Saturday I had my 1995 940 in to get it's oil leaks fixed, new belts, water pump, and timing belt. I could have done the pump, but I'm not willing to screw with the timing belt w/o the correct tools. They note that one of my inner tie-rod is close to bad, and that it shouldn't have passed safety inspection (don't trust dealer inspections!) So $700.00 later, they also tell me that my tranny fluid looks burnt and the power steering fluid looks orange-red. The head mechanic tells me that Volvo uses a special high detergent PS fluid and that explains the color. They said they'd flush it for me for another $80.00, so I tell them no thanks. They also said they'd cut me a deal and flush my AT fluid for $70.00. Also, no thanks, I'll flush it myself.

So, I head home, and start to siphon out the PS fluid. here's where it's weird. This stuff looks like an Indian Sauce. I kid you not, it looks just like red curry sauce, right down to the texture and the little floaters. I figure this *can't* be good, but I had planned ahead. I had 2 qts of PS fluid, a turkey baster, and a nice new Magnafine Filter. Getting the fluid out was a little tricky. Sucked the resrvoir dry, started the car and let the reservoir refill. Siphoned out as much as possible. Shut down the car, and then I installed the magnafine. Then I started adding the new fluid, ran the motor and cranking the wheels back and forth. I kept siphoning out the curry sauce and adding new clear fluid until I had added the whole quart - which now looked less like watered down curry and more like Vess Cream Soda (translucent redish). I siphoned out all of that, added fluid slowly as I cranked the wheels. I ended up adding the whole second quart before I got to a normal level again (re-checked sunday). After that I test-filled the baster and foudn the fluid to be a nice clean translucent red w/o floaters or "curry-like" appearance.

The power-assist spasms that I had posted on earlier are now almost entirely gone, so I feel like I did a good thing.

Now the questions:
why did the old fluid look like curry sauce?
Is regular ps fluid acceptable - I see a lot of bicksters using AT fluid?
My steering feels a little less "tight" now - could that be due to the standard PS fluid vs. AT fluid?




--
Six Volvos: all wagons.... 1972 145S, 1976 245 DL, 1983 245 GL, 1986 740 GLE, 1990 740 GL, now a 1995 940. Number 7 (a 1967 122S Wagon) is on the way.... Who needs a sedan, when you've got storage compartments in a wagon?