How To Tell if The Hydraulic System on Your Citroen is Contaminated

Over the years I found that often times a Citroen would come into the shop or a person would send in a set of spheres to rebuild from a car that had a contaminated hydraulic system .

Always bad news to any Citroen owner, this can prove to be one of the most expensive single problems an owner of a Citroen can have. This includes 2CV s because I have seen the wrong fluid put into their hydraulic brake system too.

Back in the old days, the reason for contamination could mostly be blamed on confusion, for there was a period of time from 1966 to 1969 1/2 that cars being sold over here in the U.S. had LHS2 (Brake Fluid Based ) from the factory, while cars being sold in other parts of the world had LHM or (Mineral Based) fluid in them.

Over the years one thing led to another with many owners and people who really should not have been working on the cars putting in the wrong type of fluid.

What I am going to explain is the method I always used to tell if a system is contaminated with either Mineral fluid or Brake fluid.  With this test  we are talking about a Citroen with a complete hydraulic system , ie: brakes, steering, suspension etc.

Here’s a little video to show you how…

The video should have shown you the steps, but if you like to read them as well, here ya go.

What you want to do is get a sample of the fluid, but first you want to get a glass and fill it half full of water. (leave it alone, don’t drink it. :0)

To get an accurate sample this can be done in one of two ways.

1. Either draw off a good 8 ounces or so after the car has been warm and running for a while. (Remove it right from the reservoir).
2. The other way is to drain the entire system.

I prefer the first method if possible. I usually drain this into a jar that you can put a lid onto. Now close the jar and shake it up vigorously.

Now take the jar and open it up and fill the rest of the glass with the contents of your sample. Let it sit for about 15 minutes and then examine the mixture in the glass. Now here is were things get interesting.

Because the brake fluid is hydroscopic it will mix with the water and turn it a milky color. The mineral oil will always separate from the brake fluid and float on the top The main thing in this test is the use of water. Remember the brake fluid will always mix with it and the oil based fluid will always separate.

One way or the other this spells trouble. Next Time I will tell you some of the symptoms you will notice in the car that can point to a system being contaminated .

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.