I have not found anything on when to change the power steering fluid on my Mazda 6 2006 V6. I recently had it changed. I believe every 4-5 years this should be changed. I put in Synthetic Redline D4 Auto transmission fluid: Red Line Synthetic Oil - Automatic Transmission Fluids - D4 ATF .
It only takes 1 quart so please go synthetic!

 

This must be a stupid question, but who cares; I want to know.

We are supposed to put ATF in the power steering reservoir? What is in the bottles at the stores labeled "Power Steering Fluid"?

Update: I did a google search and, although there are some skeptics, it's a common practice. I can't check my owners manual because it's in Texas with the car but I'll be checking it the next time it comes home.

 

I can't completely confirm this, but have heard a lot of noise lately about specific kinds of power steering fluids, and that you must know which kind your car requires so as not to cause long-term, or short-term damage to the system. I know Hondas have been like this for years... or at least they want you to think that. As far as I am aware, they were the ones to start this power steering fluid trend.
Leave it to the auto industry to screw up what used to be a very simple thing. Everything has to be specific to your vehicle these days.

 

I own 2006 Mazda6 and have around 104K miles on it. About 10 days back (04/03/2014) my car had its first steering lock. I was driving it around 35-40 mph. I could barely turn it to right, very tight though. Once I restarted the car, it was unlocked. Now this morning (04/14/14) while driving at around 35-40 mph, I heard a loud thud, which at first I thought I hit something on the car but I didn't see anything in the rearview mirror. Immediately after the noise, the steering wheel was locked. This time pulling to the right was harder than the first incident, almost non-movable. Restart the vehicle and steering is unlocked. I have read about Mazda4 problems. I have also reported this at NTSB website and I am going to call the dealer.

 

I have a 2006 Mazda 6 and changed my power steering fluid at 30,000 miles. You've gone 104,000 miles without changing it!!!!
Have you ever changed your brake fluid, coolant, tranny fluid?

There is no such thing as real lifetime fluid or never ever have to change the fluid! Lifetime fluid is bogus as this may only be achievable under IDEAL conditions all the time (weather, driving like a grandma, not driving real short trips)!

Good Luck.!

 

You assumed that I have never changed the oil. I consistently change all the fluids including P/S on regular basis, had first one around 30K and second around 80K. Took the car to mechanic for service and he said it didn't take much of P/S fluid even though I thought its low. I'll check the grounding wires, which several have reported fixed the problem.

 

Yes i did assume, and made an *** out of u and me!
Grounding wires is weird.
All background service info needs to be included in original post for a proper answer. Please remember this in future. Any mods should also be listed: check my signature out-----it helps the people who are responding.
Maybe he put wrong fluid in?

 

The proper procedure is suck as much fluid out as possible refill. With car running turn steering wheel lock to lock 5 or 6 times.

 

So I bought a second hand Mazda 3 (2013) for my missus early 2020 and everything was ok for about 6 months. One day the PS shut off whilst driving and we had to pull off to the side of the road and consult the owner manual as to what the dash light meant. There was a specific entry as to PS failure and that the remedy was to turn off the car and then turn it back on. We did this and the failure light went off and the steering was all good again. About a month later it happened again with increasing failures occuring continuously over a few months. There were no fault codes observed by my OBD reader. Eventually the PS refused to reset and I did a bit of fault finding. Fluid ok, Hydraulic Ram ok, All inspectable parts ok, Wiring continuity ok. After being frustrated with it and searching online forums, I was convinced that i was going to have to cough up a fair bit of dough to have a dealership fix the problem. I decided that I would change the fluid first and pull the pump out to inspect it thoroughly. It was at this point (having the front end and headlight off, and cleaning and inspecting all the connections, that I noticed some slight discoloration to one of the electrodes in the master power plug on the wiring loom which connects to the PS pump. I shone a bright light in and saw some evidence of arcing and also noticed that the wiring loom assembler had failed to seat one of the electrodes correctly. The white locking piece within the plug had been pushed into place correctly, however the electrode was not fully seated in position, and the small locking tab which would otherwise lock it into position was now preventing it from seating properly. This meant that over time arcing was taking place between the electrode and the opposite contact in the PS pump which reduced the capability of current to pass through the connection resulting in the more frequent failures that we were experiencing. I fully disassembled the plug, cleaned it and reassembled it correctly and the problem now seems to have resolved. I hope that this is an easy fix for some of you having the same issue. Cheers

 

What do you mean by turn steering wheel lock? I want to avoid the $100 dealer charges for draining the power steering fluid. Fluid is extra.