Power steering fluid and coolant reserve tank residue

Mar 02, 2004 1 Replies

I know this has been brought up before, but I always figure it never hurts to rehash a topic every once in a while.



I checked the power steering resevoir in my folks' 2001 Camry. I drove it around for about 4 miles to warm everything up. The PS reservoir wasn't up to the top (hot) indicator, so I just filled a little ACDelco Dexron III like the manual and reservoir cap says. Of course the fluid was amber in color, with an odor similar to Honda PSF-V. I figure it should be OK, but it's rather strange. The color is going to be really funky. BTW - the car was assembled in Kentucky.



Second - there was some red gelatinous residue just off the cap of the reserve/overflow coolant tank. I cleaned it off just in case, but it looks like a certain amount of coolant seems to spurt off and solidifies. The (snap-closed) cap doesn't appear to be very tight



With the automatic transmission, the fluid needs to be up to the full hot mark, but with the power steering, I just fill it to the full cold mark so that the level is between hot and cold marks during operation. I could be wrong, but I think the level in the power steering reservoir is less critical, as long as it is not too low.

Join the Discussion

Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.

Didn't find your answer?

Ask the community — no account required