I did a power steering flush on my Jaguar XType V6 (122,000KM / 75K miles) and wanted to share my research and result to help others interested in tackling this easy yet important procedure. It is a long write up and full of details, if you get tired of reading, try to understand the basics because the result is smooth steering. Enjoy.

RESEARCH:

XType power steering system components:

1. Fluid tank (black round container at mid-left of engine bay)
2. Power steering (PS) pump (towards passenger area)
3. Rack and pinion (connected to steering wheel)
4. High and low pressure hoses
5. Automatic Transmission (ATF) red oil is used as the power steering fluid, needs to meet DEXRON III specs. I had Castrol Domestic ATF in the garage and that's what I used.





Searching for the easiest way to do this, I watched a few videos and read a few articles. The conclusion is,when the engine runs, the PS pump pulls the ATF from the fluid tank and pushes that ATF towards the rack and pinion. When we turn the steering wheel, the rack and pinion sucks in and pushes out the ATF from its cylinder type design. The ATF pushed out returns to the fluid tank. There is no oil cooler and total oil capacity is about 1.2 liters.

Most of the procedure is done by manually turning the steering wheel lock to lock. My procedure does not turn on the engine until the end when we purge the system of air. At the fluid tank the low pressure hose or "return hose" is thinner and faces front of the car, high pressure hose is thicker and faces the passenger area. To do the PS flush we are interested in the "return hose", it gets removed and when the fluid is pumped back towards the fluid tank we funnel it into an empty bottle, while gradually refilling the PS fluid tank with new ATF.

HOW TO:

1. Park your car on a flat surface.

2. Pull the hand brake and block the rear wheels.

3. Raise the front wheel off the ground. Use your car jack and lower onto axle stands. Once sitting safely on the stands, my wheels were about 1/4" of the ground.

4. I placed a sheet of plastic on the ground and a plastic dish bucket from the dollar store. Inside the bucket was a bottle to collect the old oil. Don't laugh I did get some oil on the plastic sheet but driveway was clean.





5. Under the hood, locate the PS fluid tank.





6. Open the tank cover and check the oil level. The level has three tiers, my oil was at top of the second tier.

7. Remove the oil inside the fluid tank using a turkey baster. Notice on the photo my baster has a small hose attached which allows access to tight spots, you don't have to do this but it comes in handy in section 9 below.





8. Release two hex nuts holding the fluid tank to the frame. I used a 10mm wrench. Place clean up rags under and around the fluid tank.

9. Remove the return hose from the fluid tank that's the one facing the front of the car. Using pliers squeeze the clip and slide away from the tank. My hose was stuck bad didn't budge. With the hose clip out of the way I used the pliers the wiggle the hose left/right just a bit, it took about two minutes making sure not to tear the hose. Finally it got lose. With the the fluid tank lose from the body it can be tilted to keep the remaining fluid from running out, same with the return hose it moved up ensuring no spill when the two separated. I used the turkey baster with the suphan both the fluid tank and the return hose.

10. Plug the fluid tank with a 3/4" hose that has a 1/2" internal diameter. I used a small tie wrap to secure the two.

11. Plug the return hose with a 12mm hose, it slid into the return hose with ease, finally I used the clip to secure the two. The clear 12mm hose which is 36 inches long was run down beside the serpentine belt under the car. The clear hose fit perfectly into the catch bottle.





12. With the fluid tank plugged and return hose plugged and funneled down, fill the fluid tank with new ATF fluid 3/4 full.

13. Here comes the fun stuff. Turn the ignition on (engine off) turn the steering lock to lock, right-left, right-left, middle. Check clear hose for old oil, check fluid tank, fill fluid tank with new ATF 3/4 way. Repeat this process until you get red ATF coming out of the clear hose into the catch bottle. I did a total of 4 of these procedures before stopping that's roughly 16 left-right lock to lock steps.

14. At this point the PS fluid tank is low or empty. If not turn the steering left-right a few more times to lower the amount of ATF in the PS fluid tank. The clear hose might have red ATF in it, move the hose around a bit like snake that will drain the rest into the catch bottle.





15. With PS fluid tank empty and clear hose empty, remove the hoses and join the PS fluid tank and the return hose, slide the clip back.

16. Fill the PS fluid tank with new ATF 1/2 way.

17. Turn the steering wheel left-right lock to lock several times. Check the PS fluid tank for level and bubbles, air bubbles will show which is good. Add ATF to PS tank if needed to keep level at 1/2 tank.

18. Final step to purging air from the system is turning the engine on (close the tank cap first). Start the engine, turn the steering left-right lock to lock about 4 times. Open the PS tank (engine running) and check the level, it might drop. Add ATF to the PS tank roughly 3/4 way and continue to turn lock to lock about 10 times checking the level every 4 turns. The oil level should stabilize and there should be no bubbles. Close the cap to check the fluid level. It should be at same as when you started in step 6, add or remove to achieve the level. Close the PS fluid tank cap. Close the hood.

19. Lower the car safely and take for a 5 minute drive. Turn often.

20. Park, check your PS fluid level.

Done.