tracyballard

Ok, I got the power steering pump on my 2002 GT replaced, but after a couple of days it's obvious there's a huge leak. I've filled it 3 times, and within a couple of days of driving each time the reservoir is about 1/3 full and the pump is whining big time. I've been looking for loose fittings but it's pretty greasy down there, and it's running along the steering rack and dripping off way back under the passenger side of the car, almost at the back of the engine bay. I'm going to get it up on jackstands and go over everything, but does anyone have any suggestions? Is it normal for the rack to start leaking after a pump replacement? I also replaced the high pressure hose and it seemed to have new teflon washers already installed on the hose ends. Help!


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Z28KLR

All you can really do since everything's all greasy and whatever is get it all cleaned up - bottle of Simple Green and a pressure washer or however you feel like doing it, and with it all relatively clean it shouldn't be too hard to find the source of the leak given the rate at which you're losing fluid.

Derf00

It's not normal for leaking to occur after working on a PS system. That means there was a problem with either the installation or the parts.

You mentioned the Teflon washers on the pressure hose were already installed. Were these white and made of hard plastic or black (rubber)?

I ask because if they are white hard plastic, you only get one shot at inserting those correctly into the rack or pump.

Did you remember seeing a white or black o-ring being removed from the rack before installing the new hose, or you didn't notice?

I ask because it's most likely that you left the old one in the rack and simply installed the new hose with the new o-ring right on top of it...

This sometimes happens with oil filters where the rubber seal gets stuck on the oil mount of the block and you install a new filter with another rubber seal over it. It leaks like a sieve.

tracyballard

The old hose I took out still has the o rings on it, and the leak appears to be coming from under the passenger side boot on the steering rack. I'm assuming that perhaps that was leaking the whole time and I only noticed a problem when the pump started making a noise. I hope that's it anyway.

art02gt

i wouldn't reuse the old o rings, they are designed to seal by crushing. from personal experience, get the right nylon o ring from the dealer or it will still leak (dont use the auto parts store generic ones), they're only a couple of bucks anyway. my car developed a leak from the inner tie rod boot too and had to replace the whole rack. I did find some seal kits but i just decided to buy the rack from the dealer. the more i researched the more i found people having problems with racks from local parts stores. i had to shell out the $400 the dealer wanted, but i'm happy in the end. it's been over a year and no problems yet.

tracyballard

I've read bad things about the racks available at parts stores on some mechanic forums, so I ordered a rack from Rackdoctor.net. They've got a pretty good reputation and the price is only $120 + $65 core charge with free shipping. And I ordered some new outer tie rods as well (Moog partsmasters off ebay for $12.51 each with free shipping). I've never tried to replace any of these parts on a car before, but we'll see how it goes. Worst case, I'll just have to have it towed in and totally rebuilt.

Derf00

So how'd the rack replacement go? It sounds like the leak was caused by the inner rack seals being worn out.

tracyballard

It went pretty good. The removal and installation was not that difficult, but I got the alignment way off when I put everything together, so I had to have it towed to firestone to get that fixed when I was done. But, after an $85 alignment, it works great, and the steering feel is better. The passenger side joint that's under the boot was just flopping around on the old rack, in addition to leaking, so that fixed a pretty serious issue. Plus the price was great from Rack Doctor compared to O'reillys or autozone, and the quality seemed top notch.

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