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Power Steering fluid leak on power steering rack after AV6 tranny swap
Hey guys,
Hoping I could get some help here. I had the AV6 swap done a month ago, and the car has been great. However, I noticed a drip of tranny fluid under the power steering rack when I was changing the engine oil last week. I looked inside the engine bay and saw a wet spot on top of it near where the rack was looped.
Pictures from top of the engine and under:
I thought it might've been the hose on the right-side maybe being loose, so I re-attached it and tightened it, then wiped it dry, but it is continuing to leak.
took her back to the shop where I got the swap done. the guy checked it out and thinks its a bad seal on the rack and pinion. he recommended getting the whole unit replaced.
it's strange that it started leaking after the tranny swap, but he says that he didn't have to remove the rack to swap the tranny.
my only theory is that it was bumped a few times from the impact of removing the axles or the loop on the rack increased the pressure inside.
also there is a non-auto hose clamp on it. maybe I should try swapping it out with a regular hose clamp.
haven't found much info on leaking pinions on this site other than suggestions and tips of replacing the rack.
took a look at the diagram for the PS rack, and it looks like it could just be a bad gasket for the Valve Housing or Sensor Port:
From the original pics that I posted, it looks like the fluid is just wetting up one part of the rack- the Valve Body, #24. I wonder if it's possible to just replace the gaskets on these things. The mechanic did say that replacing gaskets wouldn't help, which is why he suggested replacing the whole thing, but it looks pretty simple judging by the picture.
I'll have to test this theory out and see if it's doable.
Grab a can of brake clean and spray the hell out the entire suspect area so that it's clean and dry. Once that is done it should be easy to see where the leak is coming from.
The two lines that have red painted bolts both have O'rings which I would be suspect of as well as the the rubber line with the non-OEM clamp.
I cleaned it with carb cleaner, but the leak came back so fast that I couldn't spot where it was coming from when I came back and checked. Will have to try again and check sooner this time.
I ordered some parts, including the O-Rings that you mentioned (thanks, btw):
Threw the hoses in there in case they were different sizes and are being improperly seated, causing the leak. I'll use the smaller diameter one if they are different.
Cool beans. Still curious where exactly it's leaking from.
Just an FYI, be careful about using carb cleaner anywhere there are electrical, plastic, rubber, non-metal components as it likes to melt/degrade that kind of stuff. Brake cleaner is generally safe.
coincidentally: I'm doing an AV6 swap myself and while underneath the car I also noticed the same leak you see coming from the rack. On the off chance that I'll have to perform the same type of work, would be interested to see how your replacement of the seals went...
So I think I see what's happening, and what's causing the small leak. I finally decided to start working on the project today. I cleared the power steering reservoir and cleaned it out, ready to pump some new fluid in once I was done.
As mentioned before, I noticed that the 2 hose sizes were different when I ordered them. When I got the parts, I saw that the holes were noticeably different in size. One is for the inlet, and the other is for the outlet. Not only are the hoses different in sizes, but obviously the pipes that it connects to are different in sizes.
new hoses side-by-side
I unscrewed the clamps (one of them was non part of the original clamps) and pulled out the hose. At this point, I'm hoping that it's the slightly-bigger diameter hose, because if not, then I would have to continue troubleshooting. Turns out it is... The old hose used was for the Outlet Pipe. This hose does NOT fit the Inlet Pipe. This is where the issue is. As you can see from the third pic, clamping it down as much as you can still creates a small passage for fluid to leak if the hose does not completely fit.
old hose
At that point, I tried fitting the hose for the Inlet Pipe into the Outlet Pipe. This does not work.... I've tried forcing it in but the size difference is just enough to stop it from properly fitting.
So now I'm at a standstill. I can keep the old hose on it and clamp it with 2 clamps on the Inlet Pipe temporarily, and try to see if I can find an adapter for these 2 hoses. According to the parts diagram, the Inlet Pipe is 6mm. I can't find the size of the Outlet Pipe, it's part of one large part and doesn't tell me the specs. May have to use my caliper.
This step should def be included to those wanting to do a tranny swap, because evidently you will get a small leak from your hose if you use one type of hose for different size pipes. I'm sure this happens but since the leak is so small (I literally only found it when changing my tranny fluid and saw that part of the steering rack looked "wet"), not a lot of people find it, or just don't care enough to fix it.
I added another clamp to it (what the mechanic used and what the original should've been) and tightened them extra-hard. It's also been cleaned, so let's see if this stop the leaks...
12-03-2018, 10:12 PM
