Hopefully a quick question: I have an '87 GTI 16V that I have fitted power steering to as it didn't have it originally. I bought a full MK2 power steering setup second hand (apart from the pulleys) but I am not 100% sure what year of car it came from, just that the pulley on the pump was for a flat belt, when mine should have a V belt. Now, I know that there are two different fluids used in the racks, a red one and a green one. The bottle that came with the power steering setup had a red cap, so yesterday I filled the system with red stuff. However, I noticed that as I turned the pump, the bottle started to go a murky greenish colour at the bottom. Not quite green enough to be certain that its not just dirty fluid, so I am stuck. If the setup in my car is supposed to have green in it, will I do damage by leaving the red in? Or is the design of the rack the same regardless of the fluid in it?
it should be red dexron II ATF up to late 89ish, then after that they switched to green. the system is the same either way though, but if you have an old system you can have issues with fluid leaks if you fill with the wrong stuff. generally it seems to be more of a problem going from red to green no firm information on why, the consesus is either the fluid is slightly thinner or the seals 'get used' to a type of fluid TLDR: if its not leaking, you're almost certainly ok
Cheers. I've put red stuff in, no leaks so far but I haven't driven the car yet so I'll just hope its ok.
