I mistakenly put Honda power steering fluid in my 98 Toyota Camry. It is what I had lying around. I used it to top up the reservoir, which was very low, mixing the fluids. I noticed later that this is meant for Honda and Acura only. Will I have problems? Or do I cross my fingers and hope for the best?
Go buy two quarts of the correct fluid and a turkey baster. Remove as much as you can, refill, drive, repeat.
I would not worry about it…It’s made to cure a problem not cause problems…It’s all basically ATF…
It’s probably very similar to what Toyota calls for, and may even be an overkill on the specs. If you’re worried, do what texases suggested.
@Caddyman I went to the Nissan dealer to buy some Nissan power steering fluid, and they gave me a quart of Dexron III ATF, a generic transmission fluid. I asked why, and they said they don’t even have PS fluid, and use ATF for all their own work.
Power steering fluid has a lower duty than ATF, which works very hard.
I 'm with everyone else. Don 't loose another night’s sleep . But, you were low for a reason . I would cross my fingers and hope it doesn’t go down much again.
Yes, there is probably a leak somewhere, as the reservoir was empty and the steering made a whirring/whining noise before I filled it. I added a bottle of this stop-leak stuff. If that doesn’t work I’ll take it in for service. Thanks All!
Oh my goddness!! Your car will be confused now. It won’t know if it is a Honda, a Toyota or a Mazda now.
If it is like my Toyota ('96), it’s a leaking high pressure hose, no stop leak will help, only replacement.
Toyota makes very good power steering systems, and they are very hardy. The Honda fluid will not harm it in the least, and is probably better that it was designed for. Toyota designs it for basic Dextron III ATF fluid.
My wife’s '92 Celica was leaking fluid on the backside of the pump. I started adding a stop leak, but it only seemed to slow it down a bit. Wife ran it dry one day and all I had was this stuff. The package said it could be used in place of PS fluid, so I filled it up. After topping off twice since, it’s been holding fluid. That was 3 years ago, and I haven’t needed to top off since. And it’s still going strong. I’ll post the name of it if I can find it again.
@EllyEllis “Oh my goddness!! Your car will be confused now. It won’t know if it is a Honda, a Toyota or a Mazda now.”
I agree…that mean I have to take my Isuzu, $5 each plastic hub caps off the winter rims of my 4Runner and replace them with $80 each caps from the dealer…just so it knows it’s a Toyota. Makes sense to me. Can’t have a car with “issues”. Car psychy is so important !
Last week while having the oil change special at the dealership, the service tech writing up the work order had his head down looking at the registration and in all seriousness said when he saw the hub caps…“you must have bought this Isuzu used from us”…observant fellow…glad he wasn’t actually doing the work.