I don't believe it!!

[gninnam]

Originally Posted by briang9

sorry to hear Ron, and hope its an easy repair... on a slightly lighter note, you and Andy need to do a bit more due diligence on the seller next time you buy a car

On the V8, the reservoir is on the nearside, but mine appears to be leaking from the offside so yours (hopefully) is a pipe coming loose.
Greenflag topped mine up and within 750 yards, the steering had become very heavy and the fluid had gone so I don't think mine is a pipe but you never know.....

Hoping both of our problems are easy to fix

[sarg]

Originally Posted by gninnam

On the V8, the reservoir is on the nearside, but mine appears to be leaking from the offside so yours (hopefully) is a pipe coming loose.
Greenflag topped mine up and within 750 yards, the steering had become very heavy and the fluid had gone so I don't think mine is a pipe but you never know.....

Hoping both of our problems are easy to fix

On the D2 (I wouldn't think the D3 is massively different), if the rack seals have gone, it'll come out from both sides, depending on which way you're applying steering lock, you'll see it gushing out the rubber sleeve thingies.

If a pipe has come loose, filling it up with fluid won't reattach the pipe!

[kele]

I had the power steering pump changed on mine this time last year. Luckily it was just inside the audi warrantee. It didn't spectacularly fail as such but I was getting a light vibration through the steering wheel and some noise which was more noticeable at slower speeds. Hopefully yours is an easier / cheaper fix...

[IT]

[Norretal]

Originally Posted by briang9

sorry to hear Ron, and hope its an easy repair... on a slightly lighter note, you and Andy need to do a bit more due diligence on the seller next time you buy a car

You're right there Brian, he deserves surveillance does "Not So Slim Shady" though he's probably just Slim Shady now due to his man-flu episode

[Dezzy]

Originally Posted by briang9

sorry to hear Ron, and hope its an easy repair... on a slightly lighter note, you and Andy need to do a bit more due diligence on the seller next time you buy a car

Ha ha ha

[Norretal]

Well I had the car collected from the drive on Saturday lunchtime and had it taken to the guy that repaired my inlet manifold for me. I'd made several phone calls during the course of the morning mind, I didn't just turn up unannounced

He started having a look at it immediately so I hung around for a couple of hours to see what he discovered. The loss of power steering fluid was due to a split hose on the return to the cooler. If you look in through the near side fog light grille on the left side you can see two hoses, it's the smaller diameter of the two. The hose was in poor condition for about the first foot of its length, which also has two 90 degree bends in it due to its route back towards the steering rack. He suggested the poor condition could be due to the exposure to weather and cycles of temperature because further back into the engine bay the rubber was fine, still soft and flexible with no cracks when flexed. The hose disappears behind the manifold heat shield and he suggested he splice in a new section, which I agreed to before I left.

When we were under the car removing the under tray we noticed the sump gasket was leaking slightly so I agreed that it'd be wise to drop the oil and renew the gasket while he had the car, it's done 4,000 miles in the year (almost) I've had it so I'd have been changing it soon anyway.

So, collected the car after work, all sorted, battery coded to the car (I fitted a new one a couple of weeks ago) and a bill for £240 (£100 for parts) so I'm somewhat relieved as I feared something more significant on Friday night.

She's back on the drive, washed and dried, and all is well again in my world

I hope yours is as easy a fix as mine Andy, fingers crossed for you mate

[gninnam]

Great result
Glad it was an easy fix.
Not heard from my garage yet

[IT]

Good result.

This local garage of yours sounds like a well worth contact to have

[Norretal]

Originally Posted by IT

Good result.

This local garage of yours sounds like a well worth contact to have

Cheers Ian, he's an interesting guy to say the least. He's sorted another couple of S8 manifolds since mine as the garage I had mine in at to get fixed got a couple more with flap failures in in quick succession. He's got a small unit in a tucked away spot but seems very busy. A guy I've known for years who sells some high end second hand cars uses him for all of his servicing and repair work, which is good enough for me. He enlightened me on the perils of TDi swirl flap failures so I'm going to get the A4 looked at soon as it's at 55k miles now. I intend to let him do all of my servicing from now on, he's sorted my repairs the two times I've asked him, he's got the up to date diagnostic kit and his labour rates are reasonable, so it's a no brainer really.

On another note, I'm going to stop having the car detailed, the two times I've had it done it's "broke" within weeks, it's obviously not good for it