Ok, I was doing some donuts last weekend in my 2003 STR and then all of the sudden loss of power steering occurred. Yea the whole parking lot was smoky from my tires..

Got the car home and noticed that the oil spot on the driveway was coming from up by the power steering pump. When I lifted the car up, I also noticed the majority of squirted fluid and wetness was up by the steering pump.

Car has 54K mile, I am the original owner.

Here is what I did:
1. I added some Power steering Fuild(Derxon III).
2. The car was up on stands.
3. Turned the car on, and roated the steering wheel lock to lock. No Leak.
4. Turned car off and roated steering wheel, again no leak.
5. Lowered car so the wheels were were the ground, started car & rotated wheels and fuild started to leak. Since the car was on the ground it was very hard to find the leak because I could not really see down by the steering pump. I noticed the fuild was coming out SOMEwhere by the steering pump.

At this point I assumed it could only be the steering pump or the lines that connect to it. Accoring to the JTIS manual, jaguar has a steering pump pressure tester that coudl help me find the leak, unfornuantaly I do not have one of the these.

So I went head and pulled the steering pump. The pump looks ok, no cracks or anything and so do the the line that I disconnected from the pump.

Has anyone here had to replace the power steering pump or lines on there STR?

I have searched the froums and found a few people suggest to replace the threaded line that goes into the pump.

Doed the power steering pump have a bypass valve that went bad and is now causing the fuild to shoot out under pressure, or maybe one the of lines has a leak and only leaks when there is pressure from turing the steering wheel.


bty, yes I had to unbolt the AC compressor to get to one of the four bolts fo the power steering pump. As well has left the engine up a bit.

Any suggestion will be appericated.

 

Wow I'm just impressed that you were able to get that sucker out of there. There's one line going into it the side was almost impossible to remove. I feel you pain I actually did the same exact thing. Fortunately for me I stopped the donuts before I caused any leaks. I just made my steering a lot heavier and wore out the pump a little. I have no heplful suggestions, but if it turns out to be one of the lines thats leaking, I bought a couple that I never used and they're sitting in my office still in the bags so let me know when you find out where the fluid is coming from..

 

Hi WhiteSTR,,

before I go on, I must say I really like the HRE wheels on your car,, there really do set your 'R' away from the others. So did you end up replacing the pump? And yes the side line was a problem, but once you remove the air box, power steering reserivor and lift the engine up, it is a bit it is easier to get to.

At this point I was looking to replace the pump, and two lines, the line on the side(the one you mention is hard to take off) and the lower one that runs to the cooler, it looks suspect to me. Goning to replace the serpintine belt as well.

Do you have a resource to buy a pump? and a serpintine belt? thanks.