I recently took my '04 into the dealership for new tires, new fluids, etc. and a good looking-over at 48,600 miles so I can drive with confidence and enjoy this car for another two years or so.

They did say the power steering fluid was dark and smelled burnt. When I checked it, it was amber colored and did kind of smell funky. So seeing as they wanted an arm and leg to replace the fluid, I looked up on YouTube how you can remove the old stuff with a turkey baster and put new fluid in. Sounded practical to me so I did that. I did run some errands afterwards and the ps was just fine. Is this going to come back and haunt me? Has anyone else done this with their X-type?

 

I haven't done it yet but I would be tempted to do it again because there will still be old stuff in there; just make sure it is at operating temperature before you do it.
You should be able to see if the first change is still a slightly different colour to the new stuff.
Do you have the link for the YouTube post?

 

Unfortunately, I couldn't find the same video again. But it's very simple. You just suck out whatever's in there with a turkey baster and then put new fluid in. The Jag manual says to do this when the engine is cold. Also, some say to put the car up on jacks to be able to turn the wheels hard in both directions. Others say you can get the same effect by driving around the block! Whatever. But your suggestion of doing it again to get the old stuff out of there or at least diluted is well taken. I should do that.

 

I did my car this way when I first had it. Drained and refilled with fresh every few days until I had used up a whole large can of fluid. Sucked mine out with a huge syringe from eBay. One of the more simple service tricks.
I do believe there is an anti squeak steering pump fluid you can buy and this is black.

 

I just bought some and it is not black!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GENUINE-J...72.m2749.l2648

 

Jag manual calls for Dexron III, which is bright red.

 

This is an additive, not the fluid.

 

Whoops! That will teach me for believing my garage when I asked them why my fluid was nearly black. Good job I changed it out then, Thanks,

 

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...-w-oic-184932/

This is new fluid =

 

That looks like the blood and honey sauce she cooks duck in.
Now I'm hungry.

 

Old fluid pic is in the first link, quite a difference between

 

Jaguar recommended fluid change procedure. (TSB XT211-01)

I did this dozens of times when these cars were in New Car Warranty.

bob

 

Great to know the correct way. I forgot about the cooler on these cars (probably holds a bit more fluid). Doing it the right way, would certainly assure complete fluid change.

Do you happen to recall (doing the drain twice per instructions) how much total fluid is needed to drain/fill/drain/fill?

 

I do appreciate jaguar's correct way to do this but can someone tell my why!
Surely the fluid in the cooler is not static and must circulate to cool. SO enough draining and filling of the reservoir will eventually change all of it.
Mine as I said was almost black so I did the suck out and fill, using around a litre and a half of fluid. I spread mine out over several days but if you had the front wheels of the floor you could rack the steering and do it in one go. My fluid now, "a year later" is very near the same colour as when it went in.

 

So not to be an ***, but your reasoning of "must circulate to cool. SO enough draining and filling of the reservoir will eventually change all of it" says it all. Just stop and ruminate on that a second.

Dirty out of reservoir, drive & circulates, residual dirty mixes with clean, repeat. No matter how many times it's repeated you could mathematically never get full replacement. I actually read a while ago an engineer and math nut who calculated this type of procedure (transfer case procedure) and posted the results of percentages. The difference from drain/fill/start car/repeat from 3 times to 7 times doing the "7 second start procedure not the drain and drive procedure", was miniscule in percentage increase. Failing momory, but something in the neighborhood of 90 to 93%.

Draining from the "correct" way would pretty darn near drain all the fluid completely, then do it twice and dang close if not at 100% change.

 

Thank you.
I bow to your superior knowledge.

 

There is another method.....

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...eplace-176286/