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MOT warning notice

Alpine

Alpine

New member
Had my MOT (which it passed) a few weeks ago but I got warning notices for the following:

1. there is a slight leak of fluid coming from my steering rack
2. the rubber joint on the passenger side anti roll bar must have perrished and the bar moves a bit

What I want to know is, are these going to be expensive to fix and am I ok leavfing them until February, which is when my next service is due?

cheers
 
ARB bush is cheap, leaking steering rack means you need a new or recon one; the boot is there to keep crud out, not fluid in and once it's leaking out of the boot you have failed rack seals. If you keep the fluid topped up then you may well be OK until Feb, though I guess it could fail completely some time. I don't know what a recon rack goes for these days but the labour to fit isn't too bad..
 
certainly the rubber bush is only a few quid, and is a relatively easy job. I would reccomend doing it now, as it may put unnecessary stress on the bar, and break the bolt where it goes into the arm. Even if tht happens, it shouldn't really do any major damage, but it will make the handling a little unpredictable.

as for the rack leak, well, you can get rebuilt racks, or rebuild kits. the kit is not that expensive, but obviously it can take some time to fit, and if a garage is doing it, it may cost a reasonable amount in labour. I would maybe drop Bert at berlyn services a mail and see what price he's doing rebuilt racks for. How severe it is, depends on how severe the leak is. I suspect that as it's only a point on the MOT, and not a fail, that it's not that bad. even so, a small fluid leak when under pressure could suddenly blow completely and leave you stranded.

Basically, as with anything that's failing, it will get worse over time....
 
Just a fluid leak isn't likely to leave you stranded. You might well end up with no power assistance, but the steering will still work. Just don't try turning round in any tight spaces [:)]
 
But if all the fluid exits through a big hole in the rack then pretty soon after the pump will sieze, the belt will snap and he will be stranded... [FONT=verdana,geneva"] [FONT=verdana,geneva"]Edit - actually thinking about it the PAS has its own belt, doesn't it? If so then I guess that can be removed if the fluid leak gets to be massive and that way the pump will be saved. The rack itself uses the fluid for lubrication though so it shouldn't be driven with none for any further than necessary, which is close to stranded.[FONT=verdana,geneva"]
 
If the PAS pump packs up, the rack will still work ok. The steering rack can manage without lubrication, as long as you don't get crud in there to jam things up.

You would still want to get it fixed reasonably soon, as long as you have strong arms, as the gearing of a PAS rack is usually much higher than a manual rack.
 
At least one guy on Rennlist has disconnected the PAS and packed the rack with grease to his cost. Life expectancy from then is around 1,500 miles as I understand it, which suggests to me the rack needs the lubrication quite a lot. I'd have thought dry it would last a few hundred based on that.
 
I wouldn't think that running the pump dry would do it much good either. How much do they go for? I guess you'd figure one of those in the repair bill too (worst case of course....).
 
Well I have run several racing cars with a PAS rack and a loop back on the input and output connections with no problem. I didn't pack it with grease or anything else, I just left whatever residual fluid was in the rack, and then put a loop of braided hose between the connectors.

Why did this guy think that packing it with grease would help, when they usually run with PAS fluid in. He probably got some grit in there when he was putting the grease in, or there was some sort of problem with the rack in the first place.

If your system runs dry, you would need to disconnect the PAS belt from the pump, as the pump will become knackered quite quickly. It relies on lubrication from the PAS fluid, and it is spinning around at engine speeds. However, there really isn't much that's going to cause a problem in the rack for a long long time, as long as you keep the crud out..
 
My 944 runs the PAS rack disconnected and looped back. I took the trouble to fill the rack rather than just leave the fluid that remained in it, however. Why the Rennlister thought grease was a good idea I don't know and he may have got crud in there I guess.[FONT=verdana,geneva"] [FONT=verdana,geneva"]Regardless it is a really bad idea to run the PAS system in any condition other than full of PAS fluid hence if Alpine doesn't get his seal fixed before it fails catastophically then I believe he should consider the car off the road - probably he could limp it home if not too far away. I consider that all but stranded. As to the likelihood of the seal failing to that extent by February - no idea.[FONT=verdana,geneva"]
 
But the suggestion was to disconnect the PAS belt if he lost all fluid. As long as he does that, he'll be ok.

I agree with you that you don't want to just keep on driving with no fluid in the system without doing anything.
 
At risk of this appearing to be an argument (which it isn't) my statement is that he is not OK to drive with the belt removed if all fluid is lost because the dry rack will also be quickly damaged, unless he wants to gamble that the Rennlister who tried grease really did get some crud in with it. While I accept that might have happened I don't think it's especially likely and therefore I believe the rack needs the PAS fluid as a lubricant.
 
In that case, perhaps he should make sure that his RAC membership is up to date.[:D]

The general rule with cars doing things that they aren't supposed to is to stop and have a look. If you can determine that the problem is ok to drive with, or you can do something to make the car driveable, then you can do it and drive home. If you aren't 100% certain that you won't do further damage, it's best to call the breakdown truck.

It all comes down to experience. For instance, I've driven various cars home or to a garage without an operating clutch, and just done clutchless gear changes all the way, because I taught myself how to do it on my first ever car, and like to keep my hand in. Other people would call out the RAC straight away.

There is a point with the steering rack though. If a seal has gone completely, and it's lost all of the oil, he's going to need a new rack anyway, so will it really matter if he damages it a bit more driving home? [:)]
 
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