Power steering reservoir leak

[pierremcalpine]

Hi,
Popped the hood open this evening to admire my well tuned beast and noticed a ton of power steering fluid goop all over the reservoir and ends of the two connecting hoses. There was so much of it that it was impossible to immediately tell where it was coming from. My first impression was that it was either coming right from the underside of the cap or from a crack in the reservoir itself. Anything in particular I should be looking out for?

I've cleaned the mess up and will grab some power steering fluid tomorrow to see if I can spot source of leak.

Anyone have a similar issue with their T4 v40?

[pierremcalpine]

Update - I took the reservoir off and cleaned it up as best I could (including the mesh filter inside) with paint thinner and the throttle body cleaner. I then put about a 1/2L of new ATF fluid back in (that's what the owner's manual said to use) but the darned thing bubbled over again when I started the car up.

So, I removed the cap and replaced it with a cap with a hole in the middle into which i put a 3/8 hose. I put the other end of the hose in a container 1/2 full of new AWF and attempted to bleed the system with my assistant turning the wheel repeatedly one way and then the other until it sounded almost perfect (about 15min).

No dice, the first turn of the wheel upon leaving the driveway sounded bad - the power steering pump groaned...then and each turn afterwards. I checked the p/s fluid level 10min later...all gone with tons of red foam coming out of the cap. F me.

So I'm thinking that I"m probably in for a new pump. Anyone got any good instructions around for this job?

Am I missing something?

[thetomc]

Any update on this? I have the same symptoms with '02 V40 1.9d. power steering has always been a bit whiney and today it finally gave up and threw all its fluid out everywhere. Cheers

[pierremcalpine]

In the end there was no need for me to replace the ps pump. I think it came down to two contributing factors:

1) Make sure you use the right fluid: CHF11 or CHF222
2) Make sure you bleed the system properly when refilling:
jack both front wheels up, fill up to the brim, without turning car on, rotate wheel all the way over to one side then the other several times nice and slow.
Check fluid level, top up, turn on engine, rotate wheel gently from one side to the other holding for 2s at each extreme repeat 5x, turn off engine, check fluid, refill. Wait 5min, repeat twice more.

Something like that anyway. The key is that the ps pump generates a lot of bubbles when the system is not yet totally full. That's why you need to turn wheels with engine off the first time and then progressively fill with liquid with engine on temporarily. You need to let car sit for the bubbles to subside.

In your case, I would still be include to drain best you can and then do a fluid refresh to see if that helps.

[thetomc]

Thanks very much for the detailed response. I'll give that a try over the weekend.

[clarkey1984]

If a pump of any type either gets air in it or is severely worn then it will cause something called cavitation, that's very bad and will cause exactly the symptoms you describe, we have a forklift at work with a dead hydraulic pump and when trying to use the controls you get an eruption of fluid that resembles bubble bath bucketing out of the tank.

[pierremcalpine]

Originally Posted by thetomc

Thanks very much for the detailed response. I'll give that a try over the weekend.

Good luck, keep us posted. Hopefully the pump is not fried.

[thetomc]

Update:

First of all many thanks to pierremcalpine for your advice

I filled the system with CHF11s (£10 for a litre from Halfords) and spent a while carefully bleeding the system on the driveway with the front wheels jacked off the ground and the engine off.

Then i started the car for a moment or two to spin the pump over before switching it off and continuing to cycle the rack. I did this a couple of times.
Then I stared the car and continued to cycle the rack with the engine running.
Then I bit the bullet and took it for a test drive around the block.

Success! Have done about 50 miles in the car now. Whining noise has stopped and no fluid has been rejected from the reservoir.