Peter Thompson

Hi Folks,

My wife noticed a puff of smoke coming out from under the hood when I was pulling into a parking spot last night. (Ever the eagle eye is she, bless her heart). I took a look in the engine bay, and noticed some red fluid. This morning, after searching the archives, when and did a bit more looking in the engine bay. Definitely red fluid, with a similar consistency of brake fluid (boy do I know THAT fluid too well). Following a suggestion from the archives, I put some cardboard next to the engine and play about with the car. This involved turning the steering wheel several times. After turning the engine off, I checked the cardboard and found that there is a hose with a leak right next to the engine.

My questions (finally!!!) is since this appears to be a power steering hose, what sort of options are available to me?

Just for grins, I took a picture of the hose in case I got the diagnosis wrong. The red arrows point to the hose that appears to be leaking.

I await your Rennlist Wisdom!!!

Cheers,
Peter Thompson

John Speake

Be careful Peter, that stuff is highly flammable ! Not good agianst a hot exhaust.

Some people have managed to splice new hose into the sound parts of the old.

Garth S

Yes, The P/S hose it is: you will have to clean it up to pinpoint the leak. It may be as simple as a loose 'banjo' bolt to the steering rack ( a hollow bolt through the 'eye' on the hose end with 2 copper crush washer seals). If the hose is gone, that ,IIRC, is the pressure hose vs retutn hose, and is ~$250 OEM: Any good hydraulic shop can rebuild that hose as John advises. Thirdly, Art20c kindly posted (do an author search) that NAPA p/n 7-2565 is a bolt on replacement for ~$50 [ apparently p/n 7-2564 works for pre-S4 cars].

Tony

Dont drive it, whatever you do. The one time you do you might just get the right air/fluid mixture on thatt hot header and it WILL go POOOOF!

1) buy a new hose
2) take the hose to a good hose shop and have it replace keepign the same fittings.

jpitman2

If the NAPA numbers dont do it for you, get it rebuilt using your ends. My rebuilder welded screw fittings on the ends of the original steel tubing and made the rubber parts with fittings to match. This makes it a bit easier to fit in place, as it comes in 3 or 4 pieces, and if the hose fails again, you can just unscrew the failed part, leaving the rigid steel pipes in place. On mine the !@#$%^&* pipe fitting into the pump was jammed , so I had to drop the alternator and the pump (and of course the reservoir) and remove the whole thing including pipe in one piece so I could separate the pipe from the pump. Damn that was a PITA! Mine was just weeping at the high joint on the inner guard, and dripping.
jp 83 Euro S AT 48k