Losing power steering

Hev5025 · Post by **Hev5025** » 14 Jul 2012, 01:04

I am not sure where the power steering "stuff" is located but, my daughter came home today in her Volvo with a little trail of fluid behind her. Then while driving later that night, I am thinking we lost ALL power steering. We pulled in to a store and put a bottle of power steering in. On the drive home, I think we lost it again! We live in the middle of nowhere, no Volvo dealers or repair facilities for miles! What do we do?

Post by **cmblackburn** » 14 Jul 2012, 07:33

What kind of Volvo? Look at the lines coming out of the pump and fill it and watch the rack (underneath the car)- hopefully its just a hose that came loose or something. Racks are expensive and time lengthy to replace; and it sometimes exceeds the value of the car. There are some additives that can "stop" the leaks but I've heard they damage the system. If she has an 850/x70 you should be using ATF.

Hev5025 · Post by **Hev5025** » 14 Jul 2012, 11:51

It is a 2000 S80, we will check it out this morning! Thanks!

Post by **jkdjim** » 16 Jul 2012, 13:22

I had a similar problem and it ended up being a joint/oring/not quite sure what between the power steering hose from the reservoir and the power steering rack.. They ended up charging $150-$200 mainly for labor and fluid but I was glad it wasn't a rack. I didn't know much about my S80 at the time so I didn't check it myself, but I possibly could have fixed it myself.

dan1959 · Post by **dan1959** » 17 Jul 2012, 18:59

Just went threw this same issue with my 1999 s-80 volvo.. turns out the return line fitting at the rack was loose and had oblonged the threads out ,getting to the rack is painstaking unless you got REAL small hands..had to pull the top fitting off and run a thread chaser and installed new o'ring and a (piped dope they make for steel fitting to aluminum cases.. ) tightened and torqued and no leak . i also ended up clamping the line where it goes from steel to rubber to the firewall to keep the line from vibrating and loosing the fitting again. been two weeks and all is good. to replace the rack cost me 595.00 and 410 for the core and est cost of labor was (sit down for this )2250.00.. needless to say i was thank for it just being a loose fitting. /r dan

hender40 · Post by **hender40** » 22 Oct 2013, 15:25

dan
Having same problem re return ( to reservoir ) line loose at rack. I can't see any way to get to this fitting? Does it have an O ring seal between return pipe and rack ?? My isometric diag doesn't show a seal, only direct connection to rack. How did you get thread chaser, wrench etc in there and be able to turn them ?? Did you take anything off for access ? you went in from bottom, right ??
Don H fresno CA