-what colour is it, red or green ?
-black.
-BLACK..?!!
-yes, black it's ~20 years in there...








so she offers me a "red" CASTROL ATF 4000,


is this the oil, or to look further for a black one ?

 

Red ATF is correct. I remove the fluid in the reservoir every couple of months and replace with fresh. eventually this will provide an almost complete change. Since yours is black, it might be better to do it every couple of days.

 

Thanks RJ237,


I'll start by pumping back as much I can from the reservoir, add fresh oil, run it a couple of days as you say, and repeat the procedure as far as needed.
What about the quantity, how much oil is the complete system?

 

By the time you're done with that black oil, you might get a bigger supply Now seriously, I had a look on autodata, but there's no info on quantity, it just came up with type of fluid, Castrol HSMO, which seems to be mineral, but I say sod the mineral stuff, we're past that, fully synthetic all the way!!!

 

well, today I bought two litters of what she offer me, so by pumping out from the reservoir as much as my home made pump was able to suck out, I plan with these two litters to replace (re-colour) this oil within next month in steps.
She offered ATF 4000, ATF8000, I bought the 4000, she didn't know, me either, I'm not familiar with ATFs, what's the correct number?

 

Does Jaguar spec "ATF" for the power steering versus power steering hydraulic fluid?

I think Valvoline makes a synthetic PS fluid.

I too do the "pump it out and refill several times" method of flushing the power steering every year or so. It is a sealed system and officially doesn't need flushing, but obviously the fluid gets dirty over time.

 

I don't know how it gets dirty, the same was the clutch fluid (manual gear box), BLACK and too fat, easy to replace in total, the car is 19 years old and e v e r y t h i n g is (was) original except the engines oil & filter.
The steering system's fluid, I'll do from above, not drain the system from bellow, just asking to be sure for the type of oil.

 

The manual just says Dexron III. Can't any power steering/ATF oil that's labeled as such be used?

 

Yes.

 

As I understand it the only real difference between power steering fluid and dex merc III is the red dye added and the price.

 

Just use whatever you have available that's listed as Dexron III, nothing fancy is needed. Dexron III is a General Motors specification for automatic transmission fluid that came out in 1993. There is no need for "special" power steering fluid.

Pain old mineral oil Dexron III ATF is fine. However synthetic ATF is definitely better in an a transmission application, but I'm not sure the power steering system would substantially benefit. I would use whatever Dexron III fluid you have available. Anything is better than two decades old black fluid!