Rob Edwards

Since I bought my car in May, it's had a leak from under the reservoir, and from the junction of the rack return hose and the cooling loop line. I had cut a half inch off the hose from the cooling line where it attaches to the reservoir, but it still leaks about an ounce per week- enough to keep the driver's side of the engine (and the garage floor) greasy. Both these lines are part rubber and part metal, and I can't imagine how one could replace the rubber parts in situ, so I decided to bite the bullet and replace both lines.

There are two hassles in this job.

1. A look at the cooling loop clearly shows that the A/C condenser needs to be moved up far enough to slide the metal cooling loop out. And the lower two bolts that hold the condenser are hidden within the front frame crossmember, above a complex metal ductwork that feeds air to the oil cooler. And to remove the ductwork, you have to remove the front spoiler, which means the anterior half of the wheelwell liners and the forward wheelwell panels need to come out. Here's a view of front of the ductwork:



2. On the driver's side of the engine compartment, there is a small panel that covers the PS cooling line just behind where it bends down towards the condenser. It's held in by two sheet metal screws, the upper screw of which is utterly hidden below and medial to the driver's headlight. Again, having the wheelwell liners out makes it possible to get to this upper screw:



Here's the screw from up top:



Replacing the return line from the PS rack has been nicely described by Tony before (Here's the link to that, I hope this is ok, Tony!). Just like Tony's, the rubber part of my return hose was so rotten I tore it off trying to get it off the metal nipple of the cooling line.

SO: To R&R the cooling line:

-Car up on stands, disconnect battery
-Drain and remove radiator and cooling fans
Drop front swaybar mounts and swing bar down to gain access to PS rack fittings
-Drain PS fluid from reservoir and loosen return line at rack.
-Remove both front wheelwell liners and foreward wheelwell panels

-Replace return line as described by Tony

-Remove metal panel at driver's side behind which the cooling line runs (as shown above) - To get to the upper machine screw, manually raise the headlights half way, this will give you a shot at the 8mm bolt head from the wheelwell:

Here's the manual headlight ****:




And the PITA screw, looking from the wheelwell:



To drop the front spoiler, there are 8 recessed philips head screws and two 10mm bolts that attach to the front frame rails. Once these are out, the whole spoiler just slides horizontally, forwards- there are a bunch of large tabs (red arrows) that slide into brackets on the bumper cover:



Then the oil cooler ducting piece (shown above) can be removed, it's held to the underside of the front frame crosspiece by 4 10mm nuts.

Once this is off, the bare frame crosspiece is visible- remove the two grommets to get at the two 10 mm bolts holding the condensor, shown below:



Once the lower condenser bolts are out, the upper bolts holding the condenser can be moved. Despite its being attached to the hard lines from the A/C compressor, the condenser and the receiver/drier can be raised 1-2 inches, enough to get the old cooling loop out and slide the new one in. Transfer the rubber vibration mounts to the new loop before snaking it into place, it'll make your life easier.

Once the cooling line is in place, it connects to the return line and the underside of the reservoir:



Reassembly is the reverse of disassembly.

I should note that the return line that I bought was not bent exactly to the same shape as the original, and as such I couldn't get it back into the retaining clamp on the fender under the master cylinder. It also rubs against the metal supply line just below the level of the valve cover, so I need to find some rubber sheet to stick between them so they don't dig into one another.

In the last 20K miles, the steering rack and all four lines/hoses have now been replaced, and I re-sealed the PS pump. There'd better be no leaks!!!!!!!

Phew-Now you can tell me that there's a mobile hydraulic hose re-swaging service serving Orange county that would have repaired the hoses in situ for $50.......

CJs 928

Rod Edwards, Any chance you would be willing to revive this thread. It looks to be awesome, but all of the pictures are gone now.

Thank you!