I just used what I could find at a local kragen's. Power steering fluid is usually amber or red in color, but the one I used (link below) was clear. I replaced it anyway. Hopefully its okay...

http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/de...0451&ppt=C0180

 

Big time negative guy! Our PS system uses ATF (Dexron III only). Get that out of there and replace before you do damage to your rack. Why would you get the fluid with stop leak? You have a leak somewhere? Trace it down and get it fixed..its really not that difficult.

 

yikes, fail on my part, thanks i'll get it switched asap

 

Do you know if I need to replace all of it? Yesterday I used the turkey baster method to remove what I could from the resovoir and I drove maybe a max of 10 miles. I'm going to head out to grab the dexron 3 now, can I just use the turkey baster method to refill or do I need to drain everything out?

 

Pull the return hose from the bottom of the resevoir and cap the nipple. Connect a piece of hose to the return hose. Pujt hose end in to a bucket. Fill res and start motor until re is nearly empty, refil repeat. Turn stearing lock to lock last couple cycles. Reconnect hose and top off.

 

Which hose is the return hose? I haven't seen this method posted up on here and I will do this procedure when I replace my PS pump when it gets a bit warmer out. Also, you did this with front end off the ground correct??

 

Its the hose attached to the bottom towards the front of the Res. It only take about three seconds run time to empty the Res so u gotta be quick. A helper would have been great when I did it. Jackstands ftw

 

Many people think there's 3 hoses attached to the resevoir but there's only 2. The wide insulated hose is going straight to pump while the hose pointed in the picture above is the return hose coming from the radiator. The other hose is a return hose coming from the rack & pinion to the radiator and is only sliding underneath the resevoir. When I installed a refurbished rack last week I flushed it by removing the return hose pointed above. I didn't know what fluid the refurbisher used to test the rack so I cleaned it out.

 

I also have a leak in my power steering rack and the dealer said it was going to cost $1845 and that was 3 years ago. My buddy told me to put PSs fluid in with stop leak also. Its a good thing I looked at the manual and this forum before I did. Like you said Nissan recommens ATF Dexron only. Does that also come with stop leak?. Its alot cheaper for me to add PS ATF Dexron fluid once in a while instead of having them put in a new rack.

 

I don't recall seeing it with stop leak. You should get a used rack if yours is that bad..

 

A quart of ATF dosen't come with any stop leak remedy. I recently replaced my rack with a refurbished one. Before installing the refurbished rack I occasionally added Lucas PS leak formula to the old leaking rack. A mechanic told me it wouldn't hurt beacuse ATF is like PS fluid with detergents added.
Occasionally adding that Lucas formula did slow the leak down but didn't fix it.

 

I cant find ATF dexron II. Is it alright to use Dexron III? Also what does it cost for a PS rack and how hard is it to replace?

 

Yes dexron lll is the replacement for all previous dexrons.

 

The refurbished rack cost $250 on ebay. Read this thread and you'll find the rack and learn how to replace it.

http://forums.maxima.org/4th-generat...ring-rack.html

It was time consuming but was well worth the effort. She steers much stiffer and I no longer have to wipe up the garage floor.

 

I got my power steering rack off of Amazon.com with free super saver shipping (big plus for us ppl in Hawaii). Plus I didn't need to pay a core charge. I paid $220.