Evening all, haven't used my C4S for a while (I know, I know) and with plans to attend a cars and coffee meet tomorrow morning I thought I'd treat it to a proper wash at the in laws 4 miles away (they have the driveway & jetwash I don't). Couple of miles into my journey suddenly a loud whirring noise happens which rises and falls with revs. Within a minute or so I'd worked out that the noise was more prevalent when using the steering, which in turn became very obvious when the power steering stopped working just as I was getting there. I drove the 4 miles back, no noises but no power steering either. Checked level and it's bone dry so that's the smoking gun - although it doesn't answer why the level suddenly dropped.

So my questions are:

Has anyone experienced this before and if so what was the resolution - naturally I'm hoping it's as simple as topping up the levels!
Does the fact there is no noise now indicate that the pump and/or rack is damaged having run without fluid?
If not the latter then I'm hoping I can drive straight to a garage in the morning, refill and carry on to the meetup.... which I realize is optimistic...

 

Refill and drive it. Park in the same spot, then check for leaks front/rear. Power steering pump is pretty robust. Question - when was the last time you checked the fluid level? Often goes unchecked/unnoticed for a long time.

 

Yep, very common. Just be careful when you fill it up. It doesn't take much. Plus its very thin so it runs fast. A skinny turkey baster or cooking syringe with a plastic tube on the end works well when removing extra fluid.

Here is the fluid. You can get it on amazon or at your local dealer. Never checked at the local auto store.

 

Thanks guys, will take note when filling. Been a while since I checked personally but it was serviced in January so I'd expect them to have picked up if it was low.... But it was just an oil service and checkover so maybe it was missed. Do I need particular fluid? I think Halfords or a large garage is about all I'm going to find tomorrow...

 

If it ends up that you have a leak, it could be a number of things so there is no need to jump to conclusions. Check out this thread for some info.

https://rennlist.com/forums/996-foru...uid-leaks.html

 

Probably popped a seal at the rack

 

Napa caries the Porsche Steering blood, both versions..

 

Morning folks. Did the club meet this morning, car fine, steering heavy I did pick up some of this on the way back, it's same spec as the branded stuff recommended above, but presumably it'll work just fine as it says for vehicles where CHF 11S is recommended. Given it'll likely leak out as I suspect a blown seal, probably ok....right? Any thoughts appreciated.

https://www.halfords.com/motoring/en...MTE4MS4wLjAuMA..

 

Could be a blown seal. Also, the connector/o-ring into the back of the PS reservoir can leak. Took me forever to find the leak as the fluid will pool on top of the engine before it fills the voids enough to drip down.

 

Yup. I mean, I could be lucky and it's just low and a top up sorts it.... but that seems unlikely. I'll have a good look over it in the next few days and if I can identify a leak, there seems little point in topping it up.

Any thoughts on the Halfords fluid?

 

Just total anecdotal experience, but every time I've tried equivalent brands of hydro fluid when the original stock was Pentosin have not ended well for me.
Power steering, atf always got seal leaks, I finally just started sticking with it.

Bad as owning a bike with Magura hydraulics, use other brands and feel the fail.. LOL

 

Out of curiosity what happens if using non Pentosin?

As a layman, it seems to me that the same grade should work fine and it's branded as 'for vehicles with CHF11S'..... Mainly asking as I want to try filling/topping up with the Halfords fluid. If it's just a top up then it'll be mostly OEM fluid, if it's leaking then it'll help me figure out where from and can be replaced with 'the good stuff' when fixed.

 

don't always trust marketing from companies ..

 

Well, I don't. But 'replaces 'such and such' isn't marketing, it has to be fact or it's lies which is dodgy. Anyway, my question was what happens if I use the Halfords stuff?

 

Don't know how far you are from a dealer , but it's only about £5 more a litre. I get mine from design 911 as I'm just replacing leaking pipes on the rack. Although somewhat delayed as currently in hospital
As for Halfords, no idea. I generally used oem or dealer
Hope that helps