Help! Washer fluid in Power Steering.

[RatherBNtheWoods]

Cousin just called from the side of the road/middle of a trip. He inadvertently poured washer fluid into the P/S reservoir. (New truck, P/S res is in the same spot washer res was on his last truck). Steering is getting labored and brakes are getting firm.

For now, not knowing what else to tell him. I told him to take the low pressure hose off of the hydo-asist and put a piece of hose on in it's place and idle the truck pouring and keeping full the P/S res.

What else can he/should he do until he can get it to a FoMoCo shop to have it flushed properly? I haven't looked under the hood of an '09, but if it's the same or worse than my '06 there isn't hardly anything he can get to while on the side of the road. I told him about having hydro brakes, not vac, so to be careful. What else can I tell him when he calls back?

[Pappy19]

My son-in-law did the same thing on my current 2008, trying to do me a good deed. I first tried to flush it out myself, but the design of the reservoir is such that it is very difficult. I kept draining and adding new fluid but it still looked like Pepto Bismol. After 2 weeks I went to an auto service place and had them do a complete flush, twice, and also they used a special cleaner fluid. They then filled the reservoir with new fluid. That was over a year ago and I haven't had any problems. I am going to flush it again soon, just in case. I wasn't sure how Ford would react to the circumstance, and that why I took it to an auto service place instead.