My wife poured some windshield washer fluid in the brake fluid tank. She said it wasnt much. Does anyone know what i should do? have it flushed or just let it be?

 

Flush it immediately. Windshield washer fluid does not have the characteristics of brake fluid and may compromise your braking ability leading to potentially dangerous situations. Get the brake fluid flushed and replaced as soon as possible as it is the safest thing to do.

 

Im not sure if I would even drive that car like that. Now im not sure if brake fluid and washer fuild dont mix like oil and water or if they do mix but either way thats pretty bad.

 

Well, everyone makes mistakes. I think you should get it flushed just to be on the safe side.

 

The system needs to be flushed asap, dont drive the car, have it towed to either your dealer or mechanic and they will need to flush the system.
DONT DRIVE IT!

 

Agreed, do NOT drive it.

 

atleast she didnt put diesel in the gas tank

 

Don't drive it at all!

She just put water in the brake system. Water is heavier than brake fluid, and will settle in the calipers -- the lowest part of the brake system. You apply the brakes, and the water will boil -- it turns to steam, and since steam is a gas, and therefore compressible, your hydraulic brake system WILL NOT WORK -- the pedal will go to the floor and no braking force will be available.

What makes Windshield washer fluid worse is that it has alcohol and glycol in it which boil at much LOWER temperatures than water.

Since there's no telling what water and alcohol are going to do to the inside of brake lines -- that's corrosive stuff -- get it towed to the dealer ASAP and get a full brake fluid flush and fill.

Finally, do not let a woman under the hood of your car again. Well, some women are OK -- my Acura tech at the dealership is a woman and actually, she's kinda cute... but I digress.

 

Too bad she didn't pour break fluid into the windshield wiper reservoir... that would have been less of a pain I'd think.
Luckily my wife doesn't even know where the hood release latch is.

I agree... tow and flush. And ignore the snickers at the dealer. I'm sure they have wives too.

 

Brake fluid eats car paint... so... that would have been expensive, too.

 

If you don't want to pay for tow and flush, just get a power bleeder and do it yourself. It's not very difficult. I have done the brake work for my track cars for years now.

As everyone else said. Don't drive it though.

 

Driving it for a very short distance should be safe, however your brake fluid is now cotaminated with water, a very serious problem. Take it to the dealer and have the entire system flushed since water contamination can affect braking performance but worst of all it can esentially destroy the seals on your braking system thus leading to an extremely expensive repair job, which, of course, will not be covered by warranty.

 

Ironically, I added windshield fluid yesterday and commented to myself about how easy it would be to inadvertently put windshield fluid into the brake fluid container. The brake fluid container is way too easy to access (it literally shouts out "open me up and pour something into me!") while the windshield fluid is way too poorly marked ("hey, find me if you can and while you're at it, try figuring out what I am from my molded-in description!"), creating the situation that happened to the thread starter's well-meaning wife.

 

took it to the dealer today and they are charing me 230 to flush and fill. But i drove it proably a good 10 miles and am hoping i didnt cause any damage

 

It should be fine.
The price was a little steep but at least it was probably performed correctly.

 

[QUOTE=wstr75](it literally shouts out "open me up and pour something into me!") QUOTE]


Dang!! I didn't get this option. My car is totally silent when I lift up the hood.

 

I have no idea what this should cost, but that seems like a lot to me.

Sigh...wives are expensive. Mine just got a $97 ticket a few days ago in the new Pilot. Love her anyway.

 

It does seem high. I just paid $100 for a brake fluid flush in the Land Cruiser and I'm sure that system holds more fluid than the RL, but then again those were Toyota prices. I'm sure I would have paid more if I went to a Lexus dealer, but not double!

As for tickets, I have no room to talk. I got a $250 ticket last summer up in Wisconsin (86 in a 65). 21mph over

Got it plead down to 14 over at a cost of $175.

I should have known better.

 

Of course, the worst part about those traffic tickets is the multi-year insurance surcharges which, in some states, can be many times the cost of the ticket itself. Ouch!

 

which is why I keep a FL license, even tho I live in IL

 

In WI tickets start at aroud 150 bucks, since they usually don't stop you for ten over, they really start around 200 bucks. When returning from the chicago show highway 51 had about 5 speed traps from madison to wausau. My integrated Beltronics RX75 paid itself off in spades in only one night. BTW, the laser blockers work like a charm I was lased from both front and rear by a combo of hidden cops, none of them could get a reading (I was going 85) though they lased me for a total distance of 1 mile Also the radar detection range is fierce (as good as the x50). Definitely worth every penny. The display fits perfectly in the top of the coin box space, thus the installation is almost invisible, plus the coin box is still completely usable! Since the escort SR7 is an identical piece of hardware it should also fit perfectly. They both cost about 1 K installed. The front laser blockers were placed in the grill stradling the front license plate the rear goes attached to the upper lip of the rear plate, thus they are also invisible. It doesn't even interfere with the camera. Very highly and completely recommended.

 

I'm paying 2x for my liability umbrella due to the f@*&ing WI cops. However I have found a solution (read above)

 

I have a Passport 8500 and it's paid for itself many times over. The problem is that I did not follow a couple of unwritten rules.

In order to protect yourself from instant-on, you should always make sure someone is in front of you so that you can get the residual from people getting tagged ahead of you. The 8500 has phenomenal range, so on a long stretch of highway, you get a warning over a mile away.

If you're the only one on the road, and it's the middle of the night, then you shouldn't go over 10mph.

Well I was on I-94 near Menomonie, about an hour east of St. Paul. It was about 12:00 am, there was no one ahead of me and I was doing 86mph. The trooper hit me with instant on as soon as reached a crest in the road.

 

Been there done that
As you know traffic cops in this part of WI have little to do other than give tickets and pull people out of ditches we could certainly save some money by getting rid of at least half of them.

 

$230 is high. Brake flushes shouldn't run more than $100.