My sister in law borrowed our family sedan (Ford Falcon) and thought she'd
do the right thing and check oil, water after her trip. She told us she had
to
top up the radiator with half a litre or so. OK, no probs.
Except that she added water to the power steering reservoir which ended up
costing us a power steering pump, new hoses and a rack rebuild. The trouble
was that we didn't realise what had happened until a pink foam started
bubbling
out of the PS filler cap... By then the damage was done...
Ouch.
Mike
-----Original Message-----
From: ROBERT G. HOWARD <mgbob@juno.com>
To: gardner7@pilot.infi.net <gardner7@pilot.infi.net>
Cc: mgbob@juno.com <mgbob@juno.com>; mgs@autox.team.net <mgs@autox.team.net>
Date: Thursday, March 19, 1998 3:47 AM
Subject: Re: The Change - Oil, that is. Novices take Heed!
>Scott,
> That reminds me of the time that my bro-in-law stopped at a filling
>station (what is now known as a full service station) with his Renault
>Dauphine. The attendant checked the oil and announced that it was a
>quart low, so Phil told him to add the quart. He did, and Phil drove off.
> A few minutes later the temp gauge went off the end and the engine
>boiled over. Apparently the attendent read "EAU" (water) on the radiator
>filler as OIL.
> That was a great car for us, at a time when the CT beer-buying age was
>21 and NY State was only 18. There was a rubber plug at the bottom of
>the front trunk on the car, so a screen placed there would retain the
>ice, and a round trip to NY would get the car back with a trunk full of
>cold brew.
>Bob
>
>>I had something similar happen on my Honda about ten years ago.
>> I had loaned it to my brother for a while, and he took it to the
>>local Jiffy-Lube or Jet-Lube, I can't remember which. When I got the
>>car back, one of the old receipts said that they had topped off the
>>power steeing reservoir with one pint of fluid. Problem is, the 1981
>>Prelude never had power steering! best I could figure, they poured a
>>pint of P.S. fluid into the clutch reservoir. Never had any problems
>>with it. I figured that if nothing had happened in the 2000 miles
>>between when the shop did it and when I got the car back from my
>>brother, nothing bad was likely to come of it.
>>Scott
>>
>
>
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