Automotive Forums

Holy crap man!  I'm trying to get these power steering lines to crack open on the rack and these things must be welded on or something.  I had to take the battery and air box out just to even reach them not to mention hardly even being able to touch them but I can get and 18mm line wrench on them and they won't budge!!  Does factory put thread lock on or what?  Can't crack them with a crow's foot either, that just makes it even worse.  Can't get any torque with such a long extension from up top.  

Most the time you can lower front subframe enough to get a long wrench on it from under the car.(wear gloves)  

yup, exactly what i did.  wasn't sure if it was the steering line, the rack, or both so i replaced all of them.  I put the new lines on after i lowered the subframe.  there is no way i would have cracked them while still on the car.  I also put a new power steering pump on as well.  I did this all without a lift with the car jacked up on jackstands from the front and a floor jack to lower the subframe.  I'm hurting already, gonna be sore tomorrow!  Took about 6 hours to do it all and the steering feels like new.  Have to get a front end alignment though, the tow is out a little bit.  this is not a job i would want to do very often!!  thanks for the help!  

ok, day after and the steering sounds terrible!  I bled the system for like half an hour when i put it back together.  Also i noticed whenever i take the cap of the power steering reservoir it has pressure that comes out of it, like opening a soda can. the old pump did this too and was told it was because of the rack. I thought maybe i made the lines too tight and smashed the o-rings so i got the lines back off (what a pain in the A$$, i did it without dropping the sub frame)and put new o-rings on and put back on and tightened but only snugged them to the point where they won't come back loose.  All looks good so far, no leaks but steering still sounds bad.  Very light pressure on steering wheel and this thing is hissing loud enough i can hear it inside the car.  Definately sounds like something hydraulic and not the bearing.  No bubbles or foam in reservoir either so can't be air in lines.  Man i'm really peeved!  I replaced everything, lines, pump, rack and it sounds worse than the bad rack!  If this rack is defective i'm going to be pi$$ed off big time if i have to do this all over again!  any input would be great, thanks.  

i just put my mighty vac tool on the power steering pump.  Now granted i made my own cap adapter so there could be some vac loss to that but i pulled 21.5hg and over 3-4 min period only dropped .5hg.  to me that's not a significant enough drop in 3-4 min time period to indicate any leaks or air getting into the steering lines or rack.  i'm not a professional mechanic either so anyone can let me know their opinion.