PS fluid looks and smells bad!

[turbotoad]

I noticed that my power steering lines were leaking right where they enter the pinion. So I decided to put some Lucus power steering stop-leak/conditioner fluid in to see if it helps. Anyway, I used my mighty vac to extract the old fluid out of the reservoir and was appauled at what came out!

The fluid that came out of the reservoir was the color of Coke-Cola and had a nasty burned smell to it. The smell reminded me of the smell when a speaker fries. That burned electrical like smell.

Well, the strange steering problems that I've been having (occational stiff steering, occational vague steering) seems to be better. But I'm concerned about the "burned" smell. Is this just ancient fluid (don't no history of the car) or are bigger problems waiting around the corner?

 

[psychlow]

I believe the dealer uses ATF for the "power steering fluid," which is red to begin with but when pumped around at very high pressure and heat cycling for a few years can turn strange looking.

You should be fine - mine was brown and kind of nasty looking as well. No problems thus far.