The week before Christmas, my wife and I drove from L.A. to Cleveland. Along the way, the front end of my 04 was shaking a bit at times. I needed tires. In Cleveland, I bought new front tires. Shaking continued. Brake rotors warped from heat. So I get the front brakes serviced by a local reputable chain.

Start to drive home. We made it one exit and the brakes were dragging. I drove the car immediatly to a local Chevy dealer and dropped the car off. They could not find anything wrong. I picked up the car, drove it around and right back to the dealer. The dealer was focused on an ABS or traction control problem but couldn't find anything wrong. They suggested I just drive home with the TC off and get the car serviced when I got home.

So we drive home. Had 5-6 instances where the brakes would come on and stay on for several minutes during the trip. Something not right here.

This morning, I take the car into the Chevy dealer where I bought it and they take it for a test drive and agree there is a problem. Upon inspection, there is power steering fluid in the brake fluid resevoir

The dealer says it will be $4600 to fix the brake system and that does not include new rotors/pads which are worn, but not worn out. Power steering fluid ruins all the rubber seals and lines so everything must be replaced.

I have talked to my insurance company and will hopefully get everything covered by the shop who did the work, but this totally sucks.

 

Wow.... just, wow.

Good luck.

 

Man, that is terrible. It may be lawyer time if you can't get things hashed out. Have you contacted the shop that did the original work? What did they say?

 

I always thought power steering fluid and brake fluid were basically the same???

Both hydraulic fluids

I would never substitute one for the other,however i find it hard to believe that power steering fluid would ruin rubber components......

aren't power steering lines rubber???

 

I wonder if they didnt read the bottle or still live in the stone age where some of those fluids used to be interchangable. I thought it was ATF & brake fluid or something. I'd have to ask my dad lol. But i only put the PROPER fluid in the respective hole.

Shane

 

Definitely NOT interchangeable. Automotive DOT-3 brake fluid is a glycol, thin and watery, looks about the color of light beer when new and gets darker with time/use.

Power steering fluid is a petroleum hydraulic oil, which is like or the same as automatic transmission fluid.

The materials that are compatible with glycols are usually not compatible with petroleum fluids and vice versa.

Some one really screwed this up.

On a few vehicles, like my rainy day Astro van, the brake booster runs off of the power steering pump instead of the vacuum system. But the brake fluid is definitely DOT-3 type.

 

Bummer. Good luck...

 

For the sake of my friends in Cleveland, which "local reputable chain" did the deed?

 

Oh man, that really, really sucks!

 

Wow!!!! This is the kind of crap that makes a person see RED. Good luck w/ this one. I hope you are able to recoup your losses.....

 

Damn, definitely not a good situation, hopefully your insurance will cover the negligence.

 

Hi Brian -

That sucks!

I have an aquaintance that had a doddge truck - he for some reason decided to top up the master cylinder (a no-no anyway....) and he used power steering fluid.

Oooops.

he called me talling me his brakes were acting funny, and when I started looking the rubber gasket on the reservior was swelled up......Hmmmmm....

I asked him if he had been messing with the brake fluid and he gets this blank "oh sheeeezot" look on his face.....

That is an expensive problem to fix.

I hope you get some help from the shop that did this -

best regards -

mqqn

 

Wow, what a major screw up. Best of luck getting the shop that did the work to own up to it and cough up the money to get it repaired.

 

If the name of the reputable chain starts with a "J" for the first word and starts with a "B" for the second word and incorporates a stop sign into there logo, then they are not reputable. They suck and scew up more cars than you can even imagine. I think they go around and shake dumpsters to find new employees. I had to take my problem to the corporate offices. They screwed my car up so bad that they finally had to pay the Chevy dealership to fix it.

Good luck

 

 

thats right .. put the proper objects into their respective holes.

 

the 96 newer mustang cobra's are also this way, they lack the room for a vacuum booster and utilize the p/s pump for to replace vacuum assist like the astro vans

 

Man that bites!! Good luck with the fix/cost!

 

Just make sure that everything in the brake system that contains rubber should be changed including the brake hoses. All the steel brake pipes needs to be flushed out also.