Is there a substitute for Mitsubishi power steering fluid? Some other forum members have used regular p/s fluid or Dex/Merc ATF.

I asked a guy at my local dealer, and he immediately started barking at me. Basically he thinks that anyone who doesn't use genuine products in their Mitsubishi is dumb. So that was useless.

Does anyone have information on the mystery Mitsu stuff? Is it Diamond SPIII?

I'm having the same problem. I topped mine off with regular power steering fluid. It should be automatic trans. fluid. I think my dealer uses chysler transmission fluid. You should be fine with dextron 3, but as for an official anwser, I don't really have one, but I figured I might try to help and bump this at the same time.

Finally I got a straight answer out of a real dealer mechanic. The dealership is Metro Mitsubishi and it's the only dedicated Mits. dealer close to me in Omaha (there are others, but the usually sell Chrysler as well, which makes sense). He said in no uncertain terms that the Mitsubishi genuine stuff is just like the regular stuff, which would explain why my 2003 GTS is behaving so well, now. He added that the only place he's seen anybody use ATF was at Jiffy Lube. That's in anything. Some standard stuff should do fine. I picked up a generic brand that clears Honda spec.s you should be able to get that just about anywhere. I'm about to go drive to the dealership and pick up the real stuff at great expense; not because I have to, but because I want to have the proof in hand that I put in the non-warranty voiding stuff when I complain to the dealership (Chrysler Jeep Dodge) that normally does my oil changes and fluids. I think they've been using Chrysler ATF+4. All thins explains the poor performance of the steering since about halfway through the firs year I owned it which I associated with normal wear and tear, until I dumped the regular p/s fluid in and the noise and cut outs stopped entirely. On top of that, my turning radius just got shorter since the system can maintain some actual pressure.

I am not going to tell you to buy generic, because I'm not going to, but if you want to watch your budget, regular power steering fluid seems to be the way to go. Unless I'm being mislead, either way, I'm buying the real deal, just to be safe.

And I'm wrong again. 3 mechanics 2 parts guys and one front desk guy all at the same dealership don't agree. Nobody knows what this stuff is for sure. It is red, so, in theory, it's Mitsubishi SP3, but nobody seems to be certain. I've been told they use sp3 at the factory, but not form any source I can check. I bought the real deal. Anybody else probably should, too. That said, it was about $10.00US for a 12oz bottle. I'm done.