power steering leak need help

[neoblue89lxi]

The long accordian boot at the passengers side of the car is completely torn in half and I think it is leaking power steering fluid. I looked at this boot on majestic honda and they list it as a dust boot. How can this dust boot being torn cause a leak of fluid? The bottom of my steering pump is covered in fluid also. Does this mean I must replace the whole pump or is there a seal near the bottom of the pump that might be dried out. One more thing, when the front of the car was lifter up I turned the wheels back and forth and while I was turning them there was this sustained sqeack coming from the drivers side front. I am pretty sure it is from the wheel area or maybe the pump its self. Can someone letme know what my problems are and how these can be solved and what new parts I need to solve them with. Thank you for the assistance.

Greg

[AccordArizona89]

i had the same problem. both of my boots were torn, and one of the 3 little pipe thingys under there was leaking. i got a whole new front axel and the piping replaced. Ya it was alotta money too. So figure out what really needs to be done.

[AZmike]

The dust boots just keep dirt out of the rack. It sounds like the PS seals in your steering rack are bad (time to replace the rack). The PS pump shaft seal probably also needs to be replaced. Using non-Honda PSF causes problems like these. I've had to replace both of these parts on my car for the same reasons. A remanufactured rack will run about $150 without the core fee and the pump seal is about $5.

[ACCORD EX]

yeah i am with mike ! it could be the pump seal , or the rack end seal ! my bid is on the rack end seal ! mine is bad too ( not so bad ) but the boot is covered with oil !

Mike !

[neoblue89lxi]

Is it possible to just replace the seal because it does not sound fun to remove the rack?

[DBMaster]

It would basically be a big waste of time to try to just replace a seal or two. Most likely other seals would just leak later. I just went through this, however, I took the car in and got the rack replaced with a high end rebuilt unit. It cost $500 parts & labor. Depending upon how long you want to keep the car you can go much cheaper. Rebuilt parts vary significantly in quality. Avoid "sleeved" racks.

The P/S pump shaft seal is very easy to replace. I had to replace mine, too. I would recommend just replacing that. Mine had made a big mess on the front of the engine and A/C compressor from years of leakage.

[ACCORD EX]

i found an OEM rebuilt kit ( containing all seals ) but you surely need to get the rack out !

Mike !

[Poodlehead]

i found an OEM rebuilt kit ( containing all seals ) but you surely need to get the rack out !

Mike !

Do you know if any normal person like us has had sucess rebuilding racks? I'd be tempted to get an OEM rebuild kit and do it myself instead of taking my chances with some 'bonehead' on the assy line rebuilding mine. I just don't have good luck...

[AZmike]

Do you know if any normal person like us has had sucess rebuilding racks? I'd be tempted to get an OEM rebuild kit and do it myself instead of taking my chances with some 'bonehead' on the assy line rebuilding mine. I just don't have good luck...

It might be possible to do it yourself. The Honda manual shows several specialty tool used to remove and replace the seals without damaging them. Since the seal kits I've seen were around $60 and you have to remove the rack anyway I decided to pay the extra $100 and get a rack rebuilt by someone else with a lifetime warranty than had already been pressure tested. My replacement ran about $200 with including all the exhaust seals, nuts and PSF that I had to use.

[ACCORD EX]

to me it sounds tricky ( the rebuild ) but i always have no other choice and i believe that there is nothing that hard for a person to lern ! you have the service manual , and 3geez ! which is all that you need !

Mike !

[Poodlehead]

to me it sounds tricky ( the rebuild ) but i always have no other choice and i believe that there is nothing that hard for a person to lern ! you have the service manual , and 3geez ! which is all that you need !

Mike !

I forgot about the special tools. I'll take a look at it, but probably take the quick way out and just replace it and hope like hell I get a good one the first time... I replace the rack twice on my 82 and wasn't too happy about that. The good news is, it's quicker the second time... Where did you get yours and how long has it been on? I guess it's still not leaking too? Thanks!

[Justin86]

It will help to clean you engine up real good they drive it to see if you can find the true source of the leak. It is hard to find an oil leak when you look at you engine bay and it is covered with years of dirt and oil.