Whats up ya'll. So I finally took my 02 Ram 1500 out for a good long ride last night and everything seemed great,but when I woke up this morning and went to install my new rancho's I noticed a little fluid on my driveway. I crawled underneath and saw that I'm leaking PS fluid. It's mainly on the hose, but there is some on the what I believe is the rack. Now I am aware that dodges tend to leak PS fluid in the cold and being in NEPA we have plenty of that, but I am just concerned that I will need to replace the rack and dont feel like dishing out all that money. The steering feels fine so Im thinking its just a leek from the resevoir. How do I know if the rack needs to be replaced? Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks alot fellas.

 

The most common PS leak is from the worn out hose clamps that connect to the power steering cooler. Drop a couple of bucks for some of the worm gear hose clamps and install them on the hoses at the cooler. Then clean everything up and see if you still have a leak in a few days.

 

thats probably my best bet, I mean Ide hate to need a new rack after I put so much cash into aftermarkets. thanks for suggestion bud. Also, I never flushed out lines before, so I need a fluid flushing tool or could I just take the hoses off and let it fall into the oil pan?

 

The clamp at the rack on the hose from the steering pump/reservoir needed replacing on my '02.

 

Hey guys. Just recently my 02 Ram started leaking power steering fluid from the boot on the driver side of the rack. I haven't taken it off there yet to see quite were it's coming from and was just wondering if anyone knows if it's possible to replace whatever is leaking under there or if I'm going to have to replace the whole rack. Any help would be appreciated before I go out and reserve shop space on base.

 

Megatron, When I changed my PS fluid I just pulled both lines from the cooler and let it all drain out and then refilled with fresh fluid. I haven't had it flushed before. I've read (on here and a few other sites) that a real good way to do the flushing is with a machine that circulates warm to hot fluid (in this case PS fluid (ATF4 for our trucks)) with no extra additives. And when I think about that, it does seem to make sense as the best method.

 

Shep, I'm pretty sure if it's leaking out of the boot then the whole rack would need to be replaced... There was one member that wrote a thread and he figured out what parts were needed and he rebuilt the original rack for a lot less than the cost of a new rack. I don't remember much else from it off hand. You can do a search and see if you can find that thread. Also, just from my experience of reading everyone else's posts about replacing the rack and / or pump, you should get the system flushed out to clean it out of debris and particles of the failed unit. It seems pretty common that a rack will get swapped out and then the pump will fail shortly after...

 

Well I have a plan that Ill be doing tomorrow since I just got a nice new heater for the garage. Since I spent all my extra cash on goodies, I need to hold off on replacing the whole system. I had a bunch of new hoses laying around and just bought some worm gears and loaded up on ATF+4 and even got some of that no leak stuff. Im going to flush it, clean it all up, then put new hoses and clamps on and fill er up. If its still leaking I can see where and then just put no leak in it and hopefully get a couple more months out of it (Im not sure about no leak stuff, if im replacing the rack anyway, why not try it). The only thing that Im worried about is flushing it out and knocking some debris loose that in fact could be holding the rack together right now, cause it does steer good as of now. The ATF is still a nice cherry color and doesnt smell burnt, so Idk if I should flush it. What do yall think.
Thanks fellas

 

I'm in the same boat right now, just saw a leak in the driveway and it has some fluid over the rack/pinion boot, right where the clamp is, but there is a bunch in that area, not sure what the league is coming from if it is the rack or that clamp

 

leak** and my problem was solved with a hose clamp on the upper hose.. luckily that was easy