I do not see any regular maintenance schedule for these two fluids. What has been your experience? Is it worth replacing the P/S fluid or replacing the Dot3 fluid for the clutch?

My car is now 10 yrs old and has 116k miles

 

With more than 100k miles, I would recommend that you change both fluids. In general, these fluids should be replaced when they become discolored. Be sure to use genuine Honda PS fluid.

 

dito. clutch/brakes fluid should be replaced thru the whole system.
tho the power steering if it looks somewhat clean i would just suck out what you can from the reservoir and just top it off with new fluid.
ive never flushed the whole PS fluid. only way i would flush the system is if the cap was missing and water had gotten inside the system.

 

I appreciate the helpful answers from both you. My only question is why don't the manufacturers put these fluid changes in the maintenance schedule? Is it b/c they have no expectation that we will drive these cars beyond 36k miles?

 

i have no clue why they aren't in the maintenance schedule. I've kinda wondered myself.

And i'm sure Honda is well aware that people drive their cars past 300K miles. It's one of the company's best qualities.

 

Not sure, but maybe the clutch and power steering fluids fall under the "all fluid levels and condition of fluid" category (see below), which should be checked every 15K mi.

 

it may not fall under a certain schedule because it may be hard to say when the fluid needs to be changed at a certain mileage. one car it could be clean at a higher mileage than the same car at a lower mileage. thats why its under "visual inspection", if they see that it needs to be flushed, then they will do so.

 

Thanks again for all your input. It is much appreciated. I can see how these two types of fluid are placed under varying conditions.

I just flushed and replaced the clutch fluid. That was easy enough. The slave cylinder is right at the front of the hood.

the p/s fluid is another story. the fsm says to remove the return hose and run the car at idle while turning the wheel end to end.

there is so little space in there, anyone do this and can give me some hints w/o it being too messy?

 

When changing the PS fluid as described in the manual, I succeeded in spraying PS fluid all over my garage. That was a painful clean up! I recommend that you ask a buddy to turn the steering wheel while you firmly hold the PS hose in a Mayonaise jar-sized container covered at the top with a rag. The fluid sprays out at surprisingly high pressure.

 

Oh wow, I feel for you man. I did do a similar p/s fluid change on my windstar and it was not pretty. I really needed the 2nd person. So maybe I'll ask someone to help me on this one. I'm not sure if a mayo jar might be big enough. It says that it takes about 1.5 quarts of fluid.