UPDATE: Kate and her husband let the guy they bought the car from know what happened and he insisted that they not take it to a mechanic. When they said that's what they wanted to do he offered their money back. Pretty shady neh?

My sister was given a car by her good friend. The car was pretty cheap ($500) and my sister's friend got it. Anyway, my sister has been so stoked these past few days because she has been waiting for the sale to finalize and then to go get her car registered.

She got the keys today. She had some errands to do and said she'd back about 10 minutes ago. Well, right after she pulled out of the driveway she yelled in from the front door for me to come there because there was something seriously wrong with her car. Well, I get up and I'm thinking, Well, it's probably just noise and she's worried because it's her first car. Boy was I wrong, I went out the front door and there is fluid everywhere. Down our driveway, pooled on the sidewalk and some in the cul-de-sac.

My sister's friend hauled *** over here. My sister and I were laughing our heads off at the irony. Lindsey (my sister) realized the gravity of the situation and got really pissed. Now Lindsey's friend, Kate, gets out of her Explorer and she's majorly pissed. She just paid for the car like three days ago. They test drove it and everything seemed to check out.

I went back in the house to change into clothes that I could get **** all over because when I went out I was wearing my new silk pants and shirt. So I tromp out there with my non-slip boots and the ugliest damned shirt and shorts on. Lindsey and Kate were spraying down the driveway with water and brushing the fluid. Not smart. We needed to let it sit and go get something to soak it up like kitty litter or something similar.

So now we have a drying driveway with congealing oil all down one side and in the street. The water was a horrible idea and now all the fluid and water is flowing down the gutter to the catch basin. Dead grass will most definitely be in the future for that area and I know exactly why.

We did call some people about what the problem may be and two guys say that it's most likely to be power steering fluid. The fluid is cherry syrup red and slippery as can be, that is if you are wearing regular shoes. Well that was fun...

Anti-freeze or coolant would be my best guess.

What color was the fluid. Dark Brown - probably oil, maybe transmission. Red(ish) - automatic transmission fluid. Green - antifreeze (coolant). That's very general but a start. Also, I recommend a product called Castrol Superclean to clean up any oily residue you may have. It's a bio-degradable degreaser that should clean most surfaces you have oil on. Just spray on, scrub, and hose off.

O_o, what caused the line break? any clue?

There used to be a kickass degreaser called McKay's that came in a blue can. The stuff was so potent that if you dipped a coat hanger in it, it would disolve the paint/rust and leave bare shiny metal. It would partially sissolve anything not made of metal. If you got that on your hands, you would peel several layers of skin and your hands would smell like chemical s*** for about a month. Best damn degreaser that I ever used. I had a very old can of it in my garage, and when I ran out, I was sad to find that they don't make it anymore. It probably killed some people or something.

If it was a smal lspill, I would recommend pouring a bit of that, but this is not something you would want to pour anywhere where it could end up in the gutter. If that stuff got to the ocean, it would probably kill half of the stuff in it.

we have this pretty old jeep. One time when I was in a parking lot, I was just playing with the break. I pushed on it relatively hard, and all of the sudden it just gave out, and i could literally push the break as far as the floor of the car without putting any pressure on it.

We moved the car and there was all of this blue fluid. I had broken the brake tube or something.

Is anything wrong with your brakes? i doubt its the same thing as your car, but....

Sounds like transmission fluid to me. If you get a crack in the gasket which seals the transmission bay that stuff can really pour out.

Oh, and your sister is a fool for purchasing a car without having a mechanic look at it first. Doesnt matter how cheap it was, thing might have been highly unsafe.

There's not possibly enough information in his post to guess what it is. He could however check all the fluid levels to see what doesn't seem to be there.

I'm sorry, I stand entirely corrected. I missed it somehow. My eyes have been pretty tired the past several nights when I got home from being outside all day long. Yes, that would most likely be transmission fluid but possibly powersteering.

Oooooh! You HAVE to take it to the mechanic NOW!