Hi, my name is Ren. I'm a Staff Sergeant in the US Army, and I am trying to help a friend who's a Ram owner but it's not too experienced with the internet. I'm an active member in a bunch of Subaru Forums so I volunteered to try to help him by asking for help at a Dodge forum. This seems to be the biggest, so here it goes:

My buddy, who's in the Army too, has a 1997 Dodge Ram 1500 with the smaller V8 engine, nearly 200,000 miles, and since our winter temperatures plummeted here in Fairbanks, Alaska, his truck has been leaking a lot of power steering fluid. Today was -40 outside and he is going through almost 1/2 quart of steering fluid in a day. It all leaks out. He tried finding the leak out in his driveway in these temperatures but was unable to. A local Dodge mechanic wanted him to bring in the truck to take a look at it, but labor rates here in Alaska are murderous. My buddy's not too mechanically inclined, but I am and I am willing to help him, but I never worked on a Dodge Ram.

Well, someone gave my buddy the idea that his steering gearbox is leaking, and that he needed a new one. So he went to Napa and paid over $500 for the new gearbox, which we haven't installed yet. I wanted to take a look at the truck before installing the gearbox, to make sure that the leak was at the gearbox, not at a oil line, so I could save him some $$$ (he's a father of 5 kids and got other places he'd rather spend his money at).

So today we were able to bring his truck indoors at our work (we work in a big aircraft hangar) and when I looked at it I noticed the Ram's steering gearbox is at one of the lowest points in the engine bay, and that he had a LOT of leaked fluid above the box. He had a lot of oil pooled up at the cross member that is below the steering column. That struck me as funny, as how could the oil defeat gravity and climb to pool at the cross member? I discounted oil being slung around and up by the serpentine belt as the rest of his engine bay is oil free, only oil to be found is around the power steering mechanism. The whole cross member under the engine, plus sway bar and front differential (it's a 4x4) are coated in oil. (his engine oil, brake fluid and all other fluids aren't leaking, only steering) Also, the back of his power steering pump was moist with oil, and all lines are wet too. I imagine he probably spilled some oil while filling the pump at 40 below, but I think his leak is higher than the gearbox.

So I started questioning him about his maintenance on the truck (he;s had it for three years) and he said about two years ago he and another dude replaced one of the lines leading from the pump to the gearbox during the winter, outside, at 0 degree temperatures. My guess if he probably pinched an o-ring or some other type of gasket then and that only now it started to leak. I think that is the culprit anyways because that is one of the highest points in the steering system and oil follows gravity downhill.

I am including a few pics:

This was taken after we wiped most of the oil at the cross member, this part was a pool of oil


Viewing the gearbox from the top, it's coated in oil, but so is all power steering parts above it


Bottom of steering gearbox showing everything behind it coated in oil too


More oily mess


This silver line is the one he replaced two years ago, and that coupling is the one where I believe the leak is coming from


More oily mess from the top


Now, we are going to our base's auto craft shop on wednesday to hopefully fix his power steering leak. I would much rather have him spend less than $100 repairing a leaky hose than a $300-some on the gearbox (after core return). I helped him wipe the whole oily mess as well as we could, and I told him to lay some paper towels under his truck overnight to try to pinpoint where the leak is coming from. I told him to put some paper towels under the supposedly leaky coupling too. After work tomorrow we'll check his truck again, hopefully trying to pinpoint the point of leakage.

Questions: is it common for Rams to leak power steering fluid, and if so, from where? What is the usual culprit? Bad gaskets or seals, bearings? What can be done to prevent this in the future? Any tricks from knowledgeable Dodge mechanics on how to do this the right way the first time?

Any and all help is highly appreciated!!

Sorry for the lenghty first post!

 

first clean all the oil off from everything and after it dries
then while the truck is running and in park have your friend turn the wheel from lock to lock while you check and see where they leak is coming from

hope that works for you .

have you tried this?
http://www.lucasoil.com/products/dis...%20Stop%20Leak
it might work for you

 

Thanks minis. We did that, the truck was warm and we did turn the wheel lock to lock for a few minutes and no leak, I saw no leak for the whole time we ran it indoors. I believe what's happening is the oil thins as it heats, then he gets home and the gearbox contracts so much with the shock cooling of -40 that the seals start leaking. It's probably static leakage, not dynamic.

 

give the Lucas oil stuff a try first it can not hurt if it does not work


make sure you check that the top of steering box where the shaft connects to it.

 

Will do!

 

Looks like there is some coolant leaking also. Look at the 4th pick, right there on the steering stabilizer. Not saying you dont have a PS leak but that coolant might be adding to your problem.

 

Oh and I wouldnt put that lucas stuff in it either, thicker than normal PS fluid and at -40 you could just do more damage.

 

Stop leak products are only a TEMPORARY fix, and usually do more damage than good. But since the PS system is a closed system you will only further destroy the pump and box.
I used a stop leak product when I was driving a 92 sentra on the radiator, it fixed it for a while but it soon shotguned my water pump because it got all gummned up.

Spend the money and fix it right, replace the box and the lines the hoses can be bought for about two or three dollars a foot. You dont wanna do a temp fix becasue it will only fail later in a place that you can't have it fail. Do it once, fix it right.

 

I agree on the fluid temporary fix. Fix it right. I have almost 200k miles on mine and the only steering leak problem I've had is the box itself. It leaked out the front seal. I think that was around 60k miles ago or so. I don't think you'll have any problems once you find the actual leak and fix it.

 

Thanks everybody. Cleaning it was the thing to do. In the morning my friend was able to see the leak was coming from the return hose. When he started the truck the oil spurted like a severed artery! So tonight we replaced his return hose with another one, and it isn't leaking anymore! The gearbox has been returned to Napa. A $25 repair, versus a $300 one!