Uh oh... Tired idiot makes mistake, need advice

Allo! I made a mistake this evening. Sylvia (my 996 turbo) needed some oil. Popped the decklid and opened her up, added between a 5th and a 10th of motor oil... To the hydraulic pentosin reservoir! Anyway: this is of course, bad. Motor oil needs to go in the motor oil hole, not the hydraulic fluid hole. I realized at least before I've driven her and gone 'why is Sylvia on fire?' My plan is to get her on a flatbed and get her to a shop; have them flush the hydraulic fluid circuit and fill it with hydraulic oil, not motor oil. My question is quite simple: how much risk have I put my car in by doing this; and what would happen if I hadn't realized my mistake so soon and run a group 4/5 base oil through a mineral oil system? Ooh, just thought of another question as well, which might be more important: Can I wait the weekend to get this dealt with, or should I try and get this done Right ****ing Now

Can you evacuate the reservoir? If you can empty it before the oil can displace the hydraulic fluid, why not pump/siphon it out? Emptying the reservoir seems a better idea than flushing your...mixture...through the system.

get a turkey baster in the reservoir and take out as much as possible. Then top it off again with Hydraulic oil. STILL have the system bled anyway. I think that should take care of the problem.

We should be joined with the Turbo Forums, mod where are you?

The essential differences between the Pentosin hydraulic fluid and engine oil are viscosity and additive packages. Given the small quantity of "intermix" here, I seriously doubt any damage can occur. But have the system flushed and re-filled soon.

If you haven't started the engine any since doing this I agree with 5CHN3LL''s suggestion. Suck out as much of the fluid as you can with a turkey baster and refill with the proper fresh Pentosin. Pentosin is not mineral oil but a synthetic oil, specifically of the POA type. From Exxon's web site: SpectraSynTM 2 Polyalphaolefin (PAO) is characterized as catalytic alpha olefin dimer reaction products hydrogenated. PAO products are colorless liquids with well-defined, wax-free isoparaffinic structures. Hard to know what would have happened had you driven the car but it doesn't make any difference as you didn't. Some years ago my Dad took his Suburban to a quicky lube place and apparently someone there added oil to the brake fluid reservoir and some miles down the road the brakes failed with severe leaks. Dad had to have the brake system redone. He didn't know the reason at first but at the dealer where he took the vehicle the tech there told him he found motor oil in the brake system. I don't recall the area where Dad had the vehicle serviced but I recall the oil took affect after just a few hundred miles of driving. Dad and Mom were on the road pulling a camper trailer and were miles away from where he had the vehicle serviced when the brakes went out. It is only a WAG but I doubt the result of you running the engine with the bit of engine oil in the power steering fluid reservoir would have had similar dramatic effect.

If you have not started the car, it would be good to vacuum the reservoir first. Then see if there's any way to disconnect the steering lines in the engine bay to isolate the pump and reservoir from the rest of the steering system. Then flush the reservoir and pump a bit more. Exactly how much oil you added? The reservoir looks pretty big!

I would estimate I got about 180ml of motor oil in there, based on the size of the funnel I used. I'll see if I can get a siphon in there and slurp it out. Feel pretty thick today about it

I'm gonna grab a siphon from the parts store and ez skweezy as much of my ... mixture ... out as I can (I'm assuming I can get quite a lot out with one of these http://m.oreillyauto.com/mt/www.orei...ct=un_jtt_iosV Once I've done that I'll dilute what remains with moar pentosin (I want to prevent any damage to the system from contamination) and get the system flushed asap.

this is the cars way of getting back at you, for calling it sylvia

Ha! Thanks for the constructive comment . Here's a song for you. It's more likely that this is what I get for being thick.

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Sounds like a good plan. Maybe repeat one more time after the dilution with fresh pentosin.

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing - it's probably worth sacrificing a little bit of the correct fluid - fill and remove one more time - to ensure you've removed the bulk of the motor oil. In the future, no maintenance after a 4-martini dinner.

My son topped up the oil in the BMW - but put the oil in the power steering fluid reservoir. Drove the car for a few days until the oil late came back on and I figured out what he did. Sucked out as much as we could and refilled with Pentosin. Did it again a few miles later. 30,000 miles later - no issues.