Power Steering Leak
 

Hi All,

After nearly a year off the road I have fixed most of the problems with the Scooby and have her back as a daily runner.

Only problem is a few weeks back I hit a potole which may have caused a leak in my Power Steering...I'm not 100% sure. The fluid does appear to be draining out and I have a pool of it sat around the area where the battery is in the engine bay and leaking out the front grille.

Does anyone know where the pipes run for the Power Steering or how I might be able to get in there and repair any leak, I'm hoping its an easy fix and not an engine out or garage job.

Any help appreciated.

Stiggy J

The only part of the PS pipework that sits further forward than the reservoir bottle on a classic is the cooler pipe, which is located somewhere inside the grille. I was pretty sure it was over to the driver-side of the engine bay though, so the fact you've got fluid around the battery seems a bit unusual.

If that's where your leak is coming from, you'd have two ways to fix it - either just bypass the pipe altogether with an alloy joiner, or find a replacement pipe from a breakers', a seller breaking a car here, or Ebay. On the other hand it could just be a loose hose-clamp, or a split in one of the rubber hoses going to the cooler pipe.

Is the cooler pipe possibly one that runs across the radiator? that is the only thing i could think of but havent looked all over.

That sounds like it. It's a long U-shaped pipe that sits just in front of the rad.

Edit:
The pipe that sits across the top of the rad is the coolant overflow pipe, not the PS cooler pipe. Are you 100% sure the fluid you're losing is PS fluid, and not engine coolant?

It's definately the Power Steering fluid as the resovior keeps getting low and the fluid has a oily texture. I just looked and on the curve of the pipe where the fluid is collecting the rubber coating is moving and it looks pretty coroded under there.

I guess its time to try find some spares...even the rubber seal on the front of the bonnet has started to misform too.