Power steering fluid low. Can't find leak.

Hi,

I was hoping some of you could point me in the right direction as to what to look for regarding a possible power steering leak. I took some pictures of reservoir prior to topping off as well as the hoses near the reservoir. I did not find any residue near the clamps. I followed the hoses all the way down and did not see any residue (no picture of that unfortunately). I just topped off with ATF Dextron III (last picture). I also turned on my car and turned the steering wheel from side to side while I had some cardboard underneath my car. Nothing found on the cardboard. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hoser

 

look on the bottom of your steering rod boots. Also check your rack.

see on mine, how the bottoms are darker? thats where the fluid goes.

 

So are you saying your's had a leak because they were darker on the bottoms.

 

for mine, its a crazy small leak. Like I dont need to add any fluid for several months. Just keep an eye on it every time you change your oil

If yours is faster than that, Id do more tracing. You could also do a leak down test. I do not know the details of that.

 

The missing fluid is most likely in the boots at the end of the rack. Squeeze them by hand and see if any comes out. Been there too...

 

Gonna do that later today. Thanks for the tips. What did you end up replacing?

 

Yeah, gonna check it daily. I was worried I would forget exactly where I topped off the reservoir, that's why I have the last pic for reference.

 

I think daily is excessive if you arent seeing anything on cardboard. But its up to you!

 

I've had the rack replaced in my truck twice because I was losing fluid. Both times there were no drips anywhere, and it slowly got worse and worse. I don't remember exactly how often I was adding fluid, but it was a few weeks to a month between top offs. The first replacement rack lasted less than 6 months.

 

My power steering has been leaking extremely slowly for a long time, at least two years. Usually the only way I could tell is by looking at the rubber boot on the rack, where I see the oil as in the picture above. Once or twice, when working the truck through some mud or snow, I cranked the steering over to the stops quite a bit, and probably held it there unnecessarily. On those occasions I lost a lot of fluid.

All to say, you might be fine so long as you don't over work your steering pump and you are okay with a bit of fluid on the outside of your steering rack.

 

Idk how many miles is on that fluid but it wouldn't be a bad idea to change it out. It looks kinda dirty. Changing that kinda stuff out is cheap insurance imho

 

Yeah, it looks like I will make the change once I figure out where the leak is coming from. I am the original owner and my trucks currently at 73K miles. I was planning on 100K change. I guess I felt changing it too frequently or early can sometimes do more harm than good.

 

I'm borderline OCD. Once I figure out the leak, I will want to fix it.