99 taurus 3.0, power steering issues

Absolutely.

Time to change out the rack - the seals have failed... you have ALL of the symptoms.

Rob

but should i change the line too?

No.

The car is 8 years old & it's seen lots of hard use. The rack seals are beyond their useful life.

Rob

Rob, his rack is obviously bad due to the leaks. What would cause it to push fluid out of the reservoir on shutdown? I've seen a lot of racks failed in various ways but that's a new one for me.

bbyer, the "check valve" that you referred to is not in the hose. It is an orifice in the high side port on the rack. Basically a disc with a hole in the center that goes into the fitting before attaching the hose.

I've seen the Taurus several times come around with low PS reservoirs that the owner has topped off. The rack boots actually fill while driving, draining the reservoir, the driver adds more, & if the boot(s) doesn't rupture, it overfills the reservoir when shut down, & bleeds back in to the rack(it's pretty bad by this point). The complaint is usually " I keep adding PS fluid, but it doesn't leak out". If they add fluid while running, the boot takes on more fluid than it can hold & blows PS fluid all over the driveway.

Rob

thats all well and good, i have seen plenty of leaky racks that fill the boots up with fluid, but why the heck does the fluid come out of the reservoir when i shut down the engine???

It bleeds back into the rack through the compromised seal.

Rob

no, no, fluid is phisically coming OUT of the reservoir through the cap vent! !!!!! this has to be some kind of clog or backup (?) i know i will have to replace the rack, but will the fluid still come out of the cap when im done?

It bleeds back into the rack through the compromised seal, and as someone added PS fluid when it was low, the system is now overfull.

NO.

Only a backup of PS fluid - someone added it at least once & probably more, it didn't all leak out, so when at rest it has to go back somewhere into the system when the system pressure equalizes... the reservoir is the high spot, that's all. If the boots aren't torn, it will just overflow the reservoir, and the worse the seal gets, the faster it will back up. Not uncommon in Taurus & Sable - they have really good boots!

i know i will have to replace

NO.

Rob

cool, so in actuallity i could test this theory by cutting the boots off, then running the car with the correct reservoir level, then shut it off and see if the leakage comes out of the rack seals or the reservoir. are you following me? i think this makes sense after reading your last response.

Follow you is tough with that question. Nothing will come out the reservoir neck, it'll all be on the ground, before you have a chance to turn the car off.

If you cut open the boot(s) at this point, you will just pump the entire system empty. You can't pour fast enough from quart bottles to even top off the reservoir. No power steering at all. Huge puddle of oil under car. Then it'll just all gravity drain out the bad seal(s) as you drive along. Helps build upper body strength, though.

Quit futzin' around with theories and change the rack.

Rob

sorry about the theories and everything, i was just trying to understand the statements that you were giving me. ( i do understand them now) sometimes it takes a couple of times talking with somebody to tell what the heck they are trying to say! I really didnt think that there could be another reason for this fluid spilling from the get-go, but like i said i heard some weird stories about replacing bad lines, etc.. and i wanted to make sure i fixed it right

well, there Rob, i changed the rack just today and the leaks are all fixed, but the fluid still comes up and out of the pump reservoir. so now what. i may need the line after all, huh?????????