Nissan NV steering rack

[HughJass]

went to the local Nissan dealer a couple of weeks ago for a gearbox oil change and asked them to take a look over the car

they said that the rubber hose from the reservoir needed replacing because it was leaking and also showed me the passenger side inner rubber boot on the end of the steering rack that was split and i could see that brown coloured milky emulsion was inside the boot.i summised it was from water incursion mixed with oil/fluids...the total job to fix was 2300 baht and they gave me the old parts back namely the rubber hose which looked perfect to me and when i asked why it needed to be changed i got three different answers

the hose was split although even after peeling back the outer rubber that helps protect the pipe there was no split to be found

there was a buldge in the hose and it needed replacing....it looked like new to me.the car has only done 60,000k from new

the mechanic then appeared and told me that the old hose was weeping at the end furthest away from the resovoir and he couldnt tighten the clip enough to stop it leaking

i accepted what he said and paid up for the hose and replacement rubber boot

a couple of weeks on i am still putting half a cup of power steering fluid into the resovoir every 100 km

i am not very mechanically minded but on reading up on it it seems possible that the rubber seal on the end of the rack is leaking hence the milky brown residue in the rubber boot...i also read that changing the rubber boot and clips keeps the fluid contained to avoid replacing the seal....not sure if this was the reason they didnt replace the seal

so my question is do Nissan supply the rubber rack seals and can it be replaced with the rack in situ................ or will i have to get a reconditioned rack

thanks for any input

[HughJass]

they said that the rubber hose from the reservoir needed replacing because it was leaking

thats the power steering fluid reservoir

[sirholly]

if the reservoir fluid level keeps going down and there is no external leak the missing fluid can only be in the rubber bellows

after a while it will split again when there is to much leaked fluid

most likely the rack has to come out to replace the leaking hydraulic seal

might be cheaper to get a good used rack from one of the many salvage shops

in BKK they are located between Soi Chulalongkorn 9 and Banthad Thong Road west of Chulalongkorn University

GPS coordinates 13.738416, 100.523541

[lj cm]

Find a "back street" repair shop.

They can repair many things, the official dealers can not.

And; it can not get any worse!?

If you live in Chiang Mai, I can give you an address of one.