Flushed my power steering system today. Disconnected return line, drained with motor running, filled, and drained again. Old fluid looked like 4 month old motor oil. New fluid Prestone with stop leak looked crystal clear. Noticed smoother steering response. Probably need to top off after tommorrow.

nice...how long did it take you to do?

Well I tried to siphon the fluid out first. It took 30 min. Then running the motor with the return line off took 6 secs. I heard the reason the fluid was so dark was because the power steering fluid eats up the rubber hoses. Is this true?

Hoses just deteriorate with age, wear particles also darken it, as does overheating the fluid, extended agressive driving can really heat up the P/S fluid, I will be flushing mine soon, going back with Amsoil Synthetic ATF fluid.