I just picked up a loaded 2007 Ram 1500 4x4 Laramie at a REALLY great price and only 51,00km's on it(appox. 31,500miles).

I got a great price because of a few issue's it had that I knew I could fix but the previous owner had no clue how to go about it other than going to the dealer.$$$$

One issue was a power steering leak.
I've since become aware from cruising this site that it seems to be a common problem with various fix's.

After cleaning all the oil off of everything I narrowed it down to the power steering cooler.

Here's how I fixed it.


$74.00 off E-Bay









Whoa...made in USA






New cooler on top, old one below. The old cooler sprung a leak right where the tube's and mounting bracket meet.






Before you start to remove the cooler, make it easier by removing the plastic panel that mounts under the rad. You can easily just pull on the plastic rivets to remove them.








There are two 10mm nuts and bolts to remove 1st. The old cooler will be removed from under the truck. You can see at the bottom of the rad the stains from the Power Steering fluid leak. The fluid was getting sucked into the rad. by the fan and then the fan flung it all over the front undercarriage.






Of course you will drain the power steering fluid before removing the cooler. Remove the dipstick/cap so fluid will flow easier.







Slide the factory clamps down the tubing and work the rubber lines off the cooler. Have something to catch the fluid with but be prepared to make a mess. I had the wife start the truck for a few seconds to purge as much of the old fluid out as possible.








The new cooler even comes with new mounting hardware. Two 10mm nut's and bolts.






Slide the new cooler up into place from under the truck. slide the bolts in from the front of the truck.







All mounted up. Just need to get the nut's on and tighten them down.







Then get rid of the factory pinch clamps...






and slide on some worm clamps.







Reconnect the rubber lines and tighten the worm claps. I connected the "feed" line to the bottom tube of the cooler and the "return" line to the top tube of the cooler.







Here she is all installed.






Then I refilled the system with 1.5L (1.5qt's) of ATF+4 fluid. As per the owner's manual recommendations.








Start the truck and get the air out of the rack+pinion by working the steering back and forth.

The fluid ended up aerating pretty bad (got frothy) after refilling the reservoir.
I shut down the truck and went and had a couple beers.
Came back out and restarted the truck. Worked the wheel back and forth a few more times and I was good to go.




Hope this helps anyone who may need to do this repair.






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Good job, and great write-up!

 

Sounds just like what mine is doing I changed the lines but it is still leaking and getting worse. I haven;t been back under to see if it is the cooler but sure sounds like my problem. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction and my driveway will thank you too,

 

This is great! Thanks!

 

Good pics. Being you are so far north, be sure to clean the under side of the truck regularly to help prevent corrosion too

 

He might not even have the truck still. He posted this 2yrs ago..lol
He does, just bustin your ***** is all


One thing I did read.. "Whoaa...made in USA"

uhh, the sticker says 'Assembled'. I'm sure the parts were purchased over seas

 

Greetings from a frosty Ukraine! Just noticed a wet spot forming on the pavement under the engine of my '03 1500 4X4, right beneath the axel on the driver's side. Thought it might be from the transfer case, but snooping around with the flashlight (it was nighttime...) makes me think that it's probably power steering fluid. Not sure if it's from the cooler or not; seems to be a lot of fluid on the boot near the oil filter but it's definitely not oil. And the power steering fluid is low. Your pics give me some ideas and other things to check. Thanks for the help!