Hmm...I filled mine up with regular, generic PS fluid about 7 months or so. Do I need to have my system flushed out and new fluid put in or something? It hasn't been acting weird or anything and seems to be running just fine?

 

Honestly I don't know if it will hurt anything or not. I just know that the steering racks for our cars are about a grand and I don't want to find out. Probably will be fine but you never know, I just prefer to be careful

 

Well, at this point what should I do? I've been running with regular fluid for a while. I really don't need anything else to screw up on this car as I have spent a crap load of money replacing the suspension, brakes, clutch, etc. during the past months, so I have no money left.

 

I'd get it swapped for the correct fluid, it's possible that it could have damaged the seals in the rack or pump, but the sooner you get the right fluid the better.

 

As 2k S4 said, you need to get it flushed because you dont want to be mixing two different types of fluids together. A little story of using wrong fliuds as follows : My idiot friend bought an 2001 Audi 1.8T about a year ago, and the previous owner did not tell him to use premium gas and synthetic oil in his car, and he didnt bother to check. He has been running on "plus" fuel (89 oct) and Jiffy lube oil changes (25$ lol) since he has had the car. His car now runs like crap and you can hear strange noises from the engine and Im scared to even ride in it. Im VERY surpised his CEL never came on, which it should have, but yea his car is in terrible mechanical shape for the simple fact he didnt know, and didnt bother to put the right fluids to run his car.

It's better to buy the right stuff for a little more $$ now then to be sorry later when you find out normal PS fluid ruins a big part of your car and it costs a ton of cash...

 

Well, ****...I'm too damn broke to take my car anywhere and have it flushed out....this sucks quite a bit. If my steering rack breaks I'm taking my freaking car to the junkyard, lol. When I put that PS fluid in there I would have never guessed that someone would go an put different fluid in there originally...oh well, anything to make an extra buck out of the consumer I guess.

 

blame the germans

 

It's NOT "AUDI" fluid, it's just a special type of hydraulic fluid not used on domestics. BMW, Mercedes & Porsche use it also.

As Devil said, it makes all the seals & plastics very brittle. So much so, that you can pretty much turn them to dust when you grab them. How much did you use? The damage might already be done, or you might be ok. Change it out with the proper fluid & wait. The check valve on the pressure side will usually be the first to go, the line is what, $400? Hopefully the pump is OK.

Most Non-Chain Autoparts stores will carry it. I believe Napa has it.

Flushing is not hard. Get a turkey baster. Pull out all the fluid from the res. Disconnect the lines under it, spray in some intake claner. Then put in new fluid, start the car, turn the wheel a few times, till the fluid changes color. Then pull out fluid, repeat several times, till the fluid isn't nasty anymore. It will take a little more fluid they way, but it's cheap & easy. Get 2 cans of fluid.

 

I used a bunch. My PS reservoir was almost empty, and I filled it up completely, and I've driven on it for 7 months. I mean, I have no leaks or steering problems whatsoever. If the seals were screwed, shouldn't it be leaking fluid like all hell?

 

No, it might has sealed the leak. The wrong fluid swells up all the seals, but makes em brittle. So any leak would be fixed for a time. It's to hard to guess, what problems if any you will have. I would still fix it, wonder where the fluid went in the first place. You know you check the level when the car is HOT & not cold? The fluid expands when hot.