Steering rack leak?
 

Hello!
I hope you are all well.
I haven’t been on the forum for a while, lots of things going on in my life.

Just wondering, is it possible for the steering rack to leak from the body of the rack?
A couple of days ago just as I got back from a short drive i heard a slightly increased steering noise at full lock. Then as I stopped there was smoke from the left hand wheel well/bonnet.
It was the steering fluid, level very low, and leaking onto the drive.
I checked the delivery pipes, and the reservoir, all appear to be dry. Even the bolts where they connect to the steering rack seem dry.
I guess Im going to need a new rack.
Never expected it to leak from the body of the rack.

Normally smoke from the left hand side is the pressure feed pipe rusted through where it runs in the wheel well, even on LHD cars.

However, there are two hardlines running along the body of the rack which connect the valve block to the piston. I've seen one instance (Mike's T8) where one of these lines rusted out and leaked fluid.

Other places it could leak from are the valve block itself, although thats highly unlikely, or the seal at the end of the piston which is relatively common, but that would be on the right on your car and it tends to go everywhere as it drips out of the rubber boot.

If its definitely not the pressure feed pipe then I'd say one or both of the hard lines. They're not service items unfortunately so you can't buy them separately, (and they're almost certainly different to the RHD pipes I have on the shelf) so you'd still need a replacement rack. At least it's slightly easier to change on a LHD manual...

Hi Mikki!
Thanks for the detailed reply. Looks like I’m going to have to crawl in there and take a better look.
I replaced the delivery pipe recently so it hopefully isn’t that.
The dripping was happening more or less in line with the steering wheel.
I’m not sure I am confident enough to tackle rack replacement myself.
Am I right in thinking its undriveable in this condition? The power steering pump will start sucking air and get damaged?

Personally I wouldn't drive it if it's smoking as it's dripping on the exhaust. With a flash point of 160C that would make me very nervous. And yes, if the pump runs dry it will shred itself very quickly.

Is it servotronic? Concievably it could leak from the servotronic solenoid, as that is basically a pressure control valve and is right in line with the steering column. I don't have enough experience of servotronic racks to say whether that is a common fault or not though. I also don't know if the rack still has to come out to change the solenoid, but I can ask.

Thanks Mikki! You know so much about these cars +++
Its servotronic. I removed the relay from the footwell when it failed.
If it is a leak from the rack somewhere I’ll get a new non servotronic rack. I prefer the heavier feel of the standard rack anyway.

Hi Mikki,

Can I ask for your advice please. Would this work?
To connect the output of the power steering pump back to the reservoir so that I can drive the car to the mechanic without having to pay for a flat bed truck?
I havent really thought about what kind of pipe to use that would even fit.
Thanks in advance!

I think that would be very difficult tbh - the output of the pump is 130bar / 1800psi. With no restriction on it I suspect it would be almost impossible to restrain the hose to keep it in the reservoir. More likely it would spray fluid everywhere.

How far is the mechanic? I would be more inclined to remove the aux belt if its not very far. You'll lose the alternator, but they'll run for a short time on a fully charged battery. Depends how far you have to go really.

Thanks for replying so fast!
Haha I can just picture it, that would be very funny.
Ok thats a terrible idea.
Great idea about just taking the belt off.
Its only a 30Ah battery I hope it will make it.

Oh yeah I forgot you have a lithium pack don't you? 30Ah won't run an 8 for very long, and bad things happen to the electronics when the battery runs out of jiuce.

Can you borrow a bigger battery and hook it up with jump leads maybe? I've never measured how long an 8 will run with no alternator - only dealt with the aftermath.
Maybe charge the battery, take the belt off and run it for a bit with a voltmeter on the battery and see how long it takes to get down to 12.2 - 12.3V? (or whatever safety not-discharged-to-death voltage it is for lithium)

Oh no, that sounds very bad! what happens to the electronics when the voltage gets low? Thanks for telling me that could have been bad.
This lithium battery has some sort of low voltage cut off to preserve around 10% of the charge in case the car is left sitting too long. Maybe that will protect the electronics? But maybe I should just pay for the truck and not take any risks. Losing all power on the road suddenly is not going to be very safe.