tell if its red or green.

[jeebowhite]

Its quite worrying that your dealer cant tell you! I would change dealer! - Genuinely!

If they have to ask you wether your electric or otherwise, then that is really bad...

[soulman123]

Its quite worrying that your dealer cant tell you! I would change dealer! - Genuinely!

If they have to ask you wether your electric or otherwise, then that is really bad...

Tell me about it the alarm bells rang and I was slightly annoyed if they can't advise me who can. Shocking. The chap was a bit rude he said I should know if my car has electric or manual pwoer steering I simple told him I'm not a mechanic, very rude indeed.

The only reason I use them is that the next one is about 16 miles away ... but after today I shall factor in one of my regular jounreys to the better one if I need anything.

Also I put a bit of paper in the pas fluid to see if I could tell the colour it came out black :o but there is a oily red tinge to it.

So based on that I'm guessing red. There is a nice ford specialist not too far from me who do bits and bobs I can't so I may aswell pop in there and ask.

Usually its just a case of giving the reg number and they appear with a bottle of the good stuff. Nevermind.

[btmaldon]

It is a bit of a pain replacing the fluid as you must get all the air out of it. Normally you have to put the front of the car in the air and with the engine running keep turning the steering from lock to lock until there are no bubbles coming through.

Good luck with it