John Nielsen: Hi! I'm John Nielsen with AAA's Approved Auto Repair. Maintaining the fluids in our vehicle's engine is critical to protecting our investment in the long run. One of the fluids that we should consider is power steering fluid. Now this is something that we shouldn't have to top up unless there is a leak, but using the right fluid is important. The key here is to open our owner's manual and look at the recommendations for our particular vehicle. For many years automatic transmission fluid was used in power steering and in fact some cars have that today. But increasingly, there are manufacturer specific recommendations for their power steering fluids.

So it's important to look in the owner's manual and make sure that we're adding the right type of fluid. Many manufacturers do not list or recommend a change interval for the power steering fluid. It's not unusual to see those that do go five plus years. However, to maintain your system in best shape it would be a good idea to exchange the power steering fluid every five years or 1000 miles really is a preventative to wear. Power steering fluid is something that's relatively easy to maintain and keeping a close eye on it will allow you to maintain your car in top operating order.