Proper Fluids for your Vehicle

When it comes to lubricants there are many choices to make and a bunch of potential mistakes to make. Some under-hood chemicals are color coded. Transmission fluid is typically red or pink; coolant is either green or orange, washer solvent is blue. Unfortunately, motor oil, brake fluid and power steering fluid are all a honey-gold color so you have to be careful with what you’re pouring.
Brake fluid is arguably the most critical oil used in the vehicle. It is engineered for a very specific purpose and is hydroscopic. This means that is attracts and disperses moisture. To you, this means that if the bottle’s not sealed properly, it becomes contaminated with moisture from the air.
I do not keep brake fluid in my garage. For one thing, brake fluid is not a consumed liquid. For various reasons, including leakage, your car may consume some engine oil, coolant, etc but the brake system is sealed so that the level in the reservoir diminishes as the brake shoes or pads wear out, but when the shoes or pads are replaced, the fluid goes back to its original level. Unless there is a catastrophic failure, the brake fluid should never leave the system. Second, it gets old and I’d rather be low on good brake fluid than fill the system with bad brake fluid. Third, it is highly corrosive. If you spill brake fluid on any painted surface – including your car, garage floor, kid’s bike – it will cause the finish to blister and peel.
Gone are the days when you could interchange power steering fluid with transmission fluid and other nonsense like that. I once had a customer top off his brake system with power steering fluid. $3000 later, he ended up with a whole new anti-lock brake system complete with fresh fluid.
Sulfuric acid is the fluid that lives in your car’s battery. If you see corrosion or a white flakey, powdery substance below the battery, chances are it’s leaking. Dont touch it. Have it checked and replaced immediately. Last but not least is washer solvent. It’s the cheapest fluid under the hood – usually $1 or so per gallon. Yet people don’t feel that it’s necessary and so they fill the washer tank with water. The temperature under the hood is over 100 degrees so the water gets moldy, clogs the spray nozzles, causes the pump to fail, and you end up with a $90 repair bill that could easily and cheaply have been avoided. Or if you live where there is winter, the water freezes in the bottle overnight, expands and cracks it. This could easily be a $100 mistake. Don’t be penny-wise and dollar-foolish. Consult your owner’s manual and use the proper fluids for the jobs they were intended to do.