Power steering leak, seems to be high pressure

[Matthew]

I have an 88 VW Cabriolet with basic rack and pinion power steering with a belt driven pump.

The problem I’m having is a leak emanating from the reservoir. It’s pretty major. The trouble is, it seems to be coming out from the pressure relief on the cap and not from any hose connections. What can I do to confirm that this is the situation, and then, what can I do to fix it. What can cause this much back pressure in the system as to push out about a half cup of fluid in 2-3 days?

Granted this is a fairly old car and replacing the rack, pump, and hoses is probably in order anyway. But as always, I can really only afford to replace so much at a time. If it were up to me, I’d just swap it out for the manual rack since it’s a direct bolton with these cars but since my GF drives it, that isn’t an option. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Topic

[college man]

Is the system over filled? If its coming from under the
cap. see if the seal is intact. also check for a cracked cap.

[Matthew]

Cap is solid. As far as a cap seal is concerned, there really isn’t one. On this car there is just a kinda sponge like filter under the pressure relief… hole. That hole is where I believe the fluid is leaving from. In my case that filter is constantly saturated in fluid which is another reason I think it’s a system pressure issue and not really a leak.

Overfilling isn’t an issue in this case either. At least whenever I’ve checked/refilled it. 😉

I’ll see if I can get a picture or two up tomorrow afternoon.

[college man]

Is the filter clogged not letting the fluid return back
to the pump.

[Matthew]

The filter is attached to the underside of the reservoir cap. I suppose to keep anything from entering the pressure relief from the outside? :huh: So that being clogged wouldn’t be an issue as far as I can tell. Unless maybe it’s not allowing pressure to escape until it gets really high. I can try and clean it up or grab another cap and check that out though.

I’m going to have to get some more research done on how to pressure test this system and see what I come up with.

[JesseTech2000]

How hard is it to steer? Do you still have power assist steering? There is a restriction somewhere, most likely a bad steering gear.

[Matthew]

I was thinking something like that as well, but the power assist doesn’t cut out unless the fluid level is low low low, which has happened twice. Hopefully it hasn’t wrecked the pump yet. As long the proper fluid level is maintained, steering is normal.

[JesseTech2000]

You can add some dye, available at most auto parts stores, and trace the leak with a uv light.

[Matthew]

Ended up finding the leak. Blew my mind where it was. The back of the reservoir has a square plastic block that slides into the mounting bracket. The top of that block sits right under the reservoir lid (not the cap but a big screw on lid) and the crack was right across the top of that block, under the lid. Ended up checking some salvage yards for a new reservoir, but ended up ordering the whole assembly from the dealer for $120. I cleaned and checked that damn reservoir four times before I found that crack. It must have only been opening up when pressure built up because I only saw it by chance after a long drive when I popped the hood to add washer fluid.

Anyway, problem solved!

[Author]

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