Topping off anti-fr and ps fluid-what to use

[Torchcorvette]

I have a 2007 Maxima. Noticed the ps fluid and antifreeze both need to be topped off,,,,first time in 28K miles. Tried to find the spec in the owners manual to no avail.
Please tell me what to use for power steering fluid and which antifreeze will work in this car.
Thanks in advance.

Torchcorvette.

[talkinghorse]

The most conservative solution is to use OEM coolant. We have an 08 Subaru and I recently went through the same thing. Ended up buying a gallon of OEM Coolant and mixed it appropriately. I hated spending the money for such a small requirement, but it made me feel better knowing I have the correct fluid in the system.

Power steering unit on your car takes ATF (D-III).

[Love_00_Max]

I would put distilled water into the overflow tank, that is what I did for my wife's Highlander. Coolant/Water mixture need not be accurate....

I would put in ATF into the PS reservior and call it a day.

[A33Black]

Try Mobil 1 Syn ATF in the PS res.

And yes, I also use straight distilled water since it's only a little to the coolant expansion tank. It won't affect the ratio much.

[SilverMax_04]

The Owners' Manual does not carry this information. You need the Service and Maintenance Guide. And even there, they don't spell out the details of what antifreeze you should use. They expect the Nissan Dealer to do that for you. But on this site there have been a number of members who report that their Nissan dealer installed US domestic brands of antifreeze in their Nissans. Not a good idea.

You can do the distilled water only solution -- particularly if you don't add much water and you don't see winter temps below 0 degrees F.

A safer solution is to use a Jap antifreeze. You will be safe using either Nissan, Honda or Toyota antifreeze. You want to mix the straight antifreeze half & half with distilled water. You can also buy some of these pre-mixed with the correct volume of water, but with this you'll pay for shipping distilled water from Japan -- not a good move.

Jap antifreeze is not cheap, so expect to pay some money for it. You can always save the rest of the bottle for when it comes time to completely change your antifreeze.

There are some on this site that believe there are some chemical differences between Nissan, Honda and Toyota antifreeze. I don't know if this is true or not. But to be absolutely safe, you probably should stick to Nissan antifreeze -- so long as you are not changing all of the existing anitfreeze in your cooling system. When it comes time to change all of the old antifreeze for new, you will be safe using the other two brnads -- after properly flushing your cooling system of the original antifreeze.

[Torchcorvette]

Originally Posted by A33Black

Try Mobil 1 Syn ATF in the PS res.

And yes, I also use straight distilled water since it's only a little to the coolant expansion tank. It won't affect the ratio much.

That's what I did. Took about a pint or so.
Got some PS fluid at Nissan dealer for about $4.50. Should last the life of the car.
Thanks for all the tips and advice.