I have always been pretty thorough with changing fluids on the car: oil, brake fluid every 3 years or so, differential around 60k, trans around 90k, coolant when the water pump died (sad) so not more than 5 years old after the initial 10 year sealed period.

Exception: power steering fluid. Just never felt the need, but that could be a mistake. Is it safe to do now (2005 with 140k miles)? Any harm in gumming things up, or is there no need at all? I am thinking it is a wise idea as no fluids last forever (right?), but wanted people's thoughts/experiences on changing it now in a not-young car. Also a fair price? (Or is this a no-brainer with a turkey baster DIY? Not normally my style). I generally have dealer do these kinds of things and I know they will cost more...

 

If you don't already know, the LS power steering system uses ATF (Dexron specifically). If you decide to change it yourself don't use conventional "PS fluid".
Yes, change it, the only harm potentially is by not changing it...

 

I would just do the turkey baster method a few times over a month or two and call it good. New fluid certainly won't hurt anything and slowly changing it this way is cheap and easy.

 

Agree with all comments; use a synthetic ATF and continue to “turkey baster” it out every week and refill until both the reservoir and fluid is clean. After a couple of months and 2-3 quarts then you can go to a more normal maintenance schedule. I use a vacuum pump but a .99c baster is easier. It gets 80% of what’s in the reservoir and doesn’t require 15-minutes to clean. Pop the baster in the dishwasher(after wiping fluid off) and go.

 

I actually didn't know that it uses ATF and not conventional PS fluid. I have a couple bottles of PS sitting on my work bench with intentions on doing the turkey baster to slowly replace the fluid. I've been lazy about it and haven't done it yet. Sounds like for once it was a good thing to procrastinate. Thanks for the heads up.

 

Here:

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls-...d-options.html

 

I changed mine a few months ago using the suck from reservoir method. 3 times seemed sufficient