power steering fluid flush - how bad did i screw up?

mostsmooth

Active Member
Nov 12, 2002
270
26
29
Hi all,
95 GT
power steering fluid was low and has never been changed, car has 140k miles on it.

seems i needed to use mercon automatic trans fluid for the power steering. i thought i was doing ok when i used castrol transmax mercon V. It says on the front it's good for ford and it exceeds mercon requirements. back says (in yellow below) that its good for power steering. i guess i had stopped reading there and didnt notice the next sentence that says do not use in applications calling for mercon sp, mercon lv, or Type F'.
that last sentence has me worried. i cant tell if they are saying dont use it as transmission fluid if you need type F, or dont use it as power steering fluid if you need type f, or dont use it for anything thart needs type f?

so, assuming this isnt the right stuff, how bad is this that i already flushed the system with this? do i go buy the right stuff and flush it again and all is well? or am really screwed?

thanks

1615144800864.png
 
  • Sponsors (?)


Type F vs. Dextron has to do with transmission friction modifiers. The thickness of the transmission fluid as hydraulic fluid should be the same. If you flush it and fill with the right stuff, I’d bet the steering will be better off than those who did not change the fluid. With the newer stuff, I am not sure you need to change it now.
 
Last edited:
so i finished up the flush, did the turning the steering wheel, etc.
started the car and immediately noticed squealing when I turned the wheel. I am pretty sure the noise wasn't there previously.
i drove the car for about 15 minutes. seems the noise wasnt as loud by the end of the 15 minutes when i got back in the driveway.
it isnt a persistent squealing. it only happens when i turn the wheel. i was under the impression that if there was any whining due to incorrect fluid or a pump problem, it would be a consistent whine, is that accurate?

also, when the car front end was jacked up i moved the tire a bit (a tiny tiny bit) with my hand and the noise seemed to be coming from the tire area rather than the pump or rack area, does that make sense? it sounded a lot like sound the metal rotor shield makes when you move it a little, but that shield isnt touching the tire or anything.

i will be looking around at things again today, but i am trying to understand what may be going on.

also, do i care about this noise if it is actually the famous ford whining?

thanks
 
Belt good?
Hard to gauge sound if you can't hear it.
Any noise turning when engine off?
belt is a month or two old and looks good.

i should have added earlier, but forgot, i believe the engine was off when i moved the tire with my hand and heard the noise. that maybe narrows things down?
i barely moved the tire though.

EDIT: misread your post

thanks
 
Last edited:
I've been running nothing but Mercon V in my Ford PS pumps for 15+ years without issue so far. You'll be fine. Before I used it for this I did a lot of reading about it so I was satisfied that there would be no harm.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
just took the car out for a good 30-minute spin. didn't really hear any noises this time. maybe it just wasn't used to having fresh fluid in there after all these years...
 
In My Humble Opinion. As a master tech of course. Those fluids are so much alike that your power steering hardly knows the difference. F works in all of them. Ford made some special fluid that was supposed to help curb pump cavitation. The C2 pumps whine like hell because they have springs pushing the vanes against the pump body. They are positive displacement pumps that pump constantly. The ZF pumps have no springs pushing the against the vanes and have to spin up to speed to start pumping. All the newer fluids are synthetic simply because they come from a lab instead of crude oil. F7AZ-3F823-BA and XL-9 are both mercon V as far as I can tell. You will not ruin anything flush away
 
F is so hard to find you may just as well go with mercon V now and be done with it
Found it in three popular brands.


 
I always use AC delco 10-5073 (it's required in an AGR rack).
Not sure what designation or letter it correlates to (if any). I've pretty much never had a power steering failure of any type in 30 years.
 
Your power steering pump was squealing because it had some air bubbles in the system. It's pretty normal after a flush. Generally you jack up the front of the car, take the cap off, start the car and turn the wheel lock to lock a few times to burp the system. Driving it around probably burped the air out.

I wouldn't worry about using Mercon vs Type F. Ford just published Type F because that was the transmission fluid they were using in the transmission at the time, and they generally keep to the same fluids as much as possible to keep costs down.

Kurt
 
  • Like
  • Useful
Reactions: 2 users