Cary's Garage: Citroen Hydraulic Blues

Cary,

Here is kind of an odd one for you. I have a ‘71 Citroen D series car and it seems there is an issue finding the Hydraulic Mineral fluid for the system. Do you have any ideas or suggestions for me?

Thanks,

Mark

Hello Mark,

What a cool car, probably one of my favorites ever made, and yes, I do have some ideas for you. I have heard from some of my acquaintances that the supply of LHM “Liquid Hydraulic Minerale” has become rather difficult and expensive to source. I know you can get it from Europe, but you will have to pay dearly to ship it to the states. From what I have heard from other sources you can use MIL-H-5606 in a Citroen system. If you were to go that route, I would recommend doing a full system flush, so the MIL fluid is the primary fluid in the system and not mixed. The other option that people have done throughout time is draining and flushing the system and just using automatic transmission fluid. I have known people over the years that have done that but honestly, I have mixed feelings about doing that and don’t really know how much I personally trust it. The MIL fluid is like the LHM with a slightly different viscosity rating. With stuff as important as your hydraulic system in your car I would try my hardest to just find and use the LHM but if that doesn’t work out there are at least options.                                 

This is just my two cents and I would highly recommend doing some reading and educating yourself a little bit about the different fluids before you go full-on making a switch.

Best of luck!

Please email any questions to Carysgarage@gmail.com. I don’t normally check the comments so please don’t just leave a question in the comments – please email instead.

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