Q: I accidentally put Coolant in my Power Steering compartment in a 2005 BMW X3 3.0i

If you have been driving the car with coolant in the power steering system, you may be headed for trouble. Aside from distributing hydraulic power, the fluid lubricates the power steering pump and the steering rack. Driving with coolant in there will do some damage and draining the reservoir or even flushing the system may not get all of the contaminate out. The damage may not be immediately apparent, but the life of the power steering components will be shortened and these are all expensive parts. Since the car is twelve years old and has 200 thousand miles it’s going to start to need expensive repairs even without this problem so this may be a good time to think about replacing the car to save yourself some headaches. If you decide you need to do repairs on the power steering you can have that conveniently done by contacting YourMechanic. They can send a technician to your home or office to check out your power steering system right thereon the spot.