I bought my 09 XT in June this year. It was a lease return with 61k km.
My car came with a full service history as its been serviced at same Subaru authorized dealer since Day 1. I can't say I am 100% confident with this dealership> When I got my car back from them for the 66k km service the stereo was set to full blast.
Anyways, I always take good care of my cars and I feel like its time to give something back to the community after so many years of lurking. So this is a little story of how I changed my power steering fluid.
I don't believe in flushing fluids in and out of mechanical systems. Hence I have chosen to drain/ suck and fill. The same goes for my ATF, Front and Rear Differential.
Here are all the things that I used for changing the power steering fluid.
![Image]()
a) 1 Quart of Subaru ATF-HP
b) empty container for waste oil
c) disposable cups
d) Pipette (bought from dollar store)
e) Turkey Baster
f) wet wipes (optional really)
![Image]()
This is what needs to be dealt with.
I drove around all morning to get all the stuff required so all the fluids are already hot.
This thing with the big yellow cap is the cap for the power steering fluid reservoir. Don't be fooled by the size of the cap, the fill hole is actually pretty small. In order to get something in there to suck the dirty oil out, I had to buy a small diameter pipette.
Turn the cap anti-clock wise for less than half a turn until it won't turn anymore, wiggle it free upwards and place it into a disposable cup so that it won't get contaminated. (Yes I am OCD.)
Then I used the pipette to extract the dirty (black and thick) power steering fluid from the reservoir. The manual says the reservoir holds 0.3 quarts, which is around 280ml. Not sure how they measured it as I was only able to extract about 160-180ml until the level is too low for the pipette to work. As I said, the fluid was black and thick, I have no idea when or if its been changed ever.
Anyways, I extracted as much as I can from the reservoir and dumped all the dirty oil into the waste oil container.
Then, I poured a cup of Subaru ATF-HP into a disposable cup and used the Turkey Baster to transfer the bright red new ATF into the reservoir until the level is between Hot MAX and Hot MIN. I find that using a turkey baster gives me really good control of the flow of the ATF into the reservoir and it minimizes the chance of spilling, the large diameter also allows me to fill it up quickly as compared to the pipette.
When that was done, I place all the lids back onto all the bottles and placed the pipette and turkey baster into separate cups (OCD!!), put the yellow cap back onto the reservoir and turn it to the close position and went for a drive.
I live 2 blocks away from a park which has multiple parking lots. I went around the park slowly and did 2 figure-8s in every single parking lot with steering wheel turned from almost lock-to-lock to allow the fluid to circulate. This does not need to be done in an autocross manner. As long as the steering wheel gets turned from one side to another the fluid will circulate the power steering system.
I got back to my house in 10 minutes and I checked the power steering fluid in the reservoir again, this time, the fluid is still black, but its not as thick as before.
I repeated the above for 3 more times (4 times total), each time returning with better fluid conditions. On the 4th time, the oil in the reservoir looked like ATF from the transmission in good condition, so I decided to call it a day.
Here's the comparison.
![Image]()
The cup in the middle is the new ATF-HP in bright red, the container on the right is the waste oil I've extracted.
Conclusion:
This whole thing costed me less than $20 and 1 hour from start to finish. There is a slight improvement on how the steering wheel feels after the fluid has been changed, especially in low speed, it is not significant, but it does feel smoother.
But this is not the point. The point is that this cheap fluid change will go a long way and possibly save a lot of money in the event of steering rack/ PS pump damage due to poor lubrication.
Note:
always return waste oil to a recycling facility (usually where you bought the new oil from), do not pour into drain.
make sure you have enough fluid to finish the job as driving the vehicle with improper fluid levels may cause serious damage and injuries.
wipe off all spills, burning ATF can cause bad smell and fire.
This is not intended to be a step-to-step guide, read and use at your own risk.
:icon_biggrin:
My car came with a full service history as its been serviced at same Subaru authorized dealer since Day 1. I can't say I am 100% confident with this dealership> When I got my car back from them for the 66k km service the stereo was set to full blast.
Anyways, I always take good care of my cars and I feel like its time to give something back to the community after so many years of lurking. So this is a little story of how I changed my power steering fluid.
I don't believe in flushing fluids in and out of mechanical systems. Hence I have chosen to drain/ suck and fill. The same goes for my ATF, Front and Rear Differential.
Here are all the things that I used for changing the power steering fluid.
a) 1 Quart of Subaru ATF-HP
b) empty container for waste oil
c) disposable cups
d) Pipette (bought from dollar store)
e) Turkey Baster
f) wet wipes (optional really)
This is what needs to be dealt with.
I drove around all morning to get all the stuff required so all the fluids are already hot.
This thing with the big yellow cap is the cap for the power steering fluid reservoir. Don't be fooled by the size of the cap, the fill hole is actually pretty small. In order to get something in there to suck the dirty oil out, I had to buy a small diameter pipette.
Turn the cap anti-clock wise for less than half a turn until it won't turn anymore, wiggle it free upwards and place it into a disposable cup so that it won't get contaminated. (Yes I am OCD.)
Then I used the pipette to extract the dirty (black and thick) power steering fluid from the reservoir. The manual says the reservoir holds 0.3 quarts, which is around 280ml. Not sure how they measured it as I was only able to extract about 160-180ml until the level is too low for the pipette to work. As I said, the fluid was black and thick, I have no idea when or if its been changed ever.
Anyways, I extracted as much as I can from the reservoir and dumped all the dirty oil into the waste oil container.
Then, I poured a cup of Subaru ATF-HP into a disposable cup and used the Turkey Baster to transfer the bright red new ATF into the reservoir until the level is between Hot MAX and Hot MIN. I find that using a turkey baster gives me really good control of the flow of the ATF into the reservoir and it minimizes the chance of spilling, the large diameter also allows me to fill it up quickly as compared to the pipette.
When that was done, I place all the lids back onto all the bottles and placed the pipette and turkey baster into separate cups (OCD!!), put the yellow cap back onto the reservoir and turn it to the close position and went for a drive.
I live 2 blocks away from a park which has multiple parking lots. I went around the park slowly and did 2 figure-8s in every single parking lot with steering wheel turned from almost lock-to-lock to allow the fluid to circulate. This does not need to be done in an autocross manner. As long as the steering wheel gets turned from one side to another the fluid will circulate the power steering system.
I got back to my house in 10 minutes and I checked the power steering fluid in the reservoir again, this time, the fluid is still black, but its not as thick as before.
I repeated the above for 3 more times (4 times total), each time returning with better fluid conditions. On the 4th time, the oil in the reservoir looked like ATF from the transmission in good condition, so I decided to call it a day.
Here's the comparison.
The cup in the middle is the new ATF-HP in bright red, the container on the right is the waste oil I've extracted.
Conclusion:
This whole thing costed me less than $20 and 1 hour from start to finish. There is a slight improvement on how the steering wheel feels after the fluid has been changed, especially in low speed, it is not significant, but it does feel smoother.
But this is not the point. The point is that this cheap fluid change will go a long way and possibly save a lot of money in the event of steering rack/ PS pump damage due to poor lubrication.
Note:
always return waste oil to a recycling facility (usually where you bought the new oil from), do not pour into drain.
make sure you have enough fluid to finish the job as driving the vehicle with improper fluid levels may cause serious damage and injuries.
wipe off all spills, burning ATF can cause bad smell and fire.
This is not intended to be a step-to-step guide, read and use at your own risk.
:icon_biggrin:
