Stacking up repair jobs like cordwood over here.

Got a serious leak happening in my power steering system. I've cleaned up the mess in the undercarriage below so I can watch for new drips but I also took a photo of a suspicious looking hose for everyone's evaluation.

Is this the high pressure supply to the rack I'm looking at here? If so, does it seem likely this is where it's leaking from? I mean should I start the process by digging in to the pump area vs. looking lower around the rack itself? Seems like a lower leak wouldn't be making that hose wet, would it?

 

Dudes, dudes, dudes.. no one wants to step up and play?? Three Duntov Points to the man who can solve this mystery!

I got my alternator removed to increase visibility of the power steering pump area and here is what I found.

General wetness. There's a good coat of fluid on all the hard bits adjacent to the pump. It doesn't look like it's being flung around or aerosolized, though. My belt is dry and none of the pulleys are wet. Nothing on the hood.

I got a better shot of the high pressure supply fitting and it doesn't jump out at me as looking like it's leaking.

I did notice a drip hanging from one of the mounting bolts above the pump, though. So the fluid must be getting flung around to some degree.

I'm at a loss as to what to do next. I'd like to avoid simply pulling everything out because then it seems like it will be less apparent where the issue was.

Any suggestions?

 

I don't think you have any choice but to clean the whole area with like spray engine cleaner and carefully spray it off. It should be easier to spot especially if you put in the leak detector that shows up under black light. Dan


EDIT: I had a small power steering fluid leak and it was like a 3/8" rubber hose connected to a metal tube with a small screw type hose clamp. I just had to tighten it.

 

Clean it up as best as you can and wait until the next day and search for any signs of the leak. If there is no leak then it’s happening under pressure somewhere

 

How much time and mileage do you have on those hoses? If they’re getting along in life it’s probably a good idea to replace them either way. When they fail in catastrophic fashion, you’ll be out of service right quick, no matter where you happen to be.

 

I don't know how old the hoses or the pump are. I've onyl had the car a couple of years now. It has 150k, though, so there's a lot of potential history there. I reckon it would be prudent to replace everything, even though I hate the idea of throwing parts at problems without discerning the exact cause.\

And of course these days there's always the concern that the replacement parts are of inferior quality to the factory stuff.

I rented my pulley puller today so I'll have it apart to get a better view at all the potential leak points soon. Hopefully that gives me a clear answer.

If not, there's the dilemma: replace it all while it's apart and accessible or clean it up, put it back together, let it leak again, take it back apart and fix the exact thing, then put it back together again...

Really hoping I find a loose hose clamp on the low pressure return line buried up in there.

 

I don't know if anyone gets anything out of this but here's a shot of my pump now hanging free of the block. The high pressure supply hose pictured here seems to be the dirtiest thing so I'm going with it as the culprit. It's already been degreased a bunch in this shot. The front seal of the pump is dry and the rear looks okay too, I guess. I mean it's gunky but it looks like gunk that's been deposited on it from elsewhere to me. I don't think it's wet enough to account for the full drip of fluid I found hanging off a bolt elsewhere.

I've ordered a new high pressure hose and I'm going to keep digging and clean all the crap off of everything before reinstallation. If it still leaks when I'm done, at least it should be easier to find...

 

I am about to tackle this same job as I have a slight leak somewhere in the system. It has been too cold to mess with this week so I have been soaking the area down with degreaser, boy there is a lot of gunk down there. I will pre-order the hoses as I would replace them no matter if they leak or not, it is too difficult to get to that spot to not replace all of the hoses and maybe the pump as well since my car has been maintenance lacking for a very long time.

 

How was your power steering fluid level earlier

 

I have been using the leek detector over the years works, more people I guess just don't know about this stuff, saves lots work . Lets see trans leek found it ,valve cover leaking was dripping down on the trans cover was thinking it was the main seal , used leek detector found it didn't sleep for a day or two thinking O-NO not a main seal no valve cover, it found a coolant leek good for me well kinda it was the radiator ,new Bettle ya think a C-4 is a pain the work on try replacing a radiator on this deal but the leek detector found it .. Just saying people should use the stuff ,it works

 

Okay, here's the pump end of the high pressure hose. I may not be an engineer but that o-ring looks like it might just leak...

So the power steering fluid leaked out of my car while it was just sitting there on jackstands not running. I had it towed home and coasted it down into its stall all without starting the engine so the leak really just sprang itself. My reservoir drained down to about 1" from the bottom or so. I want to say this is right about the same level as the pictured fitting.

This fitting was nice and tight but obviously the o-ring is compromised so maybe it finally dried out enough that fluid finally got past it? I dunno. It's really weird that the major dump happened while the car was hibernating.

While disassembling everything, I found that the molded low pressure return hose into the pump was not very tight around the pump's protruding pipe. The hose clamp itself wasn't loose but the hose spins in place easily. It didn't appear to have been leaking from here (you can see in previous posts that it's dry) but since the hose seems old and stiff, I'm going ahead and tacking another goddamn week onto my wait to have a car again and ordering a new one. Auto parts stores don't even have this hose in their systems so I had to order it online. It's be good to have both pump hoses brand new, though.

 

That does not even look like it was ever an 0-ring. Dan

 

To wrap this thread up, that bum fitting pictured above does seem to have been the culprit. I replaced that hose and the low pressure return along with it and so far no leaks apparent after a few shake down miles.