Bobby Simone

I've got an 85 that is suffering from morning sickness. I have read about the success stories on here, but was wondering if anybody had any negative experiences with this product where it caused damage or failure to the ps system.

cv67

Not an avid user of the 'snake oil" stuff but have used lucas products a few times and they do their job personally happy with their stuff.

Doubt it would cause a failure

VikingTrad3r

had minor case of morning sickness in my 87. put this in, made it worse. drove like that for two years. cold mornings gave the noise.

just did a flush with dexron 3 atf, problem solved, no more morning sickness.

search my name and power steering fluid and see how i did it.it waa a week or so ago.

Joe C

I've pretty much use lucas PS fluid w/ conditioners in my corvettes over the last 20 years, and never an issue. I don't consider Lucas to be snake oil. w/ cuisinartvette - it will not cause a pump or rack failure (or have any negative effect).

WVZR-1

You might try a flush/fill using GM "Cold Climate" PS Fluid vs the conditioners. It solves the situation for many but certainly not all.

GM # 12345867 might be a current part#.

I see no issues with the use of Lucas products but to correct the issue I can't say that I'd consider an "additive" to be used with the "whatever" is there presently. The Lucas product w/conditioners is only sold in 16oz so a complete fill could be expensive.

Flush/fill with Cold Climate first and drive it OR maybe a fill/flush with Lucas PS Fluid and the 16oz Lucas Conditioner used along with?

aklim

If you are selling the car come spring, why not? IF I was going to keep it, I'd see where the leak is and fix it instead of trying all kinds of snake oil or whiffle dust or mouse milk. Best you can hope for is "Do no harm". Worst case scenario, you might replace your system sooner than you thought.

ctmccloskey

I have used this Lucas product before in a Chevy full-size pick-up truck. The power steering had a hum when the truck was cold and it was scaring my wife who drove the vehicle full time. It had no leaks but I added the Lucas product and the hum disappeared after a day or two. The truck lasted over 200 k miles and never wore out a power steering pump! That tells me that it is a decent product and I would not hesitate to use it again.

The Lucas bottle is 16 Ounces and is not designed to be run 100% in your power steering system. It is labeled to use as an additive and it doesn't make instant changes. It is designed to make the seals softer and more pliable which can help on small leaks.

The suggestion of the flushing of the Power Steering fluid was probably a good one. I have been running filters on my Power Steering systems on both of my Corvettes. Be careful though, if the filter gets plugged up you will start hearing noise from the pump as well. So before you put on a filter or cooler be sure to flush out the entire system.

On my 1968 Convertible I switched over to a Power Rack and Pinion system. Swapping all the parts out was a piece of cake, getting a pump to supply the correct pressure was the hard part. I had to put up with noise from the pump because the pressure was too high so I changed the pulley size on my pump and it quieted it down.

aklim

I had a stuck glow plug in my 99 E300 Turbodiesel MB. We had to take the head off. Replaced with Beru glow plugs instead of the MB parts counter ones. The car is still going strong at 480K and never had a stuck glow plug. That tells me it is a decent product and I would not hesitate to use it again. If you toss a seed in a parking lot and it hit the crack in the asphalt and grew, would you assume you can grow crops on asphalt?

If you ever took a college science class, I'd get my money back. Even in 2nd year of HS, I knew about doing tests with just one instance was a mistake. Oh, in the above example, we had a minor difference. PO left the plug there for 3 or 4 years since delivery and I pull them every year and clean the carbon "condom" formed around the GP. But hey, why bother with details, right?

Joe C

not trying to get into a pi$$in contest here, but where are you getting that information? I went to the lucas website, under "power steering fluid with conditioners" technical data sheet, and nowhere does it say anything about using it only as an additive, or running at 100%. all it says is its power steering fluid, formulated with quality oils and special additives, etc. it also says for already existing PS leaks to use "lucas PS stop leak," and that seems to be an additive. there are two different products. just to verify my thinking, I emailed lucas customer service with these questions. i'll report back.

it's been about 12-15 years or so, and my memory 's not the greatest, but I seem to recall using lucas PS fluid, straight-100%, when I replaced the rack in my 85. haven't experienced any problems (knock on wood!), and still running my original PS pump (157K miles).

BTW, there is no product labeled as just "lucas power steering conditioner" - it's power steering fluid w/ conditioner.

EDIT: got a call back from lucas tech support yesterday (9/27), and they said, there is no reason NOT to use "lucas PS fluid w/ conditioners" straight, 100% in the cars PS system.

aklim

Without a controlled test, you have no way of knowing whether it was a fluke or not. People have reported that after they do a trans flush, the trans dies therefore trans flush is bad. I just got a used car of 150K. Should I not flush then?

Joe C

so, what's your point? all I said was "I seem to recall using lucas PS fluid - straight, 100% and haven't experienced any problem." since you seem to have mastered all levels of science and philosophy, all I can say is "whatever!"

aklim

Alas. I wish I could master all levels of science. Philosophy, I don't care to even try. Unlike many, I aspire to be as scientific in the evaluation as possible and not go with making a decision based on faulty conclusion derived from old wives tales and one off events that cannot be repeated

Joe C

well, I didn't have a "faulty" conclusion based on old wives tale, even though it was a one off event and based on a single, personal experience. you seem to have formed an opinion based on an individual's "experience", and a single experience at that - not very scientific. have a good one....

aklim

Till they are able AND willing to prove themselves, claims without proof are BS. If not, I'd have 20 PhD degrees by making claims

Joe C

...AND WHAT CLAIMS DID I MAKE? I used a product, and personally did not experience issues. now how can anyone prove that is, or is not, BS? personally, I think you're talking in semantics. again, have a good one -

confab

Ditto. I use ATF for a lot of things, including the PS on the vette.

No problems whatsoever.

The 12K hydraulic truck lift actually calls for ATF as the working fluid.

It's cheap. The quality is high. You can get in quantity. It cleans well. Is stable over a wide range of temperatures.

Use it all over the place here.

aklim

I'm talking about the company itself. OTOH, on reflection, it does tend to kinda hit the fools that spend money on those snake oils so if it did seem like an attack on you personally, I apologize.

I agree that you used the snake oil and didn't experience any issues just like the ancient superstitious people make noise and scared the monster that was eating at the moon and didn't experience any issues either. In fact, it always seemed to work since they had the moon come back sooner or later.

Joe C

let me see if I got this right - somehow you think there's something wrong with Lucas as a company, and "Lucas Power Steering Fluid with Conditioners" is snake oil, and people that use it tend to be fools, and i'm akin to ancient superstitions - - BTW, apology accepted!

dude, I don't know where you're going with this stuff, or where you got these ideas, but I think i'm pretty much done with you here....

aklim

Yes and no. You are akin NOT to the ancient superstitions. You are akin to the ancient superstitious people if you believe that the sacrifice of a virgin or your wallet brought about the desired effect before and can be repeated.

I suppose the final conclusion is that it is the order of things that a fool who believes in snake oils should be parted from his money.

steven mack

True story. I have a friend whose daughter had a leak in her radiator.It was winter time and she needed to get back to Maine from Connecticut.My friend put in two bottles of radiator stop leak in.The radiator stopped leaking.Only problem was her heater core was plugged up after the stop leak was put in.Try getting back to Maine from Connecticut.in the middle of winter with no heat or defroster.Some times Aklim can be helpful sometimes he can be a Butt Head.