ATF for Power Steering top-up?

[gadget73]

As long as you dont use motor oil, you're fine.

well, actually this can work. If the pump is really horribly bad, as in it doesn't work unless you're driving at speed, a mix of oil/atf can make it do something useful. a friend of mine ran that in a 71 Mustang that had blown a line and was driven a few hundred miles with the pump dry. By the time he got home and fixed it, the pump was pretty much smoked. He dumped some oil in to try and thicken up the fluid enough to make it go, and it worked. It was quiet too, but if you sat at idle for too long you'd lose power steering unless you revved the engine up to make it go. I would not advise this on anything that isn't already shot though. Replacing the PS pump on that car wasnt worth the trouble either. A new pump would have cost more than the car was worth.



The actual fluid isn't super important, but they do run less noisy with Type F. I have a bottle of F around for top-up purposes but if I needed something in a pinch, I certainly wouldn't worry about using whatever ATF was on hand.

I don't think I'd run hydraulic fluid in a trans though. Theres more going on with ATF than just simple hydro oil. Lots of various anti-wear and friction modifiers that hydro juice wouldn't have. It probably would work fine in a power steering pump if you got lightweight oil though. Too thick and it might blow the seals out from excessive pressure.