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Power Steering Fluid In The Brake Reservoir

R

rpfannkuch

New member
Alright, yes I messed up but I'm young and dumb and that is how I learn.
I had accidently put power steering fluid in my Brake reservoir and didn't find out that until later when I noticed brakes were super squishy and barely working.
The brakes would work when pressed down but then would get lighter then I'd have to press down harder then once again it would get lighter, then all the way to the floor and they barely worked.

Does anyone know what I would have to do? Parts I would have to get to fix this? Costs too? I know I'm going to need new seals but where would I buy those? What exactly would I get?
 


I accidently put power steering fluid into my brake reservoir and It's completely screwed.
Yes I know I'm super dumb, yes I missed up, I'm young and I found out what I did wrong and I learned, that's all a part of the process.

I'm guessing it blew out the seals, brakes aren't completely shot but there's pressure when I push a little bit down, then it releases all pressure, then I push down more, it has the pressure again, then releases then foot to the floor makes it stop but it locks up the tires or tries to.

I have a 2003 Grand Prix GTP with the 3800 Series II engine

I need to know what I would need to do to fix this, obviously take out all the fluid, but what seals would I get? Where would I get them. How much it would cost. And exactly everything I would have to do.
 
To be safe, you will need to change any part that is made of rubber, or has rubber seals, (master cylinder, calipers/wheel cylinders, rubber hoses) No telling how the rubber brake parts are going to react to the power steering fluid over a long period of time. Brake parts rubber is different than other hydraulic systems that dont see the pressures or heat of an automobile brake system. Also the anit lock brake module will need to be flushed, and all the steel lines will need to be blown out and flushed to remove any residual PS fluid.
 
i would just flush the whole system. suck the res on the master dry, then top off and start to flush one caliper at a time till clean clear fluid comes out.
 


I'm with Scott, ps fluid is a hydraulic type of fluid just like brake fluid is a type of hydraulic fluid. You should be able to drain the master with anything that'll suck fluid out and then refill with brake fluid and flush all the lines starting at rear right, then rear left, front right and front left. This will also freshen up the fluid in the entire system and likely you'll find your brakes work much better than ever.

Brake fluid is a fluid that can get contaminated like all others in your car. By flushing and freshening it up you are cleaning and removing a lot of contaminants.

BTW.. we've all made mistakes, you are going to do a bit of work bleeding/flushing the system and if your take away from doing that work is learning the differences in the bottles/to read the label better before pouring then you learned how not to make the mistake again. Everyday we can learn something if we let ourselves.
 
I'm gonna chime in and say this, Mistakes happen and this is one that i have personally made in the past. Dot4 container looked the same as the CHF hydraulic (import power steering) container and i didn't realize it for a couple days; at such a point where i flushed it all out, bled the calipers clear and bled the ABS pump.

I was freaking out, because i thought i was going to have to rebuild my brembos that i had just put on, but here we are three years and 100k miles later with no caliper issues.

I did, however, have to replace the master cylinder a few months later. i started getting a very spotty pedal, and it would just go to the floor every once in a while. It quickly got worse, but a master cylinder replacement and another flush/bleed fixed it.
 
Thank you! I'll try to check it out. I may take it in see how much to do something like that because I know some people who do good work at a modest price ( I can't personally do it with being in school and away at home )
 
I don't know why I didn't read everything, I just assumed (Assuming is always what gets me wrong and I should have learned that by now) and now that I know it shouldn't happen again. I just didn't think the power steering fluid was in such a difficult location (and hot)
 


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