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power steering fluid a wierd color

jeeping99tj

NAXJA Forum User
Location
champaign
HI i was checking my fluids last night and the power steering fluid is a bright orange color. The guy that had the xj before was a idiot so who knows. But i ran like a half gallon of new fluid to try and flush it out but its still the same color i dont understand never had this prob. And i have a real bad sqeak coming off the belt drive and cant figure out where its coming from. I replaced the idler pulley and the guy before said he replaced the belt but who knows it looks ok and it kinda feels a little sticky so dont know. Help me out guys.
 
orange power steering fluid??? well, far as your belt goes, i had the same problem. my belt was starting to squeak. so i put belt dressing on it. well, s the week progressed, i would add more and more belt dressing. finlly found out it ws my idler pully, replaced it and it still would squeak. what the heck i thought, that was before i realized i had wayyyy too much dressing on my belt. if u pull the belt off, you can wipe all the excess oil on it off. mine was dressing, your sounds like its just going to be oil.
 
ill try belt again i have an extra ill just swap it. but yeah bright ass orange!!! no clue whats going on its not antifreeze or it doesn t smell like it but WTF it still works so i dont know.
 
Does you power steering leak at all? I was once told that a cheap ass fix for a leaky steering box is ATF. ATF is red, it could have turned orange when mixed with p/s fluid.

just a thought.
 
Is it possible that the box sat dry for a LONG time at one point, and the color is rust?
 
I added some Lucas power steering pump sealer/conditioner because my year and a half old rebuilt pump was getting loud.

The Lucas stuff is red but its kinda orange when its mixed.

Just an FYI.
 
Coolant on the belt will squeak, I pressure wash it off and then spray it down with a silicon rubber treatment. The silicon softens the rubber some. Use a silicon rubber treatment, regular silicon lubricant can destroy rubber.
I never had much luck with belt dressing or similar stuff, if anything it often made the squeak worse.

There are couple of synthetic power steering fluids out there that are kind of orange (yellow/red). Mostly used on power assist rack and pinion type power steering setups.
 
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