PS Fluid used as Tranny Fluid

[mitchwi]

Please do not ask me how she could of made such an error, but my poor mom was in tears when she called me.....

My mom has a 95 Chev Lumina(car) with 240K miles on it, it drives fine, just getting worn out. I stopped by her house yesterday and she asked me to show her where to check tranny fluid as she thought it was "slipping a bit" I showed her and checked it for her. Gave her $3 to buy some TRANSMISSION FLUID as she was heading out the door to go to work.

She called this morning and says "I was laying in bed this morning, woke up and thought, what the #@!! did I do?" Yep she went and checked the container and it was power steering fluid.

Being Sunday and nothing open, I called a couple of people to get their input on this situation.... a comment was made that GM trans fluid is more compatible with the power steering fluid and will not cause a problem, just get it changed and probably change it a couple more times as all will not drain from torque convertor.... Any other input? :help:

 

[Stocker Steve]

Does the tranny still slip?

 

[mitchwi]

She hasn't driven it yet, last night when she got home from work she filled it up and started the car and went through all the gears to make sure it was full. Since this morning when she realized what she did, she hasn't touched the car! :roll:

 

[Saltydawg]

You can use Tranny fluid in your power steering pump and not cause problems....you cannot use Power Steering fluid in your tranny however.

How bad will it hurt the tranny? Well your car isnt going to instantly explode.

If she didnt add too much or didnt drive the car much then it probably didnt hurt anything....drain it out and put the proper fluid in it.

Power steering fluid and Tranny fluid are both designed for hydraulic systems under modest ammounts of pressure. Tranny fluid has additional friction modifiers designed to work with the clutch plates in your tranny.

 

[JHH]

Just drop the fluid and replace the filter and You will be ok but if it is slipping you probably have more problems. How low was it ? 1 qt or 1 pt?


JHH

 

[mitchwi]

It was a good quart low, like I said the car overall runs good, it's been a good car, just getting worn out not something to spend any money on, just driving til it dies!