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Leaking Steering Rack/pinion


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Anyone know why there is two holes on the inner tie rod?

 

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My car is leaking steering fluid and it seem to come out of this hole...?

I plugged the holes on one side of the car and it's leaking to the other side now. Does this mean the rack is cracked?

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No BHR, Montreal has alot of strip clubs and pot holes...

 

 

but yeah its weird.. the holes seem to pass through from the rack.

see here

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This is the end that thread into the rack. These holes are connected.

It seems to be leaking from here to the small weep hole.. (no leaking from the rack seals.)

 

At first I noticed this on the passenger side of the car, so I plug the holes as a temporary fix.

So now it's leaking from the driver side... same place.

I know for sure it's leaking from here because while blocking it with my finger and turning the wheels I can feel air weeping through that hole.

 

Does it mean my rack is cracked internally?

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When you turn the wheel one bellow contracts and the other expands. They have to breath or exchange air. Since breathing from outside required filtration and stuff, manufacturers connect a hose in between to exchange air. In milly there is no such hose and I believe air is exchanged thru those holes. But I dont remember seeing a hole thru the rack but i didnt look carefully. There was no steering fluid around that area either. Just some grease. The rack is very sturdy and I can imagine how come one can crack it..

 

 

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No accidents...

 

Grease points... That's what I thought too... but grease point usually have greasing nipples.

The holes passes through the inner tie rod for sure. I passed and metal wire through to clean it and have a look. I shined some light through and all three holes seem connected and nothing links to the ball joint (for greasing purposes).

 

 

Thanks for the picture Saint! Mine was all dirty and I couldn't see a thing.

I'll definately have to take it apart again to have a look...

 

 

It still puzzles me that when I plugged one side of the rack, it started leaking into the boot on the other side.

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If you needs a vent area like saint suggested plugging it trapped air, as it heated up it might have forced grease/fluid out somewhere else.

 

Like saint said no fluid in that area and no reason for it to be. Only the lines and pumps should have fluid not the actual moving parts. BUT almost all north american millenia's have a looped line going to the rear for the 4WS. It's possible that could be leaking and since its not connected to anything its dripping somewhere you wouldn't expect.

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I have more pictures if you need. Are you loosing ps fluid? How big is a leak is it?

 

Yeah post some more pics!...

 

Yes, I'm loosing alot of PS fluid... so much that I can't even run with fluid or I'd be stopping every other corner to fill up and pissing everywhere.

From full it's take about 2-3 minutes and the pump start screaming. Half an hour later, the pump stops screaming, that's when the system is dried out.

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I have more pictures if you need. Are you loosing ps fluid? How big is a leak is it?

 

Yeah post some more pics!...

 

Yes, I'm loosing alot of PS fluid... so much that I can't even run with fluid or I'd be stopping every other corner to fill up and pissing everywhere.

From full it's take about 2-3 minutes and the pump start screaming. Half an hour later, the pump stops screaming, that's when the system is dried out.

 

You should find the leak. FSM shows all spots that can leak. Should be one of them...

 

Click the first one:

 

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&saf...mp;aql=&oq=

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wither way he looks at it he is going to have to order a new rack. Can't patch the steering rack. Learned the hard way.

 

What happened to you?

 

I'm afraid that's what I'll have to do in the end... but for now I just wanted to patch it so I can pass the week with power steering at least lol

 

 

Saint: yeah I checked the FSM, seem my leak is starting from the inner tie rod.

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it was cracked from the inside.. mine was a slow leak though .. coming from Fl to Va and ran into having no steering fluid. After getting to my grandmothers place I looked at it and couldn't fix it lol ... took the whole day to uninstall and reinstall the new one. Then had to go get it aligned - YES you have to align it after its install anyone say other - good luck to you lol.

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hmmm, makes me wonder... mine just started out of nowhere being a huge leak.

 

Although there was two instance prior to it... while I was parking in parallel, the pwr steering pump screamed a bit. Just enough to say that it was making noise, but that was like a month before any leak would appear.

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does it happen all the time? If its working but making noises first thing to check is fluid level and condition. I had mine power flushed around 30k but most people never even touch it. I admit in the Jeep I didn't change it until around 100k

 

At how many miles/kilometer is it recommended to flush/change?

Is it even recommended as a standard maintenance schedule?

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does it happen all the time? If its working but making noises first thing to check is fluid level and condition. I had mine power flushed around 30k but most people never even touch it. I admit in the Jeep I didn't change it until around 100k

 

At how many miles/kilometer is it recommended to flush/change?

Is it even recommended as a standard maintenance schedule?

 

When I changed at 100k miles, there was a noticeable difference. I would say change every 50k miles if using synthetic (OEM is not synthetic). Use dexron 6.

 

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