Hi all,
I noticed a couple of small puddles on the road where I park the car this morning after I pulled away. Stopped to have a look under the bonnet and straight away spotted a leak. Not very mechanically minded so please bear with me - this leak is coming from the rubber boot where the steering column comes down from the bulkhead; on the lower side of the rubber boot, a number of the PAS pipes go off on their various ways. These pipes now have fluid on them, and it’s spread around the floor pan (?) as well. I drove to work anyway! When parking at work this morning, steering just started making a bit of a noise when on full lock but that goes away quickly when not turning tightly.
I checked the resevoir and it looks to be at the right level, but having said that there looks to be a fair amount of leakage?
Can anyone tell me:
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What the leaking bit is called? Is it the Universal joint maybe?
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Is that PAS fluid coming out? Will this Stop Leak stuff I’ve seen be any use?
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Is it likely to be expensive to fix?
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Can I safely drive the car in the meantime?
Cheers for any advice!
F
More likely to be a rusted power steering fluid pipe that’s leaking. There is no fluid in a universal joint to leak out. You really need to get it clean up to see where the leak is coming from. If it is a PAS pipe that’s rusted it’ll be PAS fluid coming out. I’d replace the pipe rather than put stop leak in it. You could get a used one if new is too expensive, I’d expect to pay about an hours labour. A PAS fluid leak is an MOT fail so you’ll have to make your own mind up about driving it.
There is no power steering pipes around the steering shaft area but there are two at the bottom of steering shaft where it joins the rack itself.Must be rotten/burst pipes if its that side because pump ,resovoir etc is all on passengers side of engine near exhaust area towards the front as its driven by fan belt etc.If its leaking then its loosing oil and that is why is making noise on turning. Top up fluid before it gets too low but pipes will need to be replaced if it is that. Worst scenario you can still drive the car but steering will be very heavy on turning but ok going straight.
Righto - I’ll have to take it to the local garage and get them to ID the busted pipe before looking for a replacement. It’ll have to be a used one.
Could do without this - road tax is due at the end of the month!!
Anyone want to buy a 2002 Phoenix with a PS leak and less than a month’s tax left on it?! PM me! ![Tongue Out]( "Tongue Out")
Fraser
a brand new pipe from Mazda dealer will be between £55-80 dependent on which pipe and which dealer, replacement is pretty straightforward but you will need to remove the undertray and of course it will need re-filling with automatic transmission/pas fluid.
I had this problem with my MK1 from when I first bought it 2 years ago. It was just a small weep which I eventually narrowed down to coming from just below the universal joint at the bottom of the column where the shaft disappears into the rack. There is a rubber disk/ cover type thing over where it goes in. It was leaking from the oil seal. It wasn’t using much oil and I decided try some of the stoop leak stuff so I just kept topping it up with that. The stop leak is supposed to swell the seals and stop the leak.
It was reported as an advisory on the first MOT and then at last year’s MOT I was told I would need to sort it before the next one so I bought a second hand rack for £35 and fitted it myself. It took me about 2 hours but if you was to get it done at a garage they would probably do it in about an hour.
Definitly not something to scrap the car for.
we have perfect used racks if you do decide to replace it.PM sent
Thanks for the help and advice everyone. Had a friend of a friend come over to look at it today and that’s not the only problem - front arches on the inside have rusted through, exhaust back box is nearly gone, and a number of other issues which I wasn’t aware of… Found a seller for it who’s going to take it as a restoration job. I can’t afford to fix all that!
So will be on the lookout for my next mx5 soon!
Happy motoring