Quadcammer

So as the weather has turned colder, and the car has been sitting during the week, its begun to leave a sizeable oil spot.

Looks like its leaking onto the passenger side engine tin and then dripping down the lower valve cover onto the heat exchanger and subsequently onto the floor.

Its not a trivial leak, so it must be rectified sooner rather than later.

Its possible that it may be a leak from the power steering pump, but its not clear.

It looks like a line might be leaking.

Any ideas or common leak spots here?

thanks everyone.

911/Q45

I'm painfully familiar with this. My first leak was early, they used aluminum washers on the banjo fittings between the pump and the pressure lines, replaced with copper and fixed. Recently the pressure line from the pump to the clutch slave started leaking where the end away from the pump meets the other lines at a metal block above the fluid reservoir. The leak was where the line is swedged into the end fitting. Replaced the line and good to go. Now I've got a similar leak in the line for the power steering that runs from the pump to that block. This one had to come from Germany on a slow boat and cost over $300. I hope you get away with the washers, but suspect your 15 year old lines are the problem.

Quadcammer

thanks for the info. From a quick poke around, it does actually look like that banjo fitting is where the leak is coming from. The lines by the reservoir look ok.

Did you just replace the 900123xxxxx washers with new ones from porsche or did you source copper washers elsewhere?

Thanks!

911/Q45

I got them from Porsche. If your's are copper maybe the banjo bolts just need tightening.

Quadcammer

nah, still the aluminum ones.

You know the torque spec for that bolt by any chance?

thanks man.

911/Q45

22 ftlbs. Couple bucks worth of copper washers and you should be good to go!

Quadcammer

thanks again.

appreciate it.

Quadcammer

ok, i finally got around to looking at this.

ordered the above part numbers from porsche, and got more aluminum washers for some reason. Unless copper is now silver, I got aluminum. Well, decided to slap them in there...and its still leaking.

I haven't had time to investigate further, but I'm a bit lost here.

I've gone over the lines at least 3 times and can't find any leaks there. I simply can't find this leak for the life of me.

I'll have more time to look at it tonight, but does anybody have any ideas aside from the lines or the banjo bolts? could it be an internal PS seal?

Quadcammer

ok, so further investigation revealed that the leak is coming from the clutch "intake pipe" hose that goes from the bottom of the reservoir to the top of the pump.

I've torqued the banjo bolt to 22ft lbs using new crush washers...still dripping.

I can't understand why this would still leak.

I can certainly order a new hose, banjo bolt and crush washers, but considering I can't seem to find anything wrong with the old ones, I'm at a loss.

Any input here would be useful.

thanks.

TT Surgeon

Can you put up a pic?

No HTwo O

Hey Oliver how's the new condo and crown moldings? This is a total stretch, but look into Kevin's recommendations for his oil check valve lines. He very specifically recommends a high tech/high heat resistant sealer that you have to prep the threads with prior to installation. Possibly this "thread sealer" could help your issue. Sorry I can't be any more helpful.

Quadcammer

The condo is great, thanks for asking. I have more projects with it than I do with the car...I could write a book about all the things that don't make sense lol.

Anyway, I will look into that thread, although I'm not sure how well the sealer would work on a banjo fitting.

Thats for the suggestion, and I'll have pics up in a bit.

Quadcammer

Ok, so here is the suspected culprit:



The fluid runs down this stanchion, down the pump, onto the engine tin, past the grommet for the turbo oil and wastegate vac line, and down those lines to the ground.




The trouble is i'm also seeing fluid running down the valve cover...this may be because of the angle of the car.

I can't find anything wrong with the hose or the banjo fitting,b ut I'm about to pull it all apart again to look.

No HTwo O

I know what a banjo is, and have seen 'em & heard 'em before. But, I've never seen a "banjo fitting". My above suggestion is probably worthless. Like 99% of my Rennlist posts.

Quadcammer

well I'm declaring victory. I took the feed line off, took the line and the banjo fitting apart, put new hose clamps on, new crush washers, and tightened them all good. Seems the leak is fixed.

No water, the banjo fitting is basically a loop through which a bolt goes. The loop contains the fluid and the bolt has holes in it to allow fluid down into the pump. So the fluid comes from the rubber hose into the loop, down through the bolt and into the pump. The top and bottom of the loop are sealed by the crush washers.