Power steering leak – Rack or hose ?

[Jack Patteeuw]

A friend has a 2006 Mercury Mountaineer (a.k.a. Ford Explorer) AWD. It obviously has a power steering fluid leak (wet underneath, reservoir needs to be topped off every month or 2 or 3). 2 places have told him he needs a rack after little more than a casual inspection. From underneath you can only see that it is wet. From the top side, you can’t see much of anything.

How do you know definitively if it is the rack or the high pressure hose ?

Topic

[Bill]

You would need to remove at least one of the bellows at the end of the rack where the inner tierod goes in to be 100% sure.

[college man]

+++1 on the above. Clean the affected areas with brake clean.
Then a visual inspection.

[Jack Patteeuw]

[quote=”college man” post=63557]+++1 on the above. Clean the affected areas with brake clean.
Then a visual inspection.[/quote]
No visual access to where the hoses connect.

[Jack Patteeuw]

[quote=”wysetech” post=63552]You would need to remove at least one of the bellows at the end of the rack where the inner tierod goes in to be 100% sure.[/quote]
This implies that most leaks occur at the seals at each end of the rack.

It is only wet at the drivers side of the rack.

[Bill]

This implies that if the rack is leaking it will be wet inside the bellows.

[Author]

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