John Welch.

I had a slow power steering fluid leak that has suddenly taken a turn for the worse. I thought it might be the lines from the reservoirs (PDCC), but I couldn't see anything obvious. I then noticed fluid dripping from the passenger side tie rod and it looks like the boot on the rack has a bunch of fluid in it.

Is there anywhere else the fluid could be coming from besides the rack?
Is the rack that hard to replace? It looks like it might only be a few hours of labor that I can do in the driveway?

oldskewel

I have no experience with the PS on the Cayenne, but from other cars ...

The fluid is likely to be PS fluid, slowly leaking past the seal where the shaft moves. It might be slow and nothing to worry about. That is, BTW, always my first thought. There are many situations where it is not practical or cost effective to eliminate leaks. This may be one of them.

The fact that the boot has filled with fluid, and is now dripping could just be that it has been slowly leaking past the seal for a very long time, and with the boot now filled with a good amount of fluid, finally a hole or gap opened in the boot to let it out and it seems significant. On my other car where this happened, a tiny hole had worn on the bottom of the boot. My solution there was to clean everything carefully, loosen the clamps, drain the already leaked PS fluid out, then rotate the boot 180 degrees (still on the shaft), so the hole was on the top, then reinstalled the clamps. So if PS fluid is leaking slowly, it can collect inside the boot for a while before any leaks hit the ground. And if the PS is leaking quickly, I'll find that out. My "repair" is still holding 30k+ miles later.

John Welch.

Yeah, I was working on the slow leak theory, but yesterday, I topped of the fluid, drove 7 miles to the store and back, and the reservoirs were nearly empty. This morning, while diagnosing the leak, the reservoirs emptied again, so, we're past the slow leak/refill option. ;-(

oldskewel

Yes, slow leak theory does not seem to apply here. Good luck.

Dan87951

Is this helpful?

https://www.renntech.org/forums/topi...k-fixed-for-2/

John Welch.

Upon further review, its the rack. I removed the small heat shield from the rack and there is no fluid from anywhere else, just inside the boot, and there's a lot of it.

So, I'm now trying to find a tool to separate the tie rod joints. The manual mentions VW tool T10187, but its pretty hard to find. Is there a more generic tool I can use?

Dan87951

Sounds like the seals on the end of the rack are bad. Check out that link I posted. The fella from the link was able to fix his for a few bucks with new O-rings.

You can separate the tie rod with a pickle fork or with any of the fancy tie rod removal tools (google search). Keep in mind if you use a pickle fork more than likely you will destroy the boot. May now is a good time to replace the tie rod end too? Good luck!

John Welch.

So I pulled the boot, it was full of ugly brown fluid. I don't see a clip or anything holding in the part with the O-rings. I think a new rack is in order.

deilenberger

I would have to agree with you. The brown is oil/rust/water. There was a hole somewhere that let water into the boot and probably started rusting the rack itself (the center part) which then caused the seals to go bad. A rebuilt would seem the way to go. I believe it can be removed out of the drivers side wheel well.. but AlldataDIY would tell you exactly how to do it probably.

John Welch.

I'm using AllDataDIY, but I find the site has more than a few "gaps". It is definitely not the factory manual.

That said, I'm using AllDataDIY and have a question

Step 4 Release rear mount of front-axle drive (right-hand side of vehicle). Lift front axle drive with a suitable jack -see figure- (use wooden block or rubber base to prevent slipping. Remove fastening screw and lift front-axle final drive just enough to access the bearing eye above the bolting point of the front axle carrier (do not press the cardan shaft into the stop).

What exactly am I supposed to release? I hope it will be more obvious when I get under the car, because I am horrible at looking at these diagrams. Its not the cardan shaft, I need to disconnect is it?

deilenberger

I believe it's telling you to disconnect the mounting for the front differential, then lift the differential using a jack to give clearance to slide the steering rack out. At least that's what it looks like to me.

mtnrat

I just had my rack replaced on my 06 CTTS. I think deilenberger is right. My indy said it took some clever maneuvering to get it out. It was his first one and took him 4 hours. He said the book says 3 which he said if he does another that it would be no problem.

John Welch.

After searching the manual, I found a picture of the front-axle drive by itself, circled is the rear mount, so that's figured out, but now...



... I am stuck trying to disconnect the universal joint from the steering shaft.



The fastening screw is circled in red, and access is blocked by the coolant lines. There is no screw in the black tab (arrow), but I can't seem to get it to release? I guess I could disconnect the line, I have to do my thermostat too, but it doesn't seem like it should be necessary. What is holding these lines in place?

John Welch.

Sorry, that picture is rotated, let's try again. This is looking through the wheel well towards the steering rack. The bolt I need to remove is circled, the black plastic clip seems to be preventing me from moving the coolant lines out of the way.

John Welch.

Alright, I was able to remove the bolt, its an external torx E14. Luckily I had a socket because I'm stuck at home until this is done. I removed one of the coolant lines in the picture above, the one closest to the outside of the car. After that was disconnected, I still didn't have direct access but was able to bend the hose out of the way for an extension and removed the bolt through the wheel well. The manual shows the bolt in a different, much more accessible location.

Anyway, I was also able to remove the rear connector on the front drive axle easy enough, except its a nut and bolt, so it was a bit tricky doing it alone.

I am so slow. ;-)

Next up are the last two nut/bolts holding the rack to the frame, and hopefully, I can get the rack out without too many issues.