Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Zetec Maintenance Brakes...(You Tell Me)

Okay.. a few weeks ago I got stupid for a minute because my brake fluid was low and so I filled it up to get the light to turn off. Well.. cough.. I poored in the wrong fluid. I think it was steering fluid? So anyway I used a turky thingy and sucked out what I put in. Now here we are a few weeks later there is something odd about the brake pedal.

Okay.. when the car is parked for a few hours the pedal is loose and pushes most of the way into the car, but works. As I drive around it starts to stiffen up and works. Now today when my wife got home it felt super stiff. Then after driving around for a while it returned to a normal feel.

I've got a little voice in the back of my head that is telling me that the steering fluid has now messed up the brake fluid. Should I bleed and refill? Or do you think this is a sign of something else?

Ahhh.. F'it! I'm sure this is not good and could be killing rubber seals or something. Going to bleed them tonight while in the dark rather than wait another day for something to happen.

The fluid looked like cloudy yellow piss. All I did was use a bleeder tube on one tire and pumped it all out and filled up a few times. The Dot3 that I'm using looks like clear water. When I get around to it I'll try bleeding from another side to be sure it's all out of the system. It seems to be stopping the car just fine, but then again it was a problem when the car was sitting there for hours it would lose pressure and change in softness as you drive. *Crossing Fingers*

Chances are you didn't hurt anything. More than likly you allowed air to get in to the system when you sucked out the old fluid. Bleed out the rest of the brake systm and you should be fine.