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Racer Boy · 02-22-2020, 07:23 PM

Today I drove my '02 base for the first time in probably two months. As I was driving away from my house, the steering pump started to get really noisy, and I noticed that when I turned the wheel, you could hear the rack making a lot of noise as well. It sounded as if the noise was coming from the drivers side.

When I got home, I used my Quick Jack to lift the car (I had driven the car to get it warmed up for it's annual oil change), and noticed a puddle of steering fluid under the driver's side front wheel. Sure enough, there's fluid all over the place. It appears that the fluid is coming from the end of the bellows. The area on top of the rack where the lines connect to the rack are clean and dry. Tomorrow I'll pull the bellows off, but I'm guessing a seal in the rack is leaking badly.

I did a search, and there is little information on the rack itself leaking. Most of the problems seems to be the o-rings where the lines go into the rack itself.

I looked at a few of my regular parts sources (including Pelican), and don't see any seals for the rack, but there are remanufactured racks available. My fear is that I'll have to replace the rack.

Has anyone experienced this? If so, did you have to replace the rack?

02-22-2020, 07:23 PM	#1
Racer Boy Racer Boy Join Date: Sep 2015 Location: Seattle, WA Posts: 946	Leaking Steering Rack Today I drove my '02 base for the first time in probably two months. As I was driving away from my house, the steering pump started to get really noisy, and I noticed that when I turned the wheel, you could hear the rack making a lot of noise as well. It sounded as if the noise was coming from the drivers side. When I got home, I used my Quick Jack to lift the car (I had driven the car to get it warmed up for it's annual oil change), and noticed a puddle of steering fluid under the driver's side front wheel. Sure enough, there's fluid all over the place. It appears that the fluid is coming from the end of the bellows. The area on top of the rack where the lines connect to the rack are clean and dry. Tomorrow I'll pull the bellows off, but I'm guessing a seal in the rack is leaking badly. I did a search, and there is little information on the rack itself leaking. Most of the problems seems to be the o-rings where the lines go into the rack itself. I looked at a few of my regular parts sources (including Pelican), and don't see any seals for the rack, but there are remanufactured racks available. My fear is that I'll have to replace the rack. Has anyone experienced this? If so, did you have to replace the rack? Attached Images Last edited by Racer Boy; 02-23-2020 at 08:18 AM.