Mistook Power Steering DexIII fluid for dot 3 brake fluid

[trd_st184]

Hey all,


For the first time I bought brake fluid and power steering fluid in similar containers (both black containers with very similar labels), i'm used to the PBR brake fluid ones which are either red or yellow. It was a brief moment of concentration and I was on the last bits of getting my car going and I by mistake put Dot 3 brake fluid in the power steering reservoir (which I meant to put in the clutch master cylinder).

When I realised I drained the power steering resevior and tried flushing the clutch fluid through the system as much as possible by putting new power steering fluid and turning the motor over (and turning the steering wheel).

Is there a good chance I might have damaged any seals? I will be able to give it a proper full flush when the cars actually running.

Funny how these things happen, for 5 weekends of work its a pity I had to mistake something easy but we are all human in the end.

[dnegative]

Nah it will be alright mate, flush and drain, refill with PS fluid, drive it for a few days and flush it again if you can be fucked.
Brake fluid shouldn't hurt mixed in in low quantities, power steering racks and pumps are simple as all fuck hydraulic wise.

Biggest issue would be how it may react with Dex III but if you flush it twice, consider it fixed.

[trd_st184]

Nah it will be alright mate, flush and drain, refill with PS fluid, drive it for a few days and flush it again if you can be fucked.
Brake fluid shouldn't hurt mixed in in low quantities, power steering racks and pumps are simple as all fuck hydraulic wise.

Biggest issue would be how it may react with Dex III but if you flush it twice, consider it fixed.

Thanks for the heads up. Its amazing how things can happen so fast even though I was triple checking everything.

You mentioned it may react badly with Dex III? I'd imagine that the seals on a power steering system are designed quite strong considering Dex III would be quite similar to Hydraulic fluid. I did try and flush it out by turning the motor over by disconnecting one of the lines, I don't think it was the low pressure line. The line I disconnected went on the power steering rack.

[dnegative]

Both are designed to interact with various rubber and synthetic seal compounds, just that brake fluid is made of a different compound as it needs to be more consistent and withstand higher temperatures. I would drain as much as you can out and flush it a few times, 5L of Dex III is cheap enough.

[trd_st184]

Both are designed to interact with various rubber and synthetic seal compounds, just that brake fluid is made of a different compound as it needs to be more consistent and withstand higher temperatures. I would drain as much as you can out and flush it a few times, 5L of Dex III is cheap enough.

Thanks heaps i'll grab a 5 litre of Dex III. I'll be sure to buy the right one this time

Hope you have a great week and thanks for letting me rest easy

[dnegative]

Its alright, I put 200L of diesel into a drum with water in it last week so I know the feeling

[trd_st184]

Its alright, I put 200L of diesel into a drum with water in it last week so I know the feeling

Oh no thats not good. We can concentrate as much as we like but were still human after all. And i'm glad to be doing the work myself, even if there is a few bumps along the way.

I'm just hoping that since I have brake fluid in the car that the car won't brake when I steer left and right hahahah

[patrickleslie]

Its alright, I put 200L of diesel into a drum with water in it last week so I know the feeling

Note that diesel floats on water. I shouldn't say this but....I work at a servo, our diesel tank fills up with water regularly due to a leak which is too expensive and too underground to fix. Luckily the pick up is at such a height that we can have up to 800L of water in there (30,000L tank) before it will start to flow through the pumps. Every few months (after keeping a careful eye on it with water paste tests) we stop selling diesel, let it settle over night, and manually pump up the water from the bottom of the tank!! In my 6 years there we've never failed a fuel test either

I hope you didnt chuck all that diesel, you could have at least saved some of it!!