I've had three power steering leaks of a type I haven't read about on the Forum and have a question about one of the hoses and would appreciate any thoughts on both of these.

Over the last month I have had three power steering leaks in my '94 LT1. Each occurrence was about 10 days apart and each was similar in that in the morning I found a "puddle" of power steering fluid under the car.

The first two puddles were under the passenger side and the third on both sides and as fluid leaks can appear to be be greater in volume than they really are, I would guess the first two were probably a tablespoon of fluid and the third was twice that although the reservoir level still seems normal.

My car is a daily driver with 145k on the clock and probably has the original hoses. None of the three occurrences was preceded by hard driving and other than the three puddles, I've never seen any power steering fluid on the floor.

I jacked up the car in each instance and looked for any clues but couldn't find any even after cleaning all likely spots (connections, adjacent areas, bellows) after the first occurrence as suggested in Forum threads.

Most of the power steering leak threads trace the leak to the high pressure pump/gear hose and I'll be replacing that as well as the cooler/gear hose and the cooler/reservoir hose. I have not read of anyone experiencing difficulties with the hard reservoir/pump hose so I'm not planning to replace it but would appreciate any thoughts on this hose and/or anyone else who had this type of leak and what might cause it.

Thanks!

John

 

ttt

 

I've experienced multiple leaks...in every case it was due to extended use (abuse).

The PS system is not very durable on C4's...my action would be (and was) to replace all the hoses when I crack open the system. 145K...those hoses owe you nothing.

I don't recall any of the hoses to be very expensive...I replaced my pump to rack line with a DRM SS hose...it is the most failure prone hose during heavy use-with the SS hose that is nearly eliminated.

Good Luck!

 

Thanks a million!

 

well if ya need a pressure hose it takes a day to get it from advance auto. go ahead ask me how i know...... Im fighting a p/s leak too. what part of austin are ya in? NW here anderson mill area.



James

 

I have all the hoses, clamps and parts and thought I had all the tools but just discovered (as seems to happen with all projects) I need another tool - a pulley remover/installer to pull and reinstall the power steering pump pulley - so now I'm waiting for O'Reilly's to open and hope they have one in their loaner program. I live off of 2222.

John

 

Thats kinda funny, im about 5 miles from there. anderson mill and 620. If ya ever need help or such just drop a line.


James

 

Make sure when you use the pulley removal tool,thread the screw into the pulley hole by hand first and make sure it threads inside,as a test.
2 turns is not enough!

Them pulley shaft holes rust out,and I had another GM car that had a rusted threads,and the tool stripped out.

Even the 3 rebuilt p/s pumps from the parts stores,they never tapped the hole of the pulley shaft and they were rusted inside(with new black paint on them).

The tool threaded in a few times and pulled outwards when removing the pulley.Its rare but does happen.

 

Aggravated4life, thanks a million for your suggestion. I did hand test as you suggested and didn't run into a thread problem but did find (which I probably wouldn't have otherwise) that the screw loaded up in the loaner installer (there were three choices) was not the best choice as it had very limited threads going into the pulley shaft. Another choice with more threads worked better.

For anyone following this I'll be going into my third (and hopefully, last) session on this project tomorrow - a lot longer than I ever anticipated. Part of that is because I'm taking longer; for example I dropped the cooler to install the new hoses to and from the cooler as I had the factory clamps and that made it slower but easier to install them and I decided to do some housekeeping - like the crossmember under the steering gear which was embarrassingly filthy - while I was in there.

But part is also a couple of things I didn't anticipate like the hard pipe return hose being misaligned and connector being badly stressed (perhaps the source of my leak - see below). All of this was of course hidden until the power steering pump pulley was removed.



But it's a project I'm glad I've done and appreciate all those who have gone before and left helpful comments in the Forum.

John