Flush Power Steering System - Toyota 120 Prado

In this tutorial, I show you how to do a total power steering fluid flush or change, on your 120 Prado.

Keep in mind, I am not a mechanic, so take everything with a grain of salt.

So this is quite an easy task to do, you don't need any expensive tools.

Tools Required for Power Steering Flush:

The only tools you need are:

• Pliers

• Some sort of suction tool - pump, baster or syringe

• Clear bottle

• Rags

Steps to Flush Power Steering

Let's get straight into it. Here are the steps I followed:

120 Prado Power Steering Return Line

1. Jack up the front end of the car, so both front wheels are off the ground.

2. Remove any excess power steering fluid from the reservoir.

3. Disconnect the return line, from the pump to the reservoir.

4. Place the end of the line, into an empty plastic bottle.

5. Without turning the car on, turn the wheels lock to lock. This will force any fluid out of the power steering system, into the bottle.

6. Reconnect the return line, your power steering system is now empty. We need to bleed it now.

7. Fill up the reservoir with new fluid, till full. Place cap on the system.

8. Start the car and go full lock, to full lock. This will start to bleed the system.

9. Check the power fluid level, it should have dropped, fill up again. Fill up again, and repeat steps 8 & 9 till the power steering system is back to normal.

Quick Tips for Flushing Power Steering

• It might help to watch a couple of videos online of how to flush your power steering fluid (but keep in mind, there are multiple methods). I am always happy to recommend any Chris Fix video. Fourby4Diesel is another amazing channel that I religiously follow.

• Place down a drop sheet / rag / drip tray under your car. You’re more than likely to spill power steering fluid when completing this job.

• With your car jacked up, it can be quite difficult to actually access the power steering system. I’m 6ft 4” and I struggled to reach, so don’t hesitate to use a milk crate to lift yourself up.

Why you Need to Flush your Power Steering

I actually had a few small niggles with my power steering at full lock - which were exaggerated in the cold. But generally speaking you should change your power steering every 2 years or 50k-60k kilometres.

Here’s an excellent example of what my old power steering fluid looked like compared to new stuff.

The new power steering fluid on the left is much cleaner and nicer, than my disgusting brown fluid on the right.

Summary of Power Steering Flush

I hope you guys enjoyed this tutorial. If you want to see a visual demonstration, I recorded this video on how to flush your power steering.