Possibly a supersession as my Etka is quite old. Vera has confirmed they are available in Germany which means we can back-order them through TPS. Retail is £236 + vat.

Who wants to be guinea pig?

Audi Tradition have the parts with H and P suffixes, whatever they are. Could be for LHD models of course.....

No doubt someone with ready access to the relevant catalogue will tell us.

Interesting. LHD is 4B7422893C.

To clarify, I was referring to the original parts, so 4D2422893H and 4D2422893P. On Audi Tradition.

Ah. The silver-wrapped one in your pics is the V6 hose.

Actually, the left one (H?) would fit on to the front half of the C5 pipe making something nigh-on plug and play in a D2.

First of all, apologies everyone for not getting on with this sooner. The car seems to dictate what I do and when I do it not the other way round. She gave me some more pressing issues to deal with.

As you should be able to see from the pictures, I have dissected the pipes so we can all see more clearly what is going on. The pipe that leads to the oil cooler, with the rotatable end on it, seems to me to be fairly standard. The other one though is a different matter.

I have sent the picture of the more complex one out to a couple of companies and received the reply bellow from Spectrum Hose. I have included my initial email for reference.
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Hi
I and some of my fellow old Audi s8 enthusiast's are trying to find a solution for our power steering pipes that are no longer available from Audi.

The pipes are a little different from the usual in that they have a plastic sleeve inside them. This plastic sleeve has small holes drilled in it along its length.

Is this anything you have seen before and more importantly, is it any thing you could make up?

I am happy to send you the original as a sample if necessary but I would need it back as its the only one I have and they are difficult to get hold of.

Am happy to pay postage in both directions if you want to take a look.

Corrosion of the long metal pipe end is also very common on this car and so is probably un-reusable. Can you think of any solution?

Thanks in advance
Frank

The reply

Hi Frank,

I have had a look at the picture you sent of your Power Steering hoses.

I am fairly confident that I will be able to help you.

We usually ask people not to do anything to the hoses but I think I can work with what you have.

We have to reuse the ends, so the top ones look ok (not rusty) The bottom one (shorter) my be a problem, the rusty (left) elbow looks beyond using, we might have a 90° elbow we can use but they are not long like the original so we would have to lengthen the rubber hose to make up the length.

If you want to send them our address is

Spectrum Hose Ltd
Unit 5 Desborough Industrial Park
Desborough Park Road
High Wycombe
Bucks
HP12 3BG.

As an estimate they will be roughly £70.00each plus vat

Carriage £12.50 plus Vat

Usually, 1 working day turn around

Kind Regards

Neil Rutter
Director
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I am thinking of send the hoses off this week but would appreciate any comments incase I am missing something.

One question in my mind is why is that long metal union there in the first place? Would using a smaller elbow and then replacing the extra (now missing) length with rubber pipe cause any other problems?

I am planning to post out on Friday, any comments, opinions before then would be greatfully received.

Cheers Frank

More information I have sent to Neil for clarity.
-----------------

Hi Neil*

Thanks for your reply, it's much appreciated.*

I have sent you a closer picture of the long corroded union as I think this is where we may have problems.*

The internal plastic pipe terminates to this union and I am not clear how we could achieve this to a standard 90deg bend?

The plastic pipe cannot be left out as other owners have tried this and it causes the pump to cavitate.*

Thanks in advance*

Frank*

Neil's reply

We do keep nylon tube which I could fit to be longer when I make the new hose. From the pictures am I right in thinking that the longer hose has the perforations in the inner nylon tube but the shorter rusty end one is not perforated?

The other option could be to make a long elbow fitting but this would be in plain mild steel which you would have to get painted before fitting it to the car. It would be a separate detachable part so you could paint it after we make it. From the photo I am guessing the internal thread is M16 x1.5 or M18 x1.5

I have a crusty set which I'd be happy to send them to try out if they would rather dismantle and investigate for themselves. I kept them for exactly this purpose since they would need to know the angles at which the various unions are attached to the pipe so they could replicate them. If the angles are wrong it'll either be impossible to assemble or the hose will be under strain and will quickly fail so that is important to get right.

I think the union in the wheel arch is there simply as a manufacturing / assembly aid. They could simply join it in the arch rather than fiddling around feeding the thick hose through the chassis leg structure.

I thought the plastic liner actually terminated at that union. I don't recall it being there in the rack end piece on mine, but clearly yours has got it in the second part as well.

I don't see any reason to still have the union in the arch if they can replicate the bend with something else. The hose is too thick to just bend round the corner but a mild steel pipe or union would be fine - it could be painted and then covered in adhesive-lined heatshrink sleeve before fitting. That's what I've done with my stock hose to prevent further deterioration.

By the way, the 'swivel joint' at the cooler end of the return hose isn't supposed to swivel - that's a sign of deterioration and one that does swivel will soon start to leak. Its simply a reducer to allow the hose to attach to the cooler. They would need to retrieve and re-use the reducer with some hose that will be able to make that 85 degree turn in to the cooler.

I'm in for a couple of sets if they can make them +++

MJ :)

Hi MJ

Neil has asked me to give him a ring tomorrow as he feels (quite correctly) that this is easier to talk over rather than email.

I have not worked on the steering system at all yet, I simply picked this up as a, get ready for the inevitable, kind of project. Thus, and I know this is a big ask, is there any chance you could call him? I suspect he may have questions I will be unable to answer. I am not trying to pass this on for someone else to have to sort out but I do recognise the limitations of my experience with this.

I am more than happy to support this financially whilst we find a solution to a problem that will dog us all at some point.