Hello Scotty,
I have a 2008 Saturn Astra 1.8L, manual transmission, normally aspirated with 133,000 km (83k miles), Canadian vehicle. The power steering pump is electric and the fluid has never been changed, so it's 13 year old fluid in there. There are no leaks and the power steering is functioning normally. I would like to know if I should change this fluid? Will it cause harm like in some automatic transmissions that got new fluid after many years of use with no changes? The only way I see of changing the fluid is by using a turkey baster to remove some from the reservoir and refilling with new fluid then driving the car and repeating until it looks refreshed.
thank you,
Scott Smith
Well I'm having experience with that particular model but generally electric power steering systems do not have fluid though there might be some hybrid one I've never seen that has both fluid and electric if it does have fluid yeah I would change it
Thanks Scotty. When I said the power steering pump is electric, I meant that the power steering pump is driven by an electric motor and the remainder of the system is a conventional hydraulic type of system with a fluid reservoir.
Change it according to your owner's manual maintenance schedule which is right now. Hope it's not too late.
