We have a 99 Honda Civic that just started leaking power steering fluid. My mother was out with it when it suddenly ran dry so she bought some power steering fluid from autozone unaware that Hondas aren’t supposed to use generic power steering fluid. Now the reservoir is dry again, the fluid leaked out in a matter of hours, so what kind of damage could the non Honda fluid have caused? Also, what could be causing a leak that fast?
Just use the Honda fluid from now on. AutoZone carries it. The leak could be a busted hose or a bad rack, more likely the hose.
I agree with keith. You have a major leak somewhere. The leak is the reason the original fluid leaked out, most likely. Not unusual for a car over 10 years old. The generic power steering fluid wasn’t in the system long enough to do any damage. Not getting the leak fixed quickly will do more damage to the pump than the generic fluid.
You don’t need to use Honda brand fluid. Lots of companies make PS fluid formulated to work in Hondas. In fact, I have never bought the Honda brand PS fluid, so the question remains, did your mother buy generic PS fluid made for use in Honda vehicles, or did she just buy regular old PS fluid that isn’t made for Hondas?
Whatever she bought, it probably wasn’t in there long enough to do any damage.
Stop worrying about the type of fluid and find out what’s leaking so much. This is potentially very dangerous. We are, after all, talking about the STEERING.
I suggest this car is not safe to drive, and should be towed to a mechanic.
Trying to drive it puts the driver, passengers, and everyone else on the road, in danger.
Quit fooling around and get this fixed!
“I suggest this car is not safe to drive, and should be towed to a mechanic”.
I completely agree with mcparadise. Some years back, I had a female colleague that had a 1968 Mercury Cougar. She came into work and reported that as she pulled into a parking place, the steering became very hard. One colleague suggested that she could drive it to the shop rather than have it towed. She had been out of the building 5 minutes when it hit me that she probably couldn’t handle the car. I ran out to the parking lot. She had backed the car out of the parking place, but didn’t have the strength to turn the wheel and was sitting behind the wheel in tears. I got behind the wheel. I managed to drive the car to the dealer, but it was a real struggle. I told her not to be cheap in the future–have the car towed.